Ignorance and Want
John Leech
1843
Hand-coloured steeling engraving
8.6 cm by 7 cm vignetted
In this three-quarter-page wood-engraving in Dickens's Christmas Carol, Stave Three, "The Second of the Three Spirits," p. 119, Scrooge must confront the social consequences of the unbridled capitalism he so vigorously defends in Stave One.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over to locate links.]
Scanned image and text byPhilip V. Allingham.
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarlyor educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL.] Images reproduced courtesy of Dickens collector and bibliophile Dan Calinescu, Toronto.
Commentary
Leech's whimsical style, although it may be described as caricatureverging at times on cartoon, was more rigorously realistic and less emblematic thanBrowne's; perhaps the finest example of his work in this vein for Dickens is "Ignorance and Want" in A Christmas Carol. The street urchins, although symbols of the forces unleashed by the factory system and the new capitalistic applications of Malthusian population theories, are shockingly real, while the desiccated trees and smoking factory chimneys in the background constitute a heightened realism amounting to visual commentary on Dickens's scene to reveal Scrooge as the exemplar of the entire upper-middle class.
Undoubtedly, along with Fred Walker, an illustratorworking in the manner of Daniel Vierge and other French illustrators of the mid-century,Leech was instrumental in shaping the new "Sixties'" style, of whichGeorge Du Maurier, Marcus Stone, and Fred Barnard were the leading exponents. As Michael Steig remarks in Dickens and Phiz (1978),
Leech was never really comfortable in Browne's andCruikshank's favorite technique, etching. Hebecame known primarily as the designer of straightforward, humorous, wood-engravedcartoons — in our modern sense — for Punch. Inturn, Leech's art influenced Punch artists and illustratorsincluding Tenniel, Du Maurier, and Keene, while simultaneously the dominant mode of bookillustration by these artists and such others as Marcus Stone, Fred Walker, andJohn Everett Millais became by the 1860s almosttotally divorced from Browne's mode. Thus, wood engraving replaced etching, aquasi-caricatural way of drawing characters became a blander, rather idealized style, and emblem and allusion disappeared almost totally. It is not insignificant that some of these younger artists had pretensions to high art, nor that Millais in particular may have been slumming (though for very good pay) when he did illustrations for Trollope and others. [10-11]
In the Punch satirical picture Cartoon, No. 1 — Substance and Shadow (15 July 1843), Leech had criticized artists for ignoring social issues such as the homelessness, unemployment, starvation, and grinding poverty of Scrooge'sSurplus Population. One may assume that his depiction of the allegorical but intensely realised figures of Ignorance and Want in A Christmas Carol (1843) is a graphic exemplar of how the artist with a social conscience may address such contentious issues. Resident artist at Punch, John Leech perhaps had insufficient leisure to illustrate full-length Dickens novels; furthermore, he always had so many irons in the fire, so to speak, that he was notoriously unreliable when it came to delivering his drawing on time to publisher, a fact that may have deterred Phiz from agreeing to work with him on the illustrations for Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44).
A Note on the Industrial Backdrop
The question of whether the buildings in the background of "Ignorance and Want" are nineteenth-century factories with tall smokestacks or prisons and workhousessurrealistically grouped together is an interesting one since the backdrop may suggest that Leech felt empowered to extend the scene beyond its textual equivalent to deliver a visual indictment of capitalism and industrialism. In reality, such buildings as workhouses and prisons would not have been adjacent to one another in an urban setting.
Parenthetically, the blackened trees in "Ignorance and Want" may be "leafless" because the backdrop is a December scene, but they look blighted, withered, and dessicated, andto the smoke from the factory smokestack drifts down the right-hand margin of the vignetted edge towards the tree (plural), whose condition, like the condition of the children, is therefore a direct byproduct of the industrial factory, which contaminates society, implies the illustrator, as it does the environment.
Certainly the big blocks of building behind Scrooge and the Spirit of ChristmasPresent might be one of the 1830s Poor Law's "new" workhouses such as that atSouthwell. However, even the ratherrudimentary workhouse or refuge depictedin the Illustrated London News for December, 1843, would nothave had the sort of industrial smokestack that Leech has made prominent in Ignorance and Want. Textually it would make sense that the picture should reinforce the Spirit's rhetorical strategy of casting Scrooge's own words about prisons and workhouses back at him when he asks about what "resources" society is providing for the destitute children. One can discern a very slender chimney emanating from a stove used for heating the women's ward in a Refuge for the Destitute — Ward for Females from the Illustrated London News for 23 December 1843, but it looks nothing like Leech's chimney. Although the buildings in Leech's background look a bit like the new Pentonville Prison, the guard tower(the only structure that breaks the roofline of Pentonville) looks nothing like thefactory chimneys in Pennel's sketch, or the factory chimney still standing at ChippingNorton, or that at the pump-house, Albert Dock. The typical Victorian factory not only had the enormous chimney for discharging smoke well away from the precincts, but was also well lit by a great many windows as in the Butcher Works, Sheffield.
In Preston, Lancashire, an industrial town noted for its numerous smokestacks of thetype seen in Leech's illustration, the workersrioted and were attacked by the army just the year before Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. The industrial smokestacks of a Preston factoryin the background of Harry French's illustration of Gradgrind's co*ketown (Preston) office in HardTimes suggest an industrial complex like that in Leech's illustration or the millcomplex such at Salford. For the Chartists, industrial mills or factories were flashpoints for revolution because of their long hours and tedious, unsafe working conditions; they were using the boycott strategy to force the government into adopting the principles of the Charter for parliamentary reform. In consequence, the appearance of industrial smokestacks in Leech's plate would have constituted a topical allusion that many of Dickens's readers would have immediately recognized.
Some twenty-five years later, the theme of the deleterious societal effects of"Want and Ignorance" struck realist illustrator SolEytinge, Junior, as timely in post-Civil War America, as he posited that substandardhousing and urban blight (as suggested by the backdrop of his rendition of this narrativemoment) were the direct concomitants of societal neglect of the poverty-stricken underclassrepresented by the two children in his wood-engraving. In place of Leech's blighted tree,emblematic of the consequences of the factory system, Eytinge has a bird of ill-omenhaloed by the setting moon. In keeping with the serious subject of the illustration, Eytinge has given us a sombre Druid rather than "a jolly Giant, glorious to see." The implied movement of the 1868 "dark" plate is entirely upward and downward, with the pillar-like tenement blocks in the background complementing the pillar-like figures of Scrooge and his spirit-guide. Finally, as the chimes strike midnight, Leech's Spirit of Christmas Present is fading, even though the text does not so specify; rather, he vanishes utterly at the moment that the church-bell strikes twelve, presumably on the night of the last of twelve days of Christmas. In contrast, Eytinge's leaden spirit clasps his collar with his left hand against the chill; his holly and berry head-dress, however, seems to have wilted if we compare it to its rendering in Eytinge's The Spirit of Christmas Present five plates earlier, and in the frontispiece, in which the crown is more luxuriant and the figure both more nimble, youthful, jolly, vigorous, and benign.
Bibliography
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "John Leech." Charles Dickens andHis Original Illustrators. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio U. P., 1980. Pp. 141-151.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose being aGhost Story of Christmas. Il. John Leech. London: Chapman and Hall, 1843.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose: being aghost story of Christmas. Il. Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868(dated 1869).
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington &London: Indiana U. P., 1978. [e-text in theVictorian Web.]
VictorianWeb Illus-tration JohnLeech CharlesDickens NextLast modified 29 March 2014
As an enthusiast and expert in literature, art history, and the cultural context of the 19th century, I'll dive into the concepts and references found in the article about John Leech's illustration "Ignorance and Want" from Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol."
John Leech was a renowned illustrator whose work showcased a blend of whimsy, caricature, and realism, distinctively different from other illustrators of his time, such as Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). Leech's style, characterized by realistic yet caricatured elements, served as a powerful visual commentary on societal issues prevalent during the Victorian era.
The illustration "Ignorance and Want" appears in Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" during Stave Three, depicting Scrooge confronting the consequences of unbridled capitalism. Leech's portrayal of street urchins symbolizes the societal impacts of the factory system and capitalism, emphasizing the harsh realities faced by the impoverished. The desolate backdrop with desiccated trees and smoking factory chimneys serves as a heightened realism, aiming to expose Scrooge as representative of the upper-middle class's callousness.
Leech's artistic influence extended beyond his immediate contemporaries, shaping the artistic style of the 1860s, notably impacting illustrators like George Du Maurier, Marcus Stone, and Fred Barnard. His shift towards wood engraving from etching influenced subsequent artists and altered the prevalent mode of book illustration, moving away from caricature to a more idealized style.
The industrial backdrop in "Ignorance and Want" prompts discussions about its interpretation. The buildings depicted, resembling factories or a conglomerate of prisons and workhouses, extend the scene beyond the text's literal interpretation. This extension could signify Leech's visual indictment of capitalism and industrialism, emphasizing societal and environmental degradation as byproducts of industrial factories.
References to real-life locations and events, such as Preston's industrial smokestacks and societal unrest, align with the thematic relevance in Dickens's narrative. Industrial settings, akin to those depicted by Leech, were recognized as focal points for social upheaval, reflecting societal discontent and the repercussions of exploitative working conditions.
Moreover, comparisons with later illustrations, like Sol Eytinge Jr.'s rendition in post-Civil War America, indicate the enduring relevance of the theme of societal neglect leading to poverty and urban blight.
In summary, Leech's illustration "Ignorance and Want" stands as a visual critique of societal issues prevalent during the Victorian era, emphasizing the consequences of unchecked capitalism, industrialization, and the plight of the impoverished. The depiction's rich symbolism and social commentary make it a pivotal visual representation within Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" and a reflection of the era's pressing concerns.
