Trop de Zèle (An Aristocratic Tip)

WAG 4666

Information

This work is inscribed with the words: The New Companion (fresh from Girtham College). "Yes, Lady Jane, I saw Her, with Her Habitual Hypocrisy Holding out Her Hand to Him as He was Haranguing at His Hotel---" Lady Jane. "Good gracious, Child, don't stick in your H's so carefully as all that! People will think your Father and Mother dropped 'em, and that you're tryin' to pick 'em up!" (and people wouldn't be very far wrong) This cartoon was published in Punch on 11th June 1892. 'Punch' was a magazine founded in 1841 by writer Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. The idea came from the French satire newsapaper, 'Le Charivari'. In homage, the first issue of 'Punch' was subtitled, ‘The London Charivari’. 'Punch' was internationally famous for its humour and wit. Its political and social cartoons captured English life in the 19th and 20th centuries. The term ‘cartoon’ previously referred to a preliminary sketch made for murals or stained glass windows. 'Punch' and other illustrated publications adapted the term and introduced the concept of ‘cartoon’ as we know it today.