{{short description|British artist (1815–1882)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Hablot Knight Browne | image = Phiz-Sarony- 1870s.jpg | alt = | caption = Browne photographed by Sarony c.1870s | birth_date = {{Birth date|1815|07|10|df=y}} | birth_place = Lambeth, South London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1882|07|08|1815|07|10|df=y}} | death_place = | other_names = Phiz | occupation = {{hlist|Artist|illustrator}} | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Hablot Knight Browne''' (10 July 1815 – 8 July 1882) was a British artist and illustrator. Well known by his pen name, '''Phiz''', he illustrated books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever, Augustus Septimus Mayhew and Harrison Ainsworth.
==Early life== Of French Huguenot ancestry (the Browne surname was originally Bruneau),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200182973|title=The Election at Eatanswill by Hablot Knight Browne, called Phiz, painter, watercolorist, draughtsman and etcher, 1815-1882|work=Library of Congress|accessdate=13 February 2025}}</ref> Hablot Knight Browne was born in England, in Lambeth (near London) on Kennington Lane. He was the fourteenth of Catherine and William Loder Browne's fifteen children. According to his biographer Valerie Browne Lester, Phiz was in fact the illegitimate son of his putative eldest sister Kate and Captain Nicholas Hablot of Napoleon's Imperial Guard. There is some uncertainty regarding the exact date of birth. 10 July 1815 is the date given by Valerie Browne Lester, his great-great-granddaughter. John Buchanan-Brown in his book ''Phiz!: Illustrator of Dickens' World'' says 12 July 1815. The date on his Christening record of 21 December 1815 at St Mary's Church, Lambeth, Surrey, England gives 11 June 1815, as does the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition'' and 15 June 1815 (''Dictionary of National Biography''). A copy of the programme from his burial service, which is still owned by the Browne family, says he was born 10 July 1815.
When he was 7 years old, his father William Browne abandoned the family, changed his name to Breton and sailed with embezzled funds to Philadelphia where he became known for his watercolour paintings. William Browne was then declared dead by his wife Catherine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/phiz-dickens-and-london |title=Phiz, Dickens and London |author=Valerie Browne Lester |publisher=Gresham College |date=28 November 2006 |access-date=2012-07-18}}</ref>
Thomas Moxon, husband of William's sister Ann Loder Browne, helped to support the family, who were left badly off.
Browne was apprenticed to William Finden, an engraver, in whose studio he obtained his only artistic education. However, he was unsuited for engraving, and having during 1833 secured an important prize from the Society of Arts for a drawing of John Gilpin, he abandoned engraving in the following year and began other artistic work, with the ultimate object of becoming a painter.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=663}}
==Career== In early 1836, he met Charles Dickens. It was at the time when Dickens was looking for someone to illustrate ''Pickwick''. Browne became the illustrator of his little pamphlet ''Sunday under Three Heads''. In the original edition of ''Pickwick'', issued in shilling monthly parts from early in 1836 until the end of 1837, the first seven plates were drawn by Robert Seymour, who committed suicide in April 1836. The next two plates were by Robert William Buss.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|pp=663–664}}
[[File:Betsey trotwood by phiz.jpg|thumb|right|1849 etching for ''David Copperfield'', titled "I make myself known to my aunt"]]
Browne and William Makepeace Thackeray visited the publishers' office with specimens of their work for Dickens's inspection. The novelist preferred Browne. Browne's first two etched plates for Pickwick were signed "Nemo", but the third was signed "Phiz", a pseudonym which was retained in future. When asked to explain why he chose this name he answered that the change from "Nemo" to "Phiz" was made to harmonize better with Dickens's "Boz".{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=664}}
Phiz developed the character Sam Weller graphically just as Seymour had developed Pickwick. Dickens and Phiz became good friends and in 1838 travelled together to Yorkshire to see the schools of which Nicholas Nickleby became the hero. They later made several other journeys together to facilitate the illustrator's work. Other Dickens characters illustrated by Phiz were Squeers, Micawber, Guppy, Major Bagstock, Mrs Gamp, Tom Pinch and David Copperfield.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=664}}
Of the ten books by Dickens which Phiz illustrated, he is most known for ''David Copperfield'', ''Pickwick'', ''Dombey and Son'', ''Martin Chuzzlewit'' and ''Bleak House''. Browne made several drawings for ''Punch'' in his early days and also towards the end of his life. He designed the wrapper which was used for eighteen months from January 1842. He also contributed to ''Punch's Pocket Books''.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=664}}
[[File:I am married by Phiz.jpg|thumb|left|1850 etching for ''David Copperfield'', titled "I am married"]]
In addition to his work for Dickens, Phiz illustrated more than twenty of Charles Lever's novels (among them ''The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer'', ''Charles O'Malley, the Irish Dragoon'', ''Jack Hinton, the Guardsman'' and ''The Knight of Gwynne''). He also illustrated Harrison Ainsworth's and Frank Smedley's novels. ''Mervyn Clitheroe'' by Ainsworth is one of the most accomplished of the artist's works.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=664}}
Most of Browne's work was etched on steel plates because these yielded a far larger edition than copper. Browne was annoyed at some of his etchings being transferred to stone by the publishers and printed as lithographic reproductions. Partly with the view to prevent this treatment of his work, he employed a machine to rule a series of lines over the plate in order to obtain what appeared to be a tint; when manipulated with acid this tint gave an effect somewhat resembling mezzotint, which at that time it was found practically impossible to transfer to stone.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=664}}
==Death== Browne was in continual employment by publishers until 1867, when he suffered an illness that caused a degree of paralysis. After recovering, he produced many woodcuts. In 1878 he was awarded an annuity by the Royal Academy. His health gradually worsened until he died on 8 July 1882.{{sfn|Thomson|1911|p=664}}
==Legacy== Four of his illustrations were issued as stamps by the Royal Mail in 2012 to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shop.royalmail.com/charles-dickens/charles-dickens-miniature-sheet/invt/sku00000815/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202234140/http://shop.royalmail.com/charles-dickens/charles-dickens-miniature-sheet/invt/sku00000815/|archive-date=2013-12-02 |title=Charles Dickens |publisher=Royal Mail |access-date=2012-07-18}}</ref>
{{clear}}
==Gallery== <gallery> File:hablot-browne.jpg|Portrait engraving Image:Hablot Knight Browne blue plaque.jpg|Blue plaque, Ladbroke Grove, London File:Phiz Auriol.jpg|Scene from ''Auriol'' by Harrison Ainsworth, 1844 File:Pelham.jpg|Frontispiece to ''Pelham'' by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1849 File:The Great 100 Rat Match.jpg|{{center|The Great 100 Rat Match, c.1858}} </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{EB1911|wstitle=Browne, Hablôt Knight|volume=4|pages=663–664|first=David Croal|last=Thomson}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |author-link=John Forster (biographer)|first=John |last=Forster |title=Life of Charles Dickens |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=London|date= 1871–1874}} *{{cite book |last=Kitton|first=Frederick George |author-link=Frederick George Kitton |title="Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne): A Memoir, Including a Selection from His Correspondence and Notes on His Principal Works |url=https://archive.org/details/phizhablotknight00kitt |year=1882 |publisher=W. Satchell |location=London}} *{{cite book |last=Lester|first=Valerie |title=Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mYjZXA9nku8C |year=2011 |publisher=Chatto and Windus |location=London |isbn=978-1-4464-8393-0}} *{{cite book |author1=Phiz|first2=John |last2=Buchanan-Brown |date= 1978 |title=Phiz! illustrator of Dickens' world|location=New York |publisher= C. Scribner's sons}} *{{cite book |author-link=Marion Spielmann |first=Marion|last=Spielmann |title=The History of Punch|url=https://archive.org/details/historypunch04spiegoog |publisher=Cassell and company, limited |location=London |date= 1895}} *{{cite book |first=D. Croal |last=Thomson |title=Hablot Knight Browne, Phiz: Life and Labours |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=London |date= 1884}} *{{cite book |last=Kitton|first=Frederick George |author-link=Frederick George Kitton |title=Charles Dickens and his Illustrators |url=https://archive.org/details/dickenshisillust00kitt |publisher=GEORGE REDWAY |location=London |date= 1899}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle=Browne, Hablot Knight|volume=3}} {{refend}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Hablot_Knight_Browne}} {{wikisource|works=or}} * [http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/bio.html Hablot Knight Browne] on The Victorian Web. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071004093425/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=522 "''Phiz, Dickens and London''"]—Valerie Browne Lester's lecture at Gresham College. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080528151759/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/11/21/boles21.xml "''The man who made Dickens fizz''"] * {{Gutenberg author | id=24934}} * {{FadedPage|id=Browne, Hablot Knight|name=Hablot Knight Browne|author=yes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Hablot Knight Browne}} * {{Internet Archive author |name=Phiz}} * {{LCAuth|n50042827|Hablot Knight Browne|189|ue}}
{{Authority control}}
{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Hablot Knight}} Category:1815 births Category:1882 deaths Category:Artists from the London Borough of Lambeth Category:Charles Dickens Category:English people of French descent Category:People from Kennington Category:People from Lambeth Category:People from Ladbroke Grove Category:19th-century English illustrators