George Cruikshank was the foremost satirical artist in London in the first half of the nineteenth century, making and selling his own etchings. He lived in his later years, 1850-1878 on Hampstead Road at Mornington Crescent and and Myddleton Terrace, EC1, in 1824-1849. His 1829 print of ‘London Out of Town – the March of Bricks’ shows the River Fleet being ‘invaded’ by brick works.
His father and brother died of alcoholism and in mid-life Cruikshank joined the Temperance Movement. He produced several books, the first of which The Bottle (1847) in eight scenes follows a family’s decline in the same way as Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress. In the third scene, a picture previously seen distantly hanging on the wall has been taken down and is set in the foreground beside a table and a rolled-up carpet. The accompanying verse is:
That picture was a pledge of love and truth / And all were going. Joy was at an end.
