oseph Clayton Clarke, who is best known by his pseudonym “Kyd,” was born in 1857 in Onchan on the Isle of Man. He was a versatile artist who attempted all sorts of subjects, although he is chiefly remembered for his two collections of watercolours of Dickens's quirky characters, The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by Kyd (1889) and Some Well Known Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens (1892). After only one day on the staff of the London humour magazine Punch, he switched in 1887 to the Fleet Street Magazine, in which appeared his watercolour illustrations of Dickens's characters without the benefit of backdrops, such as those depicted by the American caricaturist Felix Octavius Carr Darley. From 1927 onward Kyd made a very good living from executing watercolour sketches of literary (chiefly Dickensian) characters for wealthy collectors. In personal appearance, the artist affected the style of Dickens's Micawber, including spats and gloves. However, as rising income permitted him to move his growing family out of the metropolis in 1892, he moved not to "Dickens-land" (Rochester, Kent), but to the charming West Sussex town of Chichester.
The illustrations of Dickens characters listed below come from three sources: The Characters of Charles Dickens (see bibliography), cigarette cards, and an unbound portfolio of watercolors. The folio, which contains a frontispiece plus 12 portraits, was likely produced in Chichester, West Sussex circa 1900. Its cover bears the following text in Kyd's own printing: “12 Original Character Studies illustrating Oliver Twist. (With Title-page & Character List) drawn in colors [sic] by ‘Kyd.’” Each illustration is loose and has never been bound; the colours are a little faded with time. Including the frame, each is 15 cm. high and 9.3 cm. wide and the inner image is 12.8 x 6.9 cm. The frontispiece has an image of Oliver in a doorway at Barnet inside an "O." Above it appears the following text: “12 Original Character Studies illustrating,” and below “Oliver Twist Drawn in colors by ‘Kyd.’” — Philip V. Allingham.
•• = illustrations from The Characters of Charles Dickens (see bibliography). ** = from portfolio of watercolors. All other Dickens characters come from John Player Cigarette Cards. — George P. Landow
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Brigden, C. A. T. The Characters from Charles Dickens as depicted by Kyd. Rochester, Kent: John Hallewell, 1978.
The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1898[?].
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr. Character Sketches from Dickens. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1888.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Chapman and Hall, 1846.
Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz, George Cattermole, Samuel Williams, and Daniel Maclise. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, R. W. Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman & Hall: April 1836 through November 1837.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrators. The Charles Dickens Library. Il. Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 17.
Kyd. Characters from Dickens. Nottingham: John Player & Sons, 1910.
Created 6 January 2015;
Last modified 18 July 2025