E. W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era. (Volumes I and II).

Abstract

Edward Williams Clay (1799-1857) was the most prolific political caricaturist in America before the Civil War and a key figure in the establishment of political caricature as an integral part of American life. Very little biographical information about him has been published, yet he is recognized as a distinct individual among the many lithographic designers and engravers active in the United States from 1819 to 1852. During Clay's lifetime his work was widely copied in Engl and as well as in America. Modern studies of politics, political history, black history, and social history of the first half of the nineteenth century frequently use Clay's engravings and lithographs as the impetus for research or for the embellishment of finished projects. E. W. Clay appears in many but not all of the st and ard dictionaries of American artists. His work is referred to in compilations of engravings, etchings, and lithographs of the period. Clay was considered prominent enough to appear in DAB, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography and Who Was Who. No study has focused on E. W. Clay and his work. This dissertation is intended to be that study. Trained as a lawyer, Clay turned to art for his living around 1825. Active in Philadelphia and New York through the 1840s, he drew political and social caricatures, as well as illustrations for sheet music, books, and magazines. He worked with lithography, a new method of reproducing pictures for an exp and ing audience. His pictures, e.g., views of the Hudson River and theatrical portraits of Yankee actors, reflect the changing cultural life around him. His legal training gave him an unusual approach to the issues he satirized in his political caricatures. His caricatures or cartoons often show a simplicity of design and directness of idea that are unusual for the period. Clay drew well but he limited himself primarily to political caricature and illustration rather than attempting any finer art. His eyes failed in the early 1850s, forcing him to give up his career as an artist. Clay's political caricatures and illustrations give fresh insights into American life before the Civil War. One of the first American artists to specialize in political caricature, he was active during the development and expansion of the pictorial printing trades in America. This study of his career provides new information about the interchange of ideas in American and English popular art and about the structure of the business that produced the now obsolete single sheet political caricature. Chapter I discusses Clay's family and his life. Chapter II deals with his early work for Philadelphia magazine and book publishers, his LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA series on the foibles and pretensions of upwardly mobile Philadelphians, and the English versions of the series. Chapter III discusses Clay's early political caricatures, including THE RATS LEAVING A FALLING HOUSE, an 1831 lithograph that made his reputation as a political cartoonist. This chapter also covers his visit to Hartford, Connecticut, and his removal to New York City where he established himself as a political cartoonist in the early 1830s. Chapter IV discusses Clay's work during his most productive period from 1836 to 1840. Chapter V discusses his late work from 1841 to 1852. A catalog of his signed work is provided in an appendix.