Punch the British humorous magazine had originally been radical in the 1840's but soon pitched its contents towards sensible middle class readers, mainly men. The quality of the writing and imagemaking was often of a highest order but, as a matter of course, it pitched into the aesthetic movement from the 1860's onwards for its affectation, its ideals and its seeming feminisation.

The most sustained attack was on Oscar Wilde, shown corrupt and overblown.Dumaurier's sequence attacked the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, although the artist himself had excellent connections with the main protagonists. See 'anti-aesthetic' section.

BEARDSLEY DRAWINGS

see also Harry Furniss's satirical Christmas Cards where Wilde is drawn with young male company, the Call Boy, Haymarket Theatre as Sleeping Beauty.

George Dumaurier and the Aesthetic Movement

The attack on Art in Punch became obsessive and vicious. What had it to offer in return? Raven Hill and E.T.Reed, and many unfunny cartoons about hunting and vicars.

Edward Sampson, Oh You Moderns, smart arse conceits

NOTES FROM A WHISTLER, PUNCH