Harry Furniss

{{Short description|English illustrator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[Image:HFurnissAged26.jpg|thumb|right|Furniss aged 26, at about the time he started to work for ''Punch''.]] [[Image:Harry Furniss signature.svg|thumb|right|Furniss's signature.]]

'''Harry Furniss''' (26 March 1854{{snd}}14 January 1925) was a British illustrator. He established his career on the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'' before moving to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]''. He also illustrated [[Lewis Carroll]]'s novel ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]''.

==Biography== Although Furniss was born in Wexford, Ireland, he identified himself as English{{cn|date=January 2026}}, his father being English and his mother Scottish. He was educated at Dublin's [[Wesley College (Dublin)|Wesley College]].

His first job as an illustrator was for the ''[[Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News]]'', and when it was purchased by the owner of ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' he moved to that magazine. There he produced illustrations of social events such as the [[Boat Race]], [[Goodwood Racecourse|Goodwood]] and even the annual fancy dress ball at [[Brookwood Hospital|Brookwood Asylum]], as well as acting as a special correspondent reporting on aspects of life in contemporary England, such as the scandalous divorce trial of [[Gertrude Elizabeth Blood|Lady Colin Campbell]]. The following extract from his autobiography gives due warning that his illustrations should not always be thought of as being produced by a witness to the events depicted.

<blockquote> ''One boat race, for example, is very much like another. Some years ago I executed a panoramic series of sketches of the University Race from start to finish, and as they were urgently wanted, the drawings had to be sent in the same day. Early in the morning, before the break of fast, I found myself at Putney, rowing up to Mortlake, taking notes of the different points on the way — local colour through a fog. Getting home before the Londoners started for the scene, I was at work, and the drawings — minus the boats — were sent in shortly after the news of the race.'' </blockquote> [[Image:Furniss Gladstone1.jpg|left|thumb|170px|Furniss's caricature of [[William Ewart Gladstone]]]]

After some years Furniss moved to ''[[The Graphic]]'', initially writing and illustrating a series of supplements titled "Life in Parliament", and he comments that "from this time forward it would be difficult to name any illustrated paper with which I have not at sometime or other been connected".

His most famous humorous drawings were published in ''[[Punch magazine|Punch]]'', for which he started working in 1880, and to which he contributed over 2,600 drawings. He left ''Punch'' in 1894 when its owners discovered that he had sold one of his 'Punch' drawings to [[Pears soap|Pears Soap]] for use in an advertising campaign. He illustrated [[Lewis Carroll]]'s novel ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'' in 1889 and ''[[Sylvie and Bruno Concluded]]'' in 1893. Carroll and Furniss sometimes produced both pictures and text simultaneously. Carroll exerted strong control over Furniss' illustration, to such an extent that Furniss would pretend to be out when Carroll called at his home. After completing ''Sylvie and Bruno Concluded'' Furniss vowed never to work for the author again.

In 1890, he illustrated the [[Badminton Library]]'s volume on ''Golf''.

On leaving ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' Furniss brought out his own humorous magazine ''Lika Joko'', but when this failed he moved to [[United States|America]] where he worked as a writer and actor in the fledgling film industry and where, in 1914, he pioneered the first animated cartoon film for [[Thomas Edison]].

His two-volume autobiography, titled ''The Confessions of a Caricaturist'' was published in 1902, and a further volume of personal recollections and anecdotes, ''Harry Furniss At Home'', was published in 1904.

Furniss wrote and illustrated twenty-nine books of his own, including ''Some Victorian Men'' and ''Some Victorian Women'' and illustrated thirty-four works by other authors, including the complete works of [[Charles Dickens]] and [[William Makepeace Thackeray]]. [[File:2018 Refurbished Furniss Family Grave Site, Hastings, England.jpg|thumb|170px|Furniss Family grave site, Hastings, England, refurbished in 2018 by Great Grandson; Noël Mark Furniss (California-USA) ]] On some projects, like his illustrations for [[G. E. Farrow]]'s ''Wallypug'' books, Furniss collaborated with his daughter, fellow artist [[Dorothy Furniss]] (1879–1944).<ref>Caroline Sigler, ed., ''Alternative Alices: Visions and Revisions of Lewis Carroll's Alice Books'', Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1997; p. 243.</ref>

Furniss married Marian Rogers in the Strand in 1877.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=IaJ1TzRaiJ3pLsr70mvkHA&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=December 14, 2010|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=PkSukilyPv2DTwZ6NTJSsg&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=December 14, 2010|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}</ref>

==Bibliography== [[Image:Furniss Soap.jpg|thumb|170px|right|''"I used your soap two years ago and have not used any other since"'', a ''Punch'' cartoon drawn by Furniss, parodying [[Thomas J. Barratt]]'s adverts for [[Pears soap]]]] ===Written and illustrated by Harry Furniss === *''[[Royal Academy, an artistic joke]]'' — 1887 *''[[Royal Academy antics]]'' — 1890 *''[[M.P.'s in Session]]'' — 1889 *''[[Australian Sketches- Made on Tour]]'' — 1899 *''[[The Confessions of a Caricaturist]]'' — 1901 *''[[Harry Furniss At Home]]'' — 1904 *''[[Some Victorian Women - Good, Bad, and Indifferent]]'' — 1923 *''[[Some Victorian Men]]'' — 1924 *''[[The Two Pins Club]]'' — 1925

===Works illustrated by Harry Furniss === *''[[Romps]]'' with verses by [[Horace Lennard]], printed by [[Edmund Evans]] — 1885 *''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'' by [[Lewis Carroll]] — 1889 *''[[Brayhard, The Adventures of One Ass and Seven Champions]]'' — 1890 *''[[Sylvie and Bruno Concluded]]'' by Lewis Carroll — 1893 *''[[The Wallypug of Why]]'' by [[G. E. Farrow]]; 1895 *''[[Gamble Gold]]'' by Judge [[Edward Abbott Parry]] — 1907 *''[[Charles Dickens|Charles Dickens Library]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]] — 1910 *''[[Lewis Carroll]]'' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; 1885 *A Diary of the Salisbury Parliament, 1886-1892 by Henry W. Lucy; 1892

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|last=Furniss|first=Harry|title=The confessions of a caricaturist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GJpJAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=17 May 2011|year=1901|publisher=Unwin}} * {{cite book|last=Furniss|first=Harry|title=Harry Furniss at home|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAoNAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=17 May 2011|year=1904|publisher=T. F. Unwin}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Harry Furniss}} {{Wikiquote}} {{Wikisource1911Enc|Furniss, Harry}} {{Portal |Cartoons}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=25492| name=Harry Furniss}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Harry Furniss}} *[https://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2008/09/harry-harold-furniss.html ''Yesterday's Papers''] *[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001964894 ''Some Victorian Women. Good, Bad, and Indifferent''], 1923 * {{LCAuth|n81004357|Harry Furniss|41|ue}} *[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentwork/communicating/from-the-parliamentary-collections/furniss1/furniss1/ Furniss Biography - UK Parliament Living Heritage]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furniss, Harry}} [[Category:1854 births]] [[Category:1925 deaths]] [[Category:British editorial cartoonists]] [[Category:19th-century British illustrators]] [[Category:Punch (magazine) cartoonists]] [[Category:People educated at Wesley College, Dublin]]