(The Barber Shop.)

SALA, George Augustus.

Verlag: [c.1850], 1850

Beschreibung

Large watercolour on card, signed 'G. a. S.'. 38 x 50cm. Mounted. A large and jovial painting of a barber shop scene with six well-dressed patrons and the barber, with a Pickwickian figure seated in front of a fireplace reading John Bull. It is signed 'G. a. S.' with a curly 'G' and lower case 'a' which was the familiar nom de plume of the journalist, author, artist, and all-round man of literary action George Augustus Sala, 1828-95. After a brief spell apprenticed to a painter of miniatures at the age of 15, Sala dedicated the next seven years to being an artist and illustrator, working as an assistant theatrical scene-painter and drawing illustrations for magazines and books, including The Man in the Moon edited by Albert Smith and Angus Reach, and several of Smith's shilling illustrated books. After learning to etch and engrave, he produced a number of comic illustrated guidebooks and panoramas for the leading publisher Adolphus Ackermann. Ever industrious, Sala took on any work he could get, with this painting likely to be a commission for a periodical or illustrated book. Following his early foray into illustration, Sala went on to become one of the most prolific and respected journalists of his era. Writing frequently for Dickens's Household Words, 'he quickly became one of the journal's most prolific and valued contributors, becoming one of 'Dickens's young men' as they were called. His work was highly admired by Thackeray as well as Dickens. From an income seldom above £1 a week he rose to the affluence of £5 a week and set about establishing a reputation for drunkenness, quarrelsomeness, and financial and professional unreliability, which he never completely lost'. Although he claimed to earn upwards of £2,000 a year, his erratic lifestyle meant that by the time of his death, he was living on a civil-list pension of £100 a year (ODNB). PLEASE NOTE: For customers within the UK this item is subject to VAT. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 98225

Bibliografische Details

Titel: (The Barber Shop.)

Verlag: [c.1850]

Erscheinungsdatum: 1850

Einband: Softcover

Signiert: Signatur des Verfassers