John 'H.B' Doyle

John Doyle otherwise known as ‘H.B’, began his career in English Caricature in 1830. His works were often satirical, drenched in political themes. John Doyle’s son went on to work as an artist as well. As a father, Doyle made sure to give his son the best possible training; for H.B, the best possible training was in fact facilitating teaching by himself. John Doyle was strict in his teachings, he didn’t even allow his son to draw from models. John Doyle had a distinct style as an artist and his works were unlike Gillray, Rowlandson or the Cruikshanks. An unidentified writer from the Westminster Review reinforces this notion: “You never hear any laughing at ‘H. B.’; his pictures are a great deal too genteel for that [they are] polite points of wit, which strike one as exceedingly clever and pretty, and cause one to smile in a quiet, gentlemanlike way.”(Westminster Review, June 1840)

Consequently, there were many artists that imitated his own work. In his book, English caricaturists and humorists of the nineteenth century, Graham Everitt explains there were many imitators who even appropriated H.B’s own signature in variations including, “Philo H. B”, “H. H.” and “B. H.”(260).

Everitt, Graham.English Caricaturists And Graphic Humourists of the Nineteeth Century: How They Illustrated And Interpreted Their Times.London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, 1886.