Frank Henry Temple Bellew (April 18, 1828 – June 29, 1888), American artist, illustrator, and cartoonist.
Personal
Bellew was born in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, in 1828, the son of Francis-John Bellew, a British officer, and Anne Smoult Temple, of Hylton Castle.
He was he father of
Frank P.W. Bellew, who signed his work "Chip," as in "chip off the old block." Bellew Avenue Road in Parade locality of
Kanpur
Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...
is named after Frank.
Career
Bellew drew for most of the notable publications of his time, including ''
Frank Leslie's Illustrated'', ''
Harper's Monthly, Harper's Weekly, Harper's Bazaar'', ''
St.Nicholas
Nicholas is a male given name and a surname.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...
'', and humor magazines such as ''The Lantern, The New York Picayune, Vanity Fair'' (US, 1859-1863), ''The Funniest of Phun, Wild Oats, Puck, Judge,'' and the comic ''Life''.
Bellew came to New York from England in 1850 and worked in the city his entire career. In 1931 ''Time'' magazine credited Bellew with having drawn the first Uncle Sam for a cartoon in an 1852 issue of ''The Lantern''. This claim was discredited by Alton Ketchum in his book ''Uncle Sam: The Man and the Legend'' (Hill and Wang, 1959), in which he traced the first depiction of Uncle Sam back to a cartoon in 1832.
Bellew's November 26, 1864, ''Harper's Weekly'' caricature of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, "Long Abraham Lincoln a Little Longer," exaggerating the height and thinness of the president to absurd extremes, was popular.
Friendships
Because his wife's family lived briefly in Concord, Massachusetts, Bellew knew and socialized with
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
and
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...
, who visited Bellew once at his studio on
Broadway in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
[''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Correspondence, Vol. 2, 1849-1856'', ed. Robert N. Hudspeth, Princeton University Press, p.478, Nov. 31, 1956 letter to Sophia Thoreau]
Thoreau and Bellew discussed philosophical matters, as Thoreau recorded in his ''Journals'' on October 19, 1855:
:Talking with Bellew this evening about
Fourierism
Fourierism () is the systematic set of economic, political, and social beliefs first espoused by French intellectual Charles Fourier (1772–1837). Based upon a belief in the inevitability of communal associations of people who worked and lived to ...
and communities, I said that I suspected any enterprise in which two were engaged together. "But," said he, "it is difficult to make a stick stand unless you slant two or more against it." "Oh, no," answered I, "you may split its lower end into three, or drive it single into the ground, which is the best way; but most men, when they start on a new enterprise, not only figuratively, but really, ''pull up stakes''. When the sticks prop one another, none, or only one, stands erect."
Bibliography
*Bellew, Frank. ''The Art Of Amusing: A Collection Of Graceful Arts, Games, Tricks, Puzzles, and Charades''. New York: G.W. Carleton and Co., 1866.
*Bellew, Frank. ''A Bad Boy's First Reader''. New York: G.W. Carleton and Co., 1881. (NOTE: This is a reprint of That Comic Primer)
*Bellew, Frank. "Emerson and Walt Whitman," ''Lippincott's Magazine'', June 24, 1884.
*Bellew, Frank. ''Jeff Petticoats''. New York: Intagliotype and Graphotype Co., c. 1866.
*Bellew, Frank, ed. ''Joe Miller's Jests With Copious Editions''. New York: Office of the Northern Magazine, 1865.
*Bellew, Frank. ''That Charming Evening: A Volume Intended To Amuse Everybody and Enable All To Amuse Everybody Else: Thus Bringing About As Near an Approximation To the Millennium As Can Be Conveniently Attained In the Compass Of One Small Volume.'' New York: G.W. Carleton and Co., 1878. (NOTE: This is a reprint of The Art of Amusing)
*Bellew, Frank. ''That Comic Primer''. New York: G.W. Carleton and Co., 1877.
*Bellew, Frank, ed. ''The Tramp: His Tricks, Tallies and Tell-tales, With All His Signs, Countersigns, Grips, Pass-words and Villainies Exposed''. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1878.
*Harte, F. Bret. Illustrated by Frank Bellew. ''Condensed Novels and Other Papers''. New York: G.W. Carleton, 1867. (The first book published by
Bret Harte
Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush.
In a caree ...
).
*Smith, Kristen M., ed. ''The Lines Are Drawn: Political Cartoons of the Civil War''. Athens, Georgia: Hill Street Press, c. 1999.
References
External links
*
*
Frank Bellewat ''
Lambiek Comiclopedia
Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...
'' – cartoon gallery includes "Long Lincoln", November 26, 1864, ''Harper's Weekly''
Frank Bellewat ''The Vault at Pfaff's: An Archive of Art and Literature by the Bohemians of Antebellum New York'' (Lehigh.edu) with unconfirmed data on books illustrated
Frank Bellewat the New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Bellew cartoons from ''Harper's Weekly'' and other publicationsat HarpWeek.com
"Long Lincoln" notepad and pencilsold by the Lincoln Museum (lincolnmuseum.org)
at Pressibus.org (French language)
at a railroad history site
*
ttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html Search "Bellew" in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalogof the Library of Congress
"Tobacco and Its Users", ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', March 1860(archived 2006-03-30)
"The Situation On the Black Sea", 1877 ''Harper's Weekly'' coverat the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
Bellew cartoonsat CartoonStock.com (commercial site)
Frank Bellewat The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Ohio State University
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellew, Frank
1828 births
1888 deaths
American caricaturists
American editorial cartoonists
People of the American Civil War
American satirists
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
People from Kanpur
19th-century American journalists
American male journalists
19th-century American male writers