George Morrow (illustrator)
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George Morrow (5 September 1869 – 18 January 1955) was a cartoonist and book illustrator.


Early life and education

George Morrow was born in Belfast. He was the son of George Morrow, a painter and decorator from Clifton Street in west Belfast, and his wife Catherine. George was the fifth of 8 children, with five of his siblings,
Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Albert ...
,
Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...
, George, Edwin and Norman also working as artists. In April 1905 Morrow married a Dublin nurse, Mary Matilda McCracken at Ballyclare Presbyterian Church. Morrow attended the Belfast Government School of Art, graduating in 1891.


Life and works

Morrow contributed one work to an exhibition with the Belfast Rambler's Sketching Club in 1888 and four paintings to the Belfast Art Society exhibition in 1893. From the mid to late 1890s he lived at 324 King's Road in Chelsea, where he made the acquaintance of
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
. In 1896 Morrow showed a watercolour from Rudyard Kipling's book ''Strange Ride of Morrowby Jukes,'' in the Empire exhibition at the Earl's Court''.'' In the same year he was published in ''Pick-Me-Up'' and
Mary Russell Mitford Mary Russell Mitford (16 December 1787 – 10 January 1855) was an English author and dramatist. She was born at New Alresford, Alresford in Hampshire. She is best known for ''Our Village'', a series of sketches of village scenes and vividly dr ...
's ''Country Stories''. George and his brother Albert were instrumental in the formation of the Ulster Arts Club in 1902. Both showed with three other brothers in the club's first exhibition alongside
John Lavery Sir John Lavery (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was a Northern Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Life and career John Lavery was born in inner North Belfast, baptised at St Patrick's Church, Belfast a ...
, Hans Iten and FW Hull, at Fisherwick Place Belfast in November 1903. George Morrow exhibited three oil paintings, ''Donaghadee'', ''Flaxpool'', and ''The Geraldine's Daughter''. Morrow exhibited one oil painting entitled ''The Saint of the Island'' at the
Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
summer exhibition of 1904. In 1905 he contributed to the Ulster Literary Theatre's short-lived ''Ulad'' magazine and in the following year was published in the first edition of the equally short-lived ''Shanachie''. In 1906 he sat on the committee of the first Oireachtas Art Exhibition with
Jack Butler Yeats Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish art The history of Irish art starts around 3200 BC with Neolithic stone carvings at the Newgrange megalithic tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex which still stands ...
and
Sarah Purser Sarah Henrietta Purser RHA (22 March 1848 – 7 August 1943) was an Irish artist mainly noted for her work with stained glass. Biography Purser was born in Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin, and raised in Dungarvan, County Wate ...
, and in the following year he showed two works at the Oireachtas exhibition of 1907. Morrow contributed a picture showing a complacent John Bull squatting in the home of peasants, to Bulmer Hobson's separatist magazine ''The Republic'' in 1906, which was later distributed as a postcard for the
Dungannon Clubs The Dungannon Clubs were founded in Ireland in 1905 by Bulmer Hobson and Dennis McCullough, whose goal was the eventual creation of an Irish Republic. Seán McDermott became the organizer for the clubs in Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow, London, and ...
. More significantly the year 1906 marked the beginning of Morrow's long association with ''
Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...
''. In 50 years Morrow was to contribute 2,704 cartoons to the publication, of which 22 were full-page political cartoons. He joined the staff of the magazine in 1924 and was appointed art editor in 1932, a position he held until 1937. Morrow then retired as editor and was succeeded by ' Fougasse'. In 1940 Morrow returned to the magazine to fill the position of assistant literary editor due to the staff shortages of WW2. Other publications he contributed to included the ''Bystander'', ''
The Pall Mall Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and ge ...
'', ''Sphere'', ''
Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...
'', ''
Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...
'', ''
Windsor Magazine ''The Windsor Magazine'' was a monthly illustrated publication produced by Ward Lock & Co from January 1895 to September 1939 (537 issues). The title page described it as "An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women". It was bound as six-monthly ...
'' and the ''
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
''. In 1908 Morrow and his brothers, Albert, Henry, Jack, Edwin and Norman, held an exhibition at the family business of 15 D'Olier Street in Dublin which consisted of seventy-three works, with several paintings by George, including ''Whitehead, Co.Antrim'' and ''Donaghadee''. Snoddy speculates that this was at the launch of the business. Morrow was a founder of the Society of Humorous Art and was represented at the inaugural exhibition in 1912, alongside W Heath Robinson. By 1917 George Morrow was a household name when he joined his brother Albert, and 150 artists and writers, in petitioning the British Prime Minister
Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...
to find a way of enacting the unsigned codicil to Hugh Lane's will and establish a gallery to house Lane's art collection in Dublin. Amongst the 32 notable artists who signed this petition were Jack B Yeats,
Sir William Orpen Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do i ...
, Sir John Lavery, and
Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...
. Morrow also designed posters for London Underground between the years 1918 to 1931. Morrow donated a picture of a mounted knight confronting a cheerful dragon upon an invitation from the
Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) is an animal charity based and operating in Northern Ireland. The other SPCA societies operating in the United Kingdom are the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Anima ...
for inclusion in their centenary publication. The volume is a virtual who's-who of Ulster artists, writers and musicians of the time. Morrow's work was later displayed in 1945 in a solo exhibition of 100 ''Punch'' drawings at the
Belfast Museum and Art Gallery The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures ...
.Snoddy (2002). p.439 For many years Morrow produced ''Royal Academy Depressions'', a series of comic parodies of Royal Academy pictures. Several collections of his cartoons were published including ''An Alphabet of the War'' (1915) which reprinted cartoons from ''Punch Almanack''. He also illustrated more than 70 books by other authors for adults and children. He collaborated in producing 12 books with
EV Lucas Edward Verrall Lucas, CH (11/12 June 1868 – 26 June 1938) was an English humorist, essayist, playwright, biographer, publisher, poet, novelist, short story writer and editor. Born to a Quaker family in Eltham, on the fringes of London, Lucas ...
, who was the editor of Punch from 1932 to 1949. Their best loved title was the satirical life story of a fictional English aristocrat, ''What a Life! An Autobiography'' published in 1911''.'' Morrow also had a number of books published by Methuen, under his own name -''George Morrow: His Book'' (1920)'', More Morrow'' (1921) and ''Some More'' (1928)''.'' RGG Price referred to Morrow as,
"...a cheerful Bohemian Irishman ..Morrow in his prime, which lasted much longer than with most humorous artists, could draw a simple little figure with a face that was funny ''per se'' ..his versatility and his variety make some of the later draughtsmen look tired and repetitive."
Morrow lived most of his adult life in London, although he spent many summers painting watercolours in Ireland, mainly in County Donegal.


Death and legacy

Morrow had no children and died at his home in Thaxted, Essex on 18 January 1955 aged 85, one month after his last cartoon appeared in ''Punch''. His work is to be found in the collections of the
Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...
,
Linen Hall Library The Linen Hall Library is located at 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Northern Ireland. The Library is physically in the centre of Belfast, and more g ...
,
Royal Albert Memorial Museum Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) is a museum and art gallery in Exeter, Devon, the largest in the city. It holds significant and diverse collections in areas such as zoology, anthropology, fine art, local and overseas archaeolo ...
,
Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...
, the
Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
, the
Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the Wellcome C ...
,
London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...
, and the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.


Partial bibliography

*''Change for a Halfpenny'' (1905)
online version
*''The Game of Ju-Jitsu'' (1906), by
Taro Miyake Taro Miyake (''Miyake Taruji'') (c. 1881–1935)Green, Thomas A. and Joseph R. Svinth, eds. ''Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2010. (pg. 446) was a professiona ...
and
Yukio Tani was a pioneering Japanese jujutsu and judo instructor and professional challenge wrestler, notable for being one of the first jujutsu stylists to teach and compete outside of Japan. Biography The precise details of Tani's early jujutsu trainin ...
*'' What a Life!'' (1911, with E. V. Lucas) *''The House of the Ogress'' (1921), by
W. E. Cule William Edward Cule (5 December 1870 – 13 July 1944) was a British author of children's books and several books for adults on Christian themes. In all, he wrote some thirty books encompassing a number of popular genres – public school storie ...
*''Elnovia'' (1925) *''Cinderella's Garden'' (1927) *''Chuckles'' (1927) *''
The Marvellous Land of Snergs ''The Marvellous Land of Snergs'' is a children's fantasy, written by E. A. Wyke-Smith and illustrated by the ''Punch'' cartoonist George Morrow. It was originally published in Britain by Ernest Benn in September 1927, and later published in th ...
'' (1927) *''Simple People'' (1928), by
Archibald Marshall Arthur Hammond Marshall (6 September 1866 – 29 September 1934), better known by his pen name Archibald Marshall, was an English author, publisher and journalist whose novels were particularly popular in the United States. He published over 50 ...
*''Here Be Dragons'' (1930) *''Light Articles Only'' (1939), by
A. P. Herbert Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH (A. P. Herbert, 24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and in 1935–1950 an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University. Born in Ashtead, Su ...
*''The Birdikin Family'' (1932), by
Archibald Marshall Arthur Hammond Marshall (6 September 1866 – 29 September 1934), better known by his pen name Archibald Marshall, was an English author, publisher and journalist whose novels were particularly popular in the United States. He published over 50 ...


References


External links


Examples of George Morrow's work
via Rosss.com *
Examples of George Morrow's Punch illustrations
viaPunchCartoons.com (store)
"George Morrow (c. 1869-1955)"
in: Brigid Peppin and Lucy Micklethwait, ''Book Illustrators of the Twentieth Century'', New York: Arco, 1984, pp. 207–208 - biography and list of books and periodicals illustrated and selected references {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrow, George 1869 births 1955 deaths Painters from Northern Ireland Artists from Belfast Irish cartoonists Irish illustrators People from Thaxted Punch (magazine) cartoonists