The Old Print Shop

John Leech

1817-1864

John Leech was a British illustrator and caricaturist, best remembered for his contributions to "Punch" magazine. He began working for the company in 1841 and would produce around 3,000 comics and illustrations while in their employment. Leech and Sir John Tenniel were responsible for creating the modern image of John Bull, which was widely published in Punch magazine. John Bull was the personification of England and was originally invented by John Arbuthnot in 1712. The figure quickly fell into popularity and went through a variety of artistic changes in the century that followed, but it was Leech and Tenniel who eventually made the softened, "jovial and honest farmer figure, solid and foursquare, sometimes in Union Jack waistcoat" whom people know and accept today. 

(Encyclopedia Britannica)

 

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