The Peace Society, or a New "Field of Action" for the Military - in "The Good Time Coming" from George Cruikshank's Steel Etchings to The Comic Almanacks: 1835-1853 (top)
1852, printed c. 1880
Medium
Two steel etchings in black on cream India paper, laid down on off-white card (chine collé)
Dimensions
Primary support: 20 × 16.3 cm (7 7/8 × 6 7/16 in.); Secondary support: 34.4 × 25.2 cm (13 9/16 × 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
222563
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
George Cruikshank's *The Peace Society, or New "Field of Action for the Military - in "The Good Time"* (1852) is a witty satirical print from his contributions to *The Comic Alman*, a popular Victorian humorous annual spanning 1835–1853. As a leading British caricaturist and social commentator, Cruikshank the era's Peace Society—an anti-war movement advocating pacifism—by imagining idle soldiers repurposed as farm laborers in a utopian "good time coming." Created amid debates over military reform and disarmament in mid-19th-century Britain, the work reflects Cruikshank's sharp eye for societal absurdities, blending humor with critique of peace activism's potential disruptions. This pair of steel etchings, printed around 1880 in black ink on delicate cream India paper and laid down via chine collé onto off-white card, showcases Cruikshank's mastery of the medium. Steel plates enabled finer, more durable lines than copper, allowing for detailed vignettes and mass reproduction—ideal for affordable comic almanacs that reached wide audiences. Measuring about 20 × 16.3 cm on primary support, the intimate scale invites close viewing of the bustling, exaggerated scenes. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department, this piece exemplifies Cruikshank's enduring legacy in caricature, influencing later illustrators like those in *Punch*. It reminds us how 19th-century prints captured the pulse of public discourse with clever visual puns.
About the Artist
George Cruikshank · 1792–1878
George Cruikshank (1792–1878) was born in London on 27 September 1792, the son of Scottish caricaturist Isaac Cruikshank and Mary MacNaughton. His older brother, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, was also a caricaturist and illustrator, while his sister Eliza worked as a designer. From a young age, Cruikshank assisted his father in the studio, contributing titles, backgrounds, and lettering to cartoons by ...