Richard
Doyle, the
son of the cartoonist, John Doyle, was born
in London in in 1824. Educated at home by his father he began having
work published at the age of fifteen. The book, The Eglinton Tournament,
was a great success. In 1840 Richard produced an illustrated journal
of the events that took place that year. The journal includes outings
to the opera, concerts, Regent's Park Zoo, the Royal
Academy, the National Gallery and the Tower of London.
In 1842 John Doyle began working for Punch,
a new magazine founded by Mark Lemon, Henry
Mayhew and Douglas Jerrold. In December,
1843, Doyle illustrated Thomas Hood's powerful Song of the Shirt.
By 1848 he was producing a third of the cartoons that appeared in
Punch (only John
Leech had more pictures published in the magazine). As well as
producing political cartoons, Doyle designed the the famous Punch
cover that was used by the magazine between 1849 to 1956.
Doyle, like his father, was a devout Roman
Catholic, and in 1850 he resigned from Punch
in protest over the magazine's hostility to the Pope. One cartoon
produced by John Tenniel showing Lord
John Russell as David attacking Cardinal Wiseman, as the Roman
Goliath, particularly upset Doyle. John Murray,
the publisher of the Quarterly Magazine,
later claimed that Wiseman, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church
in England, had forced Doyle to resign under the threat of excommunication.
After leaving Punch Doyle concentrated
on painting landscapes. However, he did illustrate books including
works by Charles Dickens (Battle
of Life), John Ruskin (King
of the Golden River) William Makepeace
Thackeray (Rebecca and Rowena, Newcomes)
and Leigh Hunt.
