Richard Doyle

Richard Doyle (18 September 1824 – 10 December 1883) was a British illustrator of the Victorian era. His work frequently appeared, amongst other places, in Punch magazine; he drew the cover of the first issue, and designed the magazine's masthead, a design that was used for over a century.

Biography

Born at 17 Cambridge Terrace, London, one of seven children of Irish cartoonist John Doyle (known as 'H.B'), a noted political caricaturist, Doyle had three brothers, James, Charles and Henry Edward Doyle, who were also artists. The young Doyle had no formal art training other than his father's studio, but from an early age displayed a gifted ability to depict scenes of the fantastic and grotesque. Throughout his life he was fascinated by fairy tales. He produced his first complete illustrated book, Home for the Holidays, when he was twelve; it was published posthumously in 1887.

He joined the staff of Punch in 1843 aged 19, remaining there for seven years.

He was the uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Career

Doyle's first published illustrations appeared in The Eglinton Tournament (1840), a humour book set in the Middle Ages, which met with commercial success.

Doyle collaborated with John Leech, W. C. Stanfield and other artists to co-illustrate three Charles Dickens Christmas books, The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) and The Battle of Life (1846).

In 1846 Doyle's illustrations for The Fairy Ring (a new translation of Grimm's tales), first made his name as a fairytale illustrator. Following this in 1849 he produced Fairy Tales from All Nations (compiled by 'Anthony R. Montalba', which proved a tremendous success. Doyle was able to fully explore his love of fairy mythology with his many illustrations and borders filled with elves, pixies and other mythical creatures.