Marie Duval

{{Short description|British cartoonist}} {{Infobox comics creator | image = | caption = | birth_name = Isabelle Émilie de Tessier | birth_date = 25 September 1847<ref name="ODNB" /> | birth_place = London, England | death_date = 11 June 1890 | death_place = London, England | education = | area = | cartoonist = y | training = | movement = | notable works = ''Ally Sloper'' | patrons = | awards = | alias = Princess Hesse Schwartzbourg, Ambrose Clarke, Noir | spouse = Charles Henry Ross }} thumb|Marie Duval, 'An Artist's Nightmare Upon the Last Sending-in Day'. ''Judy'', 29 April 1874 (vol 15, p. 20), Catalogue No. 220074, Guildhall Library.

'''Isabelle Émilie de Tessier''' (25 September 1847 – 11 June 1890),<ref name="Caines">{{cite web|last1=Caines|first1=Michael|title=Rediscovering Marie Duval|url=http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2016/04/rediscovering-marie-duval.html|website=The TLS blog|access-date=16 August 2017|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816235051/http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2016/04/rediscovering-marie-duval.html}}</ref> who worked under the pseudonyms '''Marie Duval''' and '''Ambrose Clarke''', was a British cartoonist, known as co-creator of the seminal cartoon character ''Ally Sloper'',<ref name="kunzle excerpt">{{cite journal | last = Kunzle | first = David | title = Marie Duval: A Caricaturist Rediscovered | journal = Woman's Art Journal | date = Summer 1986 | volume = 7 | issue = 1 | pages = 26–31 | doi = 10.2307/1358233 | jstor = 1358233 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first2=Marysa L.|last2=Demoor|first1=Laurel|last1=Brake|title=Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism: in Great Britain and Ireland|publisher=Academia Press|date=2009|page=41|quote=Ross had worked with his wife, the cartoonist Isabelle Emily de Tessier ('Marie Duval'), in taking the Ally Sloper idea from an occasional presence in Judy to establishing both Sloper's complex comic persona and elaborating a variety of...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Roger|last=Sabin|title=Adult comics: an introduction|date=1993|quote=For example, the inker for the original 'Ally Sloper' strip in Judy (and possibly occasionally the artist as well) was Emily de Tessier, working under the pseudonym Marie Duvall, the wife of Sloper's creator Charles Ross.}}</ref><ref name="ODNB">{{cite journal |last1=Grennan |first1=Simon |last2=Sabin |first2=Roger |last3=Waite |first3=Julian |title=Tessier [other name Ross], Isabella Emily Louisa [pseud. Marie Duval, Ambrose Clarke] (1847–1890), cartoonist |journal=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=9 November 2023 |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.66300 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.66300 |access-date=22 January 2024 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref> the popular character was spun off into his own comic, ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'', in 1884.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article-abstract/16/1/4/739545?redirectedFrom=PDF|title=Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday: Comic Art in the 1880s|date=1 October 1983|author=Peter Bailey|work=History Workshop Journal}}</ref>

==Early life and career== Isabelle Emily Louisa Tessier was born in London on 25 September 1847 to parents of French descent. She initially became a governess but left to become an actor.<ref name="ODNB" />

Her first known appearance on stage was at the St James's Theatre in 1868 when she was in a pantomime. She adopted the stage name ''Marie Duval'', and appeared in plays written by Charles Henry Ross.<ref name="ODNB" />

==Career as a cartoonist== In 1869, Duval joined three other women cartoonists contributing to the British satirical magazine ''Judy'', edited by Ross, signing her work as Marie Duval. She also provided illustrations to Ross's 1869 novel ''The Story of a Honeymoon'', using the pseudonym Ambrose Clarke.<ref name="ODNB" />

The Ally Sloper character had been created for ''Judy'' by Ross in 1867. By 1869, the strips were signed by Duval and Ross. Afterwards, Duval became the strip's primary illustrator, assuming creative responsibility for the character. <ref name="ODNB" /> In 1884, the new comic publication, ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'', began publication, reprinting Duval's comic strips without her signature.<ref>{{cite book|first=Daniel|last=Fondanèche|title=Paralittératures|publisher= Vuibert |date=2005|page=449|quote=Ce n'est que le 3 mai 1884 qu'Ally Sloper devient un personnage permanent de la revue Judy grâce à la plume de l'ancienne actrice Isabelle Émilie de Tessier, conjointe de l'anglais Charles Ross et qui signe ses œuvres du pseudonyme de Marie Devall. <nowiki>[</nowiki>"It was not until May 3, 1884 that Ally Sloper became a permanent character in the magazine Judy thanks to the pen of the former actress Isabelle Émilie de Tessier, spouse of the Englishman Charles Ross and who signed her works with the pseudonym of Marie Duvall."<nowiki>]</nowiki>}}</ref>

She contributed to ''Judy'' until 1885, and was at times generating over 100 contributions to the magazine each year.<ref name="ODNB" /> This included spot illustrations, cartoons and full-page comic strips. Her work also appeared in British penny papers and comics from the 1860s to the 1880s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The inking woman: 250 years of women cartoon and comic artists in Britain|publisher=Myriad Editions|others=Streeten, Nicola., Tate, Cath, (London, England).|year=2018|isbn=978-0-9955900-8-3|location=Oxford|pages=13|oclc=1007312174}}</ref>

Duval was the author of ''Queens and Kings and Other Things'' (1874), a collection of illustrated nonsense verse published under the pseudonym of "S. A. the Princess Hesse Schwartzbourg".<ref name="ODNB" /> She also co-wrote ''Rattletrap Rhymes and Tootletum Tales: a Big Book for Babies'' (1876) with Ross, using the pseudonym Ambrose Clarke.<ref name="ODNB" />

==Personal life== In 1871, Duval had an affair with Herbert Augustus Such, and was a correspondent in the high profile divorce case brought by his wife in 1873.<ref name="ODNB" />

In 1874, Duval had a child with Charles Henry Ross, and the family lived in Battersea. She adopted the name Ross but there are no records of a marriage.<ref name="ODNB" />

Duval died of bronchitis, pneumonia and nephritis on 11 June 1890 in Clapham. She was buried in Wandsworth Cemetery as Isabella E Ross.<ref name="ODNB" />

==References== {{Reflist|35em}}

==Sources== {{refbegin}} * [http://www.toonopedia.com/sloper.htm ''Ally Sloper''] Don Markstein's Toonopedia * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070404202637/http://www.bugpowder.com/andy/e.ally.sloper.01.html ''Ally Sloper''] Andy's Early Comics Archive {{refend}}

==External links== * [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/oct/27/marie-duval-victorian-cartoonist-ally-sloper Top hats off to Marie Duval, a lost Victorian cartoonist sensation] The Guardian, 27 Oct 2014 * [http://www.marieduval.org The Marie Duval Archive]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duval, Marie}} Category:1847 births Category:1890 deaths Category:19th-century British women artists Category:British women comic strip cartoonists Category:British comics artists Category:British women comics artists Category:British humorists Category:British women humorists Category:Pseudonymous comics artists Category:English people of French descent Category:Burials at Wandsworth Cemetery