Vanity Fair (British magazine)
Vanity Fair was a British weekly magazine that was published from 1868 to 1914.
History[]
Subtitled "A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares", it was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, who aimed to expose the contemporary vanities of Victorian society. The first issue appeared in London on 7 November 1868. It offered its readership articles on fashion, current events, the theatre, books, social events and the latest scandals, together with serial fiction, word games and other trivia.
Bowles wrote much of the magazine himself under various pseudonyms, such as "Jehu Junior", but contributors included Lewis Carroll, Arthur Hervey, Willie Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Jessie Pope and Bertram Fletcher Robinson (who was editor from June 1904 to October 1906).[1]
Thomas Allinson bought the magazine in 1911 from Frank Harris, by which time it was failing financially. He failed to revive it and the final issue of Vanity Fair appeared on 5 February 1914, after which it was merged into Hearth and Home.
Caricatures[]
A full-page, colour lithograph of a contemporary celebrity or dignitary appeared in most issues, and it is for these caricatures that Vanity Fair is best known then[2] and today.[3] Subjects included artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, soldiers, religious personalities, business people and scholars. More than two thousand of these images appeared, and they are considered the chief cultural legacy of the magazine, forming a pictorial record of the period. They were produced by an international group of artists, including Max Beerbohm, Sir Leslie Ward (who signed his work "Spy" and "Drawl"), the Italians Carlo Pellegrini ("Singe" and "Ape"), Melchiorre Delfico ("Delfico"), Liborio Prosperi ("Lib"), the Florentine artist and critic Adriano Cecioni, the French artists James Tissot ("Coïdé"), Prosper d'Épinay ("Nemo") and the American Thomas Nast.[4]
Image gallery[]
The Duke of Abercorn by Carlo Pellegrini in the 25 September 1869 issue
Benjamin Disraeli by Carlo Pellegrini in the 30 January 1869 issue
Mansur Ali Khan of Bengal by "Atn" Alfred Thompson in the 16 April 1870 issue
William Thomson, Archbishop of York by Carlo Pellegrini in the 24 June 1871 issue
Charles Darwin by James Tissot in the 30 September 1871 issue
Caricature of Midhat Pasha by Leslie Ward in the 30 June 1877 issue
Caricature of Hasan Fehmi Pasha by Leslie Ward in the 16 May 1885 issue
Samuel Mure Fergusson by Spy in the 18 June 1903 issue
Alexandre Dumas, fils by Théobald Chartran in the 27 December 1879 issue
Maj. E.H. Egerton by Liborio Prosperi in the 24 August 1889 issue
Baron Alfred Emmott by "WHO" in the 19 October 1910 issue
President Paul Kruger of the South African Republic by Leslie Ward in the 8 March 1900 issue
Railway promoter Archer Baker by Luke Fildes in the 13 January 1910 issue
Queen Alexandra (unsigned) in the 7 June 1911 issue
William Gillette playing Sherlock Holmes, drawn by Leslie Ward in the 27 February 1907 issue
Henrik Ibsen by "Snapp" in the 12 December 1901 issue
Oscar Wilde by Carlo Pellegrini in Issue 812, April 1884
Horace Hutchinson by Spy in the 19 July 1890 issue
Caricature of Henry Irving in the melodrama The Bells, in the 19 December 1874 issue
Caricature of Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving in the 18 December 1912
Sir Henry Lunn by Luke Fildes in the 6 October 1909 issue
See also[]
- List of Vanity Fair artists
- List of Vanity Fair caricatures
- The Rowers of Vanity Fair Wikibook gives a history of the magazine with focus on sportsmen
References[]
- ^ Spiring, Paul R (2009). The World of Vanity Fair by Bertram Fletcher Robinson. London: MX Publishing. ISBN 978-1-904312-53-6.
- ^ "Literary Gossip". The Week : A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. 1 (18): 286. 3 April 1884. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ Matthews, Roy T.; Mellini, Peter (1982). In 'Vanity Fair'. U. of California Press. ISBN 9780520043008.
- ^ "Vanity Fair cartoons: drawings by various artists, 1869-1910". National Portrait Gallery, London.
External links[]
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- Vanity Fair (British magazine)
- Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom
- Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom
- Magazines published in England
- Magazine publishing companies of England
- Magazines published in London
- Publishing companies based in London
- 1868 establishments in the United Kingdom
- 1914 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
- Magazines established in 1868
- Magazines disestablished in 1914