John Leech

Happy Birthday John Leech!! This English caricaturist and illustrator was born in 1817. His father was from Ireland and the landlord of the London Coffee House. He passed his love for drawing on to his son and John was said to begin drawing at age 3. He began selling his art at age 18, with a collection of studies of characters from the streets of London. His engravings, woodcuts and lithographs were precise in line and design. He conveyed a liberal political message with his caricatures of societal classes. His lithographs and engravings illustrated the political magazine Punch beginning in 1841. Punch was a British weekly including humor and satire known for its anti-Catholic and anti-Irish stance The illustration below is simply titled Paddy, 1845. The apelike character is “Paddy” in an obvious slur toward Irishmen.