John Leech and the Shaping of the Victorian Cartoon: The Context of Respectability

The Punch artist John Leech was an influential and popular figure in Victorian culture. This article uses Leech to explore the wider context in which cartoons and illustrators operated and presents a nuanced view of the pressures favouring respectability. A distinctive cultural climate was formed by a set of ideas about what cartoons should be. The development of wood engraving and the periodical press created a publishing environment which benefited artists who worked for successful periodicals like Punch, by enhancing their financial, social, and artistic position, whilst slightly diminishing their autonomy.