Marie Duval - ux1.eiu.edu

Marie Duval:
A Caricaturist Rediscovered

DAVID KUNZLE

Feminist art historians are now aware of the ten- Duval or Charles H. Ross, for the figure of the original
Ally Sloper a s he appeared in Judy between 1867 and
dency to ascribe work done by a wife (or daughter) 1876 is to be taken seriously. At stake here is not only
credit for the development of the first regular, continu-
to a professionally established husband (or father), ing comic strip and cartoon character in England to

which is part of the larger phenomenon of the dis- enjoy, in the last quarter of the 19th century unpar-
alleled popularity and attain, thereby, a s Sloper did,
counting and dismemberment of the oeuvre of women the status of prototype for the new commercialized
popular culture. This would be merit enough, but we
artists. Such is the case of Marie Duval (b. 1850 in must add to this another contribution relating to the
very language of caricature. It was Marie Duval rather
Paris a s Isabelle Emilie de Tessier), whose innumer- than Charles Ross who, through Ally Sloper and other
drawings in Judy, experimented with and expanded
able clearly signed and perhaps as many unsigned this language in a direction which would eventually
transform graphics and picture-making in the 20th
drawings published between 1869 and 1878 enjoyed century.

considerable popularity. Much of her work a t that Peter Bailey, hitherto the only serious student of
Ally Sloper, without showing particular concern about
time, and almost all of it after, h a s been misattributed
the question of the authorship of the first Judy version
to her husband Charles Ross. Both were caricaturists
of the character, is undecided: "Charles Ross . . . was
who worked both independently and together on Judy,
the creator of the original Ally Sloper"; Ally Sloper
one of the most popular family humor magazines in was "drawn in collaboration with his wife"; and "C.H.
Ross seems to have used his wife's initials a s a n
late-19th-century England. a l i a ~ . "B~ailey's source for this is presumably Simon
Houfe's A Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and
The various disabilities which afflicted women in Caricaturists 1800-1914, where under "Marie Duval"
we find "see C.H. Ross," and under Ross we read that
pursuit of a n artistic career are compounded in the he "generally signed 'Marie D ~ v a l . ' "T~his is on the
authority of the Dalziel brothers, whose A Record of
case of caricature, a more thoroughly male-dominated
. . . work . . . 1840-1890 states that Ross's "pages of
profession even than painting. Caricature, a s a major
humorous pictures, which appeared in Judy, were
branch of magazine illustration, provided a livelihood generally signed 'Marie Duval' (his wife's maiden
name).'16Such a statement coming from the heads of
for a large number of western European artists during the firm that engraved and owned Judy commands
credibility, but does not jibe with a cursory reference
the 19th century. All, with the exception of Marie Du- by Ross's son, whose main purpose was to defend his
father's invention against its subsequent "appropria-
val, seem to have been men. This is not hard to ex- tion" by the Dalziels. Charles Ross, Jr., describes his
mother a s co-author with his father of a n Ally Sloper
plain: "Woman's nature" was considered antithetical book and (more significant) a s "the only comic lady
artist of her day, whose nom-de-plume was 'Marie
to the aggressive polemical and critical nature of so D~val.'"~

much journalism in general and caricature in A defender of Duval came forth in A.J. Wilson, who,
identifying himself a s a former Punch engraver (of
particular. DuMaurier and Tenniel), wrote in 1927: "Marie Duval,
who invented Ally Sloper, was its [Judy's] mainstay.
An article by Peter Bailey on W.G. Baxter's Ally

Sloper (from 1884-86), the first truly popular cartoon

figure in England, recently appeared in History Work-

shop,1 a magazine which, ironically, carries the subtitle

"a journal of socialist and feminist history." For, su-

perb a s it is a s a piece of social analysis, and con-

cerned a s it is with Ally Sloper in his second,

post-Duval incarnation, Bailey's article serves unwit-

tingly to further wipe away, in the words of Duval's

first and only chronicler, those "faintly impressed foot-

prints on the sands of time"2 which women artists of

the past have left. It is apparently that tendency to

see women artists a s "appendages to male innovators

rather than a s innovators them~elves,"w~hich has con-

spired, in the present case, to wipe away not just

"faintly impressed footprints," but the most conspic-

uously marked handprints-literally hundreds of

signatures.

The question of who is primarily responsible, Marie

Woman's Art Journal 27

. . .The drawings were excruciatingly bad, but the leg- suspended and the stricken actress taken to a hotel
where she was stitched by a surgeon. As a fellow-
ends were always amusing, and they led up to the actor testified, she "bore the operation bravely, like

establishment of Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday." Dalziel Jack would have done."10
She had meanwhile (presumably 1869)" married
reasserted his position promptly: "Marie Duval is not
the inventor of that remarkable character. I am fully Charles Ross, who would have met her through his
aware that the statement h a s been previously made own work in the theater. At the time of her interview
in print, but it is nonetheless incorrect. The inventor
of Ally Sloper was Charles H. Ross, Editor of Judy." with Clayton, she is credited with having drawn for
He goes on to identify, correctly, the first appearance "three or four English, French, and German journals,
of the character and Ross's own confirmation in the and illustrated several books under different pseud-
Ally Sloper Summer Number for 1885. The invention o n y m ~ . "H~e~r work on the Ally Sloper character was
of the character should not be in dispute, but Dalziel the most familiar to the public. "Nothing could be
goes on to suggest that Ross claimed ownership of his more irresistibly droll than 'Ally Sloper,' absurdly
entire development: "Moreover, for many years I met comic, with a n undercurrent of serious reflection, some-
Charles H. Ross practically every day of the week, times with a touch of strange pathos," wrote Clayton.
and I never heard him speak to the contrary. All the "Ally himself has become a pronounced character, a
drawings in the above-mentioned subject are plainly familiar friend, like Micawber, and a few other terrible

signed 'C.H.R."' In a patent contradiction, and a n odd old schemers." She continued, primly, a s was de ri-
admission of less than complete certainty on the topic, gueur in such a case: "Austere morality forbids ap-
Dalziel continues that Ross "no doubt availed himself proval of the villainies and subterfuges of the droll
of her [Duval's] artistic tendency in helping him with old scamp, yet somehow a smile will relax the features
his 'Sloper' drawings. Often these would be signed of Justice herself, where a frown should mark displea-
either 'M.D.' or 'Marie Duval'; but they were in reality sure and discouragement." Duval's "drawing" (put in
the creations of Ross h i m ~ e l f . "W~hatever claims Ross quotes in the original, a s if the very word was inap-
propriate) was "humorous" to the point of "grotesque-
may have voiced, Dalziel's memory of the matter may
have been clouded by the quarrel the two men had ness" and downright "incorrect," which Clayton
later over the use of the character in Ally Sloper's forgives because the artist was self-taught. She was
Half-Holiday. It is possible, too, that Ross became es- also "passionately fond of music," which she played
tranged from his wife. There are few biographical de- easily, but by ear. I n this description of her "busy and
tails extant on either Duval or Ross. changeful life" there is no mention of her marriage,
or a husband, or the name of Ross. This omission is
Conclusive evidence of Marie Duval a s a n indepen-
dent artist with responsibility for Ally Sloper can be especially curious since Clayton paid close attention
found in Ellen Clayton's English Female Artists to the marital status of the women she chronicled in
(1876).yClayton, a n artist, novelist, and anthologist, English Female Artists, and suggests that the couple
was herself a contributor to Judy and in a position was separated a t the time of the interview. Neverthe-
to know Marie Duval personally. Duval appears in a
short section called "Humorous Designers," which con- less, their collaboration continued for another several
tains brief reports of three other women, herself in- years.
cluded, none of whom, apart from Duval, is counted
a s truly humorous or comic (as opposed to witty). This Charles H. Ross, dramatist, novelist, illustrator, and
does not surprise Clayton, who holds that wit is the former civil servant," has about 50 different indepen-
female attribute, humour (tending to coarseness), the dent works credited to his name in the British Library
male one. Duval's style is contrasted to that of her catalogue, none of which are plays. From 1863to 1867,
when he joined the new magazine Judy, Ross wrote
sister-artist on Judy, Adelaide Claxton, from whose some half dozen children's books with nonsense
hand came "graceful and witty" upper-class subjects. rhymes and pictures and two novels, all of which had
numerous illustrations signed CHR.I4Ally Sloper was
"Marie Duval," we learn, is the nome d'artiste of a
"clever lady" born Isabelle Emilie de Tessier in Paris conceived by accident, with doodled lines and blots,
of French parents "twenty-five years ago" (i.e., about while Ross was working as a clerk a t the Admiralty."
1850). She was a t age 17 a governess (presumably in The name is well-chosen: to "slope" in British slang
England, which employed a lot of French governesses) of the period meant to abscond without paying, espe-
and appeared on the stage of several London and pro-
vincial theaters until 1874, when, in the course of a cially the rent ("slope down the alley"). Ally first trod
successful tour featuring the play Jack Sheppard, she the boards in the form he was basically to retain all
suffered a serious accident which (we infer) curtailed his 66 years-elderly and gangly, bald, disheveled,
her career as a n actress. The circumstances of the with a bulbous potato nose, often flushed as with
accident are curious, especially in relation to a young drink. His two sartorial hallmarks, which were almost
woman who had already established herself in the characters in themselves with adventures of their own,
very male career of caricaturist: in the title role of were a bizarre and battered stove-pipe hat and a n out-
Jack Sheppard, a criminal and escape artist and thus rageous umbrella. The degraded symbols of bourgeois
a quintessentially male character, she was desperately respectability, they become, on the head and in the
fleeing on a rope-ladder from Jonathan Wild, the thief- hand of Sloper, symbols of disreputability. Ally sat-
taker, when a cartridge clumsily shot from his gun irized the Victorian work ethic:"' his adventures were
hit her in the face, causing her to fall and gash her directed at a lower-middle-class audience who valued
leg on a n iron scenery support. The performance was the work ethic highly and felt frustrated to see it
flouted everywhere with impunity. He exposed the
petty frauds of the service sector, where the lower-

28 Woman's Art Journal designs (Almanac, November 3). "A Tale of a Tooth,"
the first true comic strip in her style, appeared (un-
middle class was concentrated, and allowed them to signed) November 16, 1869. Illustrated is the gruesome
vent forbidden fantasies-all this in a n otherwise per- matter of a young man who secretly and misguidedly
fectly respectable family journal.
sacrifices his eye-tooth to replace one which his be-
Ally first appeared in Judy in 1867, the year of its loved has lost in a n accident.
founding as a cheap (two penny) rival to Punch and
Fun. Judy appealed more to a lower-classreadrship than Discounting a perfunctory, unsigned appearance of
either of i t s rivals, a n d particularly to women. September 29, Ally Sloper does not return until De-
At least two of the staff cartoonists were women. In cember 1,1869. He reappears as Judy's official reporter
a populist opening editorial, Judy spoke to a platform from the just-opened Suez canal (see inside front
marked Protection (not "Rights") of Women. Its fem- cover). Five of the eight drawings are signed MD, in-
inism was not political but social, and favored a type cluding a n elegant, quite risque (for the time) portrait
of cartoon showing witty and poised young females of a harem girl in a dance of the veils. Two of the
fending off conceited and impudent or foolish men. drawings here are signed CHR, and husband and wife
collaborated in this manner, sharing the various draw-
John Stuart Mill's On the Subjection of Women was
published in 1867, and the Second Reform Bill, which ings on the page, with two other Ally Sloper strips,
almost doubled the male franchise, was passed that one from December 15,1869,the other January 5,1870.
year. In 1867 Judy's publishers promised special de- Ross signs for the last time, now jointly with his wife
votion to the "weak and helpless" and a "working MD & CHR, on February 9,1870.
class" whose very existence a s a distinct class was
threatening to a lower-middle class perched precar- Ally Sloper, now a fixture in the journal and the
iously above it. The audience was fluid, restless, and sole responsibility of Marie Duval (who signs most of
uncertain of its identity, a mixture of lower-middle the strips), reaches a n apotheosis of comic cowardice
and upper-working classes, more anxious, in all prob- and braggadoccio a s war correspondent, working solo
ability, to leave the working class than identify with (that is without the benefit if Iky Moses) during the
it. I n terms of party politics, Judy campaigned forth- Franco-Prussian War (August 10-September 21, 1870).
rightly for "Conservatism of the Truest and Bluest"; With nearly 60 appearances between 1870 and 1872,
Disraeli was a hero, Gladstone, a villain. The new
magazine, in the arrogance of its youth, even accused Ally was becoming a public favorite, a status con-
Punch of a senile lack of traditional patriotism. firmed by the publication "of some of the most re-
markable episodes in the life of the world-famed Ally
But Judy, whose enlarged audience depended on ad- S l ~ p e r , " 'a~ collected one-shilling edition bound in a
vances in education among the lower classes, was a volume entitled "Some Playful Episodes in the Career
fierce champion of the Compulsory Education Bill of of Ally Sloper, late of Fleet Street, Timbuctoo, Wagga
1870, the first national act dealing with primary ed- Wagga, Millbank and elsewhere, with Casual Refer-
ucation. The children who benefited from this would ences to Iky Mo, pictorially portrayed by Marie Duval
become readers of Judy (and her even more popular and verbally explained (with moral observations) by
and cheaper-one ~enny-offspring in the 1880s, Ally Judy's Office boy" (i.e., Ross). The advertisements for
Sloper's Half-Holiday). They would also, thanks to labor this work in other Judy publications do not mention
agitation, have more money and more leisure-the Ross by name, only "750 comic sketches by Marie Du-
means to buy and the time to read the magazine. val." The phrase "pictorially portrayed" in the title,

Ally Sloper made his debut in Judy on August 14, placed so a s to give the artist precedence over the
1867, with "Some Mysteries of Loan and Discount," writer, leaves no doubt that Ross intended to give
a title that set the tone for the petty financial sub- credit for the drawings to his talented young wife; he
terfuges and business swindles which were to become even removed his initials from the few early Sloper
his hallmark. His accomplice was Iky Moses, with strips which he had drawn. Of the 78 episodes, 47 are
whom he shared the honors (and twice the title) over signed MD, and one M Duval; the bulk of the remain-
the next four appearances, through October 9. Ross der are also in her style.
then dropped the series for serious novel writing," and
perhaps for theater work as well. He returned to Judy Marie Duval's Ally Sloper strips continued in Judy
on May 26, 1869, with a comic strip called "The Awful a t the somewhat lower density of about a dozen a
Ending of a n Early Worm." I n 1869, we surmise, he year, fading away in 1877 (last one on August 22),
met and married Emilie du Tessier-Marie Duval. The having been replaced, since May 1876, by a different
first drawings signed with her initials, comic fashion format: a solid text recounting his adventures and opin-
sketches, were published in Judy August 18, 1869 (p. ions illustrated by two to four small drawings in a n
173), but a n unsigned page of vignettes, "At Belong" exceedingly crude, stick-like style, supposedly by Ally
(Boulogne-sur-Mer),of two weeks earlier is in her al- himself, and probably also by Duval. A second, six-
ready distinctive style. Her entree into the magazine penny collection of Sloper strips appeared in November
was certainly facilitated by Ross, presumably now her 1877 under the title "Ally Sloper's Book of Beauty,
husband, taking over a s Judy's editor.18 In October with literary embellishments by Charles H. Ross and
she began regular weekly appearances, all signed MD, artistic adornments by Marie Duval." The credit again
with topics which must be designated a s typically fe- is unambiguous. A reviewer singled out the artwork:
male a s well as theatrical: "The story of a lady who "By its artistic eccentricity [it] constitutes a rare reme-
married a walking gent," "The Beast and the Beauty," dial dose for those who are dull, or in need of curious
"Gymnastics for Ladies" (October 13, 20, 27), and pictorial am~sernent."O~"f the 35 narrative strips here,
"When they wore powder," historical-theatrical-fashion 15 are signed, boldly, DUVAL and 12 MD; many of
the other illustrations are also signed by the artist.

These Nuitntiona, from the rifted F e n d of A. SLOTER,reprctent JUBT'BOffice
Biy g o b 8 out on the quiet whm ha thought the Ever Young and Lovely had her
back turned. Also the ~pirlted^r&y In which the ETCIY- oung w d Lovely gtive chaae
bod fetched him back.

Fig. 1. Marie Duval, from Judy (June 21, 1876; April 15, 1874; September 12, 1877; January 1, 1873).

Ross's initials appear nowhere. the various cheap (one penny) almanacs and summer
The following year, 1878, saw several sixpenny Ross- numbers called Ally Sloper's Comic Kalendar (annu-
ally, 1876-88), Ally Sloper's Summer Number (1880-
Duval collaborations: in May "Ally Sloper's Guide to 84), and the sixpenny Ally Sloper's Comic Crackers,
the Paris Exhibition, to which is added some literary which are credited by Charles Ross, Jr., as "entirely
luggage by Charles H. Ross and many pictures by written and illustrated by C.H. Ross, practically a one-
Marie Duval" was published. A reviewer again singled man publication," each of which reached unprece-
out the (nearly 90) illustrations: "Some of the woodcuts
by Marie Duval are exceedingly grotesque, and others dented sales in six figures and which are precursors
of Gilbert Dalziel's penny weekly Ally Sloper's Half-
show a keen sense of beauty on the part of the art- H~liday.~~
i~t"~l-thelatter not a judgment which could ever be
With the launching of this new penny weekly, which
made of drawings signed CHR. I n October appeared survived from 1884 to 1923, and the widespread com-
a pseudo-political frivolity called "The Eastern Ques- modification of his name and character, Ally's im-
tion tackled and satisfactorily disposed of by Ally mortality was assured. The marketing of so cheap a
Sloper (the literary torpedo),with 70 illustrations (the paper crammed with so many pictures was facilitated
greater part now first published) by Marie Duval, three by the heavy reliance on reruns from Judy: the entire
maps of the seat of war by A. Sloper himself; and a Ally Sloper oeuvre of Marie Duval (and Ross) was
brief account of certain singular circumstances by republished, together with other Duval strips and draw-
Charles H. Ross." Finally, a t the very end of the year ings, through July 13, 1886, so that Duval should also
appeared " A Shillingsworth of Moonshine (with tin-
thunder at the wing),being a string of strange stories be credited with a n essential contribution to this pi-
some awfully true and others awfully otherwise, told oneering journalistic venture. The ultimate success of
'without prejudice' by Marie Duval and Charles Ross." the Half-Holiday, however, probably depended more
This consists mainly of nearly fifty old Judy comic upon the grand, large, front-page drawing of Ally's
strips (excluding Ally Sloper), twenty-five of them antics, now very much among the upper classes, by
signed MD, fourteen DUVAL, and two MARIE W.G. Baxter (1884-86) and W.F. Thomas (after 1886).
DUVAL.
Duval also produced a children's book, A Rare and
By the mid-1870s Marie Duval was certainly estab- Choice Collection of Queens and Kings and other
lished a s one of the dominant, if not the dominant thingsÑ6'Th Pictures, Poetry and strange, but veri-
table Histories designed and written by the S.A. [Her
contributor to Judy; and one may surmise that the Highness] the Princess Hesse Schwartzbourg. The
increased emphasis on her signature, which appears whole imprinted in Gold and many Colours By the
progressively larger and more often in full, was in- Brothers Dalziel At their Camden Press and published
tended to offset rumors current at the time that it was by Chatto and Windus, London [lo Dec. 1874]."24While
the husband who did the drawings signed with her the captions to her comic strips are amusing, they
initials. Her initials disappear from the journal, with show no particular instinct for verbal frolics. The text
Ally Sloper himself, in 1878-79,= and it is doubtful of Queens and Kings, however, has a charming non-
that she had much to do with the Ally Sloper spinoffs,

30 Woman's Art Journal oriental effects, whose elegance represents the antithe-
sis of her own style, and a t one point reveals what
sensical extravagance: may have been a conscious source of inspiration, one
which was not to permeate European art until much
King Hoddi Doddi the 18hundredth. Born: anyhow. later: African sculpture (see inside back cover). This
Died of the Hoddidoddles, a complaint of his own in- page presents a veritable panorama of graphic styles.
vention. Some say he had the upsidownums very badly Duval was among the first to do Darwinian metamor-
whilst others were in favour of the wrongendupums. phoses (and show Darwin as a monkey), and she was
What is certain is that seven hundred and ninety nine quite a dab at Royal Academy parodies.
Hoddidoddies who went before him had the Slantan-
diculars in early youth and perished periodically. Duval was also aware of French models in subject
matter, as the Dalziels point out in their rnemoir~.~'
Although Ross was indisputably the creator of the She occasionally used French in captions and titles,
concept of Ally Sloper and the author of his first in- spelling Sloper "Slopaire." She wrote the captions en-
carnations and very probably the impulse behind his tirely in correct idiomatic French in Un Milor Anglais
wife's development of the character, the style in which (February 27, 1878). It is hard to determine whether
she worked proves, on careful examination, to be dis- what appears a zanily English transformation of Ger-
tinct from his. Ross's signed sequences usually observe man farce and violence may not have some French
a regular layout of three by three vignettes, the top ironies buried in it. Just once Duval made a foray into
center one, under the fancily lettered title serving as the broader, multi-figured scene and the longer, coher-
a kind of frontispiece. The viewpoint on each scene ent story. Called "Sloper Slayer of Wolves"26and set
tends to uniformity, and the compositions to complete-
in Normandy or Brittany, it is obviously inspired by
-ness in terms of basic accessories. background. and Leone Petit a specialist in peasant scenes, who had
recently started his immense series of Histoires Cam-
framing devices. Ross's line is uniformly spare and pagnardes in the premier French journal of social car-
mobile, his contours and shadows, continuous and log- icature, the Journal Amusant.
ical. It is a coherent and relatively rational style. Du-
val, on the other hand, tends to anarchic mises en Marie Duval is important not only because she was
page, inconsistent and arbitrarily changing view- 19th-century Europe's only female caricaturist and
points, thickness of contour, and shading. She favors chief author of the early Ally Sloper. She also deserves
sudden close-ups, heavy, stiff lines, and black shad- recognition for her graphic experimentation. "Primi-
ows. Although a primitive, she is aware of the sophis- tivism" did not enter vanguard art until much later
ticated graphic effects found in continental caricature. in the century, and one might speculate on the sig-
She brandishes her clumsiness while Ross tries to mit- nificance of the fact that Ally Sloper, the ex-proletar-
igate his. And a t the same time Duval is canable of ian, social primitive and lower-middle-class impostor,
:certain elegance of face and form, which s h e cul- was popularized by a woman, one of the gender prole-
tivates in her fashion drawings. tarianized and primitivized (not to say infantilized)
by exclusion from male-dominated society. And there
Models for the Duval Ally Sloper style were Richard is a subversive element to her style of graphic exper-
Doyle, a n illustrator of fairy tales and, during the late imentation, which suggests a happy aesthetic frivolity
1840s, the pioneer of a child-like outline style in his and disrespect for academic norms. This, given the
drawings for Punch, and Wilhelm Busch, creator of characterization of Ally, may be extrapolated a s dis-
a n artfully simplified caricatural style and, by the late respect for the conventional (male) view of life and
1860s,famous even beyond his native Germany. Busch work.
may have been known to Duval independently of the
first English edition in 1868 of his Bilderbogen. There Peter Bailey, "Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday: Comic Art i n the
are in Duval linear short cuts. deerees of simnlified 1880s," History Workshop ( A u t u m n 1983),5-31.
foreshortening, and a nonchalance in handling figures Ellen Clayton, English Female Artists (London:Runsley, 1876),
hurtling through the air, which can only come from
the German artist. Unmistakable borrowings of Busch 0
motifs, moreover, figure in both Ally Sloper and other L.
Duval strips. (Since everyone stole from Busch, one
may admire the relative self-restraint of the light-fin- Elsa Honig Fine, Women and Art (Montclair, N.J.: Abner
gered Sloper, who appropriated in terms of motif no Schram, 1978),vii.
more than some showering and barbering or such.) Bailey, "Ally Sloper," 7 , 8 , 12.
Like no other English artist, Duval played with Simon Houfe, A Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Car-
Busch's principles of graphic innovation, without im- icaturists 1800-1914 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors
itating his highly sophisticated rotund rhythms. There Club, 1978),438.
are graphic effects in Duval which do not become stan- George and Edward Dalziel, A Record o f fifty years work i n
dard in the cartoon until the late 1880s: vibrating con- conjunction with many of the most distinguished artists of the
tours to express fear; multiplication of limbs to suggest period 1840-1890 (London:Methuen, 1901),320.
oscillation of parts; effects of shriveling up, exploding, Charles Ross, Jr., "Brief Notes re: Ally Sloper." Typescript i n
discombobulation, twisting, unraveling, melting of possession o f Victor Neuburg, who kindly told me about it and
let m e see it.
form (Fi-e. 1). Duval was curious about visual distor- A.J. Wilson, "Fun in fiction," The Referee, May 8, 1927, 10;
Dalziel's letter, headed "Who invented Ally Sloper," appeared
tions as derived from photographic error, from reflec- May 15, 1927, 10. My thanks to Peter Bailey for alerting me to
tion in spoons, and from changing and high this source.
viewpoints. She also experimented with partial views Clayton, English Female Artists, 11, 331-33, is the source used
and bizarre frame cutoffs. She shows awareness of i n Thieme-Becker's Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler (1914),where
Duval is (mis)credited as the "inventor" of the comic figure o f
Ally Sloper. Chris Petteys, in Dictionary of Women Artists (Bos-
ton: G.K. Hall, 1985),219, repeats this credit.

Woman's Art Journal 31

Clayton, English Female Artists, 11,331-33. 3 vols. [1869], neither of which is illustrated.
An exhaustive search a t the Public Record Office for their mar- 18. By October 20,1869, the date of the preface to volume 6.
riage certificate proved fruitless. They were probably married 19. Advertisement of November 1872, in Charles H. Ross, A Book
in France.
It may be that Clayton here misremembered some statement of of Comicalities.
Duval's about her drawing for rather than from French and
German journals, a s she palpably did. The only other English 20. Preston Gazette, cited in an advertisement in Ally Sloper's Comic
journal in which I have chanced upon her style is Will o' the
Wisp for June 5,1869, 139 (thus antedating her work for Judy), Crackers [1883], 2.
a strip called "Emma's Uncle Obadiah," evidently influenced 21. Sheffield Telegraph, cited in ibid.
by the German caricaturist Wilhelm Busch, with whom Duval
was certainly familiar. The pseudonyms mentioned by Clayton 22. The last signed drawing by her that I have found appeared
include "noir," which appears in Judy (Duval always dressed August 20, 1879. The 1878 Comic Kalendar is the last in that
in elegant black), and "Princess of Hesse-Schwartsbourg." series to carry her signed work; thereafter Charles Ross takes
Houfe, Dictionary, 438; the Dalziels flatter him as "a gifted writer over. signing with his initials and imitatin-g some of his wife's
of varied powers, a dramatist and novelist of the most sensa- graphic-effe&.
tional order. But above all, Ross was a great humorist, with a
manner perfectly his own"; G. and E. Dalziel, A Record of work, 23. Ross, Jr., "Brief Notes." In Ally Sloper's Comic Kalendar for
1888 (the last of the series) all the drawings are signed C.H.
320. Ross or CHR, as if Ross were trying to reappropriate from Dalziel
In only the very earliest work, Ye comical rhymes of Ancient the character he had invented.
Times [January 27, 18631, are the illustrations not initialed.
(Bracketed dates here and below refer to those of the stamp 24. I make the attribution to Duval on the basis of Clayton, English
marking the entry of the volume into the British Library.) Female Artists, 11, 333, there being no other work listed in the
See David Kunzle, "The First Ally Sloper: the Earliest Popular British Library catalogue under this pseudonym.
Cartoon Character as a Satire on the Victorian Work Ethic,"
Oxford Art Journal, I (1985),40-48. 25. G. and E. Dalziel, A Record of work, 320.
Ross, Jr., "Brief Notes." 26. First in Judy, September 8, 1875, then Ally Slopers' Book of
A Week with Mossoo, with numerous illustrations signed CHR;
and The Pretty Widow, 2 vols. [I8681 and A London Romance, Beauty (1877).

DAVID KUNZLE, Professor of Art History at UCLA, is author
of Early Comic Strip Art c.1450-1826 (1973), its sequal, from

1827-95 (inpress), and Fashion and Fetishism (1982).

ARTISTS WRITERS

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JUDY, O R THE LONDON SERIO-COMIC JOURNAL, [ A G O2, s, 1872.

S L O P E R I N SAVAGE AFRICA.

1 . SWPERcrossin t h e country. Unseemly levity 2. SLOPKRi,n an tmpiardi'd miiment, uncovers 3 Si.orm finds t h e ¡ouie iif thc S i ' e H e i l
of blacks in the rear. hk be-td. P m i c aulong The b 1 ~ c k - f . ways did go to t h e biit!-,m of things.

4. T h i s i s S m ~ ms'k~etch
1 t h e course of t h e Nile,
bowing the source dis-

overed by himself. I n it8

resent atate it seems to

equire expl,~n.~tii.m

5 P i c t u r e o f Mrs. S : r r " ( ; L L .\ir;ian on!).

I i ,110 ! I say-" B:.^ thu., -if!cr rill. ~ ~ 1 -

hnpy one m u s t conform to t h e c ~ ~ - ~ o onfi tstir
cuuiitiy. Only she mie-ht L I..-c l~c-ena Lulu

8. Model in wood of mi 'OO''""~.
African beauty, who had

m n y offers, hut died a t

s t of a broken h o u t .

1 0 SI.OPERimproves t h e native mind. H e 11, The simple savage is excited when he 12. SLOPER hears for t h e first timo of a fine old
lo-es.
terches the simple savage a pretty little game African institution, csilled cuttin8 off t h e extremi-
witti three thimblm and a pa,. ties. Wo leavehim in the hands n f the cxccutioner

P u L l l ~ h ~ : ! tho Proprtcto-, at 73, Fleet Street, E,C Printed by WOODFALA LN D K I N D E R~, i l f o r dI.tine, Strand, Loudon, W.C.-WEDSES>AY, Aupist 23, 187'2.

Marie Duval, "Sloper in Savage Africa" (Judy, August 28, 1872), from "Marie Duval: A Caricaturist Rediscovered."

50 JUDY, OE TEE LONDON SERIO-COMIC JOURNAL. p i c . 1, 1869.-

.I <IIIIII.

-

General view of Constantinople, to the beat of IKEY Mo.'s recollection.

Railway Offlcwl (withseverity). A mistake, do you Daring equestrian feata of IIAACMosn, Eçq
who crossed the Deaert upon the back of u
lay? You should have counted your change a t untamed camel ; but It was rather too bump]
h e time. We can't rectify mistakes afterwards. for Mr. SLOP=, who may be obwrred alighiiq
"permiscuoualy " in the rear.
Mr. Sopr (with wbanify). Don't mention it,
ny dear bo Ñdon' mention it. You gave me

00 much, that's all; but we won't say another
word upon the subject.

[And untilthu day à ha^ never tan satisfat-
torilv tdlled whethtr thu was or was not
a "try on" of o w old friend Ally's.

-- Portrlit of a chambermaid, iketched at t!Â
risk of big life by Mr. SWPERt,hrough .in ,ttt
This is a true l i k e n ~of a Turkish lady in ,I window of the SULTAN'PSh o e .
walking dreas, and of the boob she walked 111.
A in the lady, B the boots.

ALLYSLOPKRe,ven before he ~ t a r t e d ,created i(rreat a e n ~ t i o n
in h i s new fea.

IMPOBTAKT NOTICE.

JUDYis delighted to say that a t an enormous expense, she
baa secured the services of Messrs. Moeaa and SI.OPERw. hoso
Eastern experiences are depicted abovu. Theae pictures,

View of Thebea and of Mr. MOSES(back view taken on the spot, Mr. MOSESaaaurea her, a t the rtihske mofeahnis-
of the latter) ID a contemplative attitude. There life, will, she trust., afford general 8atisfuction. In
nhouid have been verso8 to this, but they did not
come in time. while she takes this u portunity of informing Meaara. MMW View of Cairo by night. Mr. RLOPÇ uid !fc*'
and SLOPEtRhat the k t remittmoa she intend3 to make ia other jolly doga out on the ramble.
now in the poet.
--

PQbUtbtd by the Fro rietor at 73 Fleet Street Inthe PÈrià of Bt Bride in t he CiQ of London * Printed by WOODTALALCT KIWPERa, t the ir PrtDtUu OR W,
MUford ~ a n e ,S' trind, ID the Parlih of St. ~ l e m e nht e * In the County of ~ i d d l e ~ e-xV. iacirUDAv, December 1,1869.
,

Marie Duval and Charles Ross, "En Route For Suez" (Judy, December 1, 1869). from "Marie Duval: A Caricaturist Rediscovered."