A Visual History of Illustration

Andrew Hall presents a chronological, international survey of the history of illustration, revealing the broad connections of this discipline with technological innovation, political events, patterns of trade and travel, and cultural influences. Hall begins with the eighteenth-century political satire of Gillray, Rowlandson, and Cruikshank, and continues through the early illustrated children's books of Greenaway, Allingham, and Shippen Green; the magazine work and advertisements of Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec; the modernism of Lempicka and Cassandre; the countercultural images of Glaser, Douglas, Wilson, and Robbins; the late twentieth-century illustrations of Crumb, Baseman, Ware, and Pettibon; and the most recent work of Marjane Satrapi and Shepard Fairey, among many others. The evolution of illustration is also one of print culture, and Hall examines the technologies of intaglio relief, engraving, lithography, screen printing, and digital paper printing; as well as the application of illustration to areas such as botany, album covers, graphic novels, animation, gaming, and infographics. He explores the role of illustration in relation to the two industrial revolutions, the abuses of the slave trade and colonialism, the two world wars, and political activism; and the relationship between illustration, photography, and the fine arts.