Florence and Adelaide Claxton

Abstract

The illustrations that Florence Claxton (1838–1920) contributed to the popular periodical London Society from 1862 to 1868 frequently include the device of the frame as a means of achieving a kind of comic aesthetic distance. This use of frames to stage a scene gives many of Claxton’s illustrations a theatrical effect, reminiscent of the theatricality of works by earlier caricaturists such as Robert Seymour, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), George Cruikshank, John Leech, and Kenny Meadows. Like her sister Florence, Adelaide Claxton (1841–1927) produced numerous illustrations for periodicals such as The Churchman’s Family Magazine, Illustrated London News, Illustrated Times, London Society, and The Queen. Whereas Florence uses frames in many of her illustrations, Adelaide frequently includes doors and doorways, for example, in her illustrations for the novel ‘Riddles of Love’, by Sidney Laman Blanchard (1825–83), serialized in London Society in 1870. The image of the doorway suggests the liminality of women’s position in society and print culture. This chapter argues that Florence and Adelaide Claxton’s comic illustrations represent both a revival of the art of caricature of the 1830s and 1840s and a proto-feminist intervention into the world of Victorian periodical illustration.