MALTESE WALL-FLOWER

Original 10 3/4 inch x 8 1/4 inch Wood Engraved Cartoon page titled THE MALTESE WALL-FLOWER from Punch, June 22, 1910.

Lord Kitchener, commander of the British forces in India, was appointed to succeed the Duke of Connaught as Inspector General of Malta but obtained permission from Cabinet ministers and the dying King Edward VII to refuse.

The cartoon is by John Bernard Partridge (1861 – 1945). An English illustrator born in London. Partridge was educated at Stonyhurst College, and after matriculating at the University of London entered the office of Dunn & Hansom, architects. He then joined for a couple of years a firm of stained-glass designers (Lavers, Barraud and Westlake), learning drapery and ornament; and then studied and executed church ornament under Philip Westlake, 1880–1884. He began illustration for the press and practised watercolour painting, but his chief success was derived from book illustration. In 1891 he joined the staff of Punch and, in 1910, became its chief cartoonist, replacing Edward Linley Sambourne. During his time at Punch, Partridge published several cartoons showing his support for the Suffragist movement. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and of The Pastel Society

Punch, or The London Charivari, was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term “cartoon” in its modern sense as a humorous illustration.

The print is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.