According to Simon Houfe, “Meadows was an unoriginal but competent hand whose designs suffered most in mechanical figures with puffy faces and straight arms” (226), who nonetheless has the historical importance of being one of the “first illustrators to recommend wood engraving to publishers.” In addition to producing art work for the Illustrated London News and the early years of Punch, he illustrated many books, most of them by minor, long forgotten authors. Houfe considers Meadows’s Shakespeare illustrations and his Christmas numbers of the Illustrated London News his finest work. — George P. Landow
Illustrations of Shakespeare’s Plays
- Headpiece for Act IV, Scene I of The Tempest
- Prospero and Ariel
- Sycorax, the Witch
- Headpiece for Act I, Scene I of Measure for Measure
- Isabella, and Angelo, and Lucio (Measure for Measure)
- Provost and Duke (Measure for Measure)
- Barnadine (Measure for Measure)
- Headpiece for Headpiece for The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Falstaff, Bardolf, Pistol, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Sir Hugh Evans and Simple (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria<>/span> (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Falstaff and the Faeries in Windsor Park (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Malvolio, Sir Andrew, Clown, and MariaTwelfth Night, or What You Will)
- Sir Toby and Sir Andrew (Twelfth Night, or What You Will)
- Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian (Twelfth Night, or What You Will)
- Tailpiece for Love’s Labour’s Lost
- Julia (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
- Valentine and Speed (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
- Launce and Speed (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
- Headpiece for A Winter’s Tale
- Headpiece for As You Like It
- The Watch (Much Ado about Nothing,)
- Falstaff and the Fairies in Windsor Park (Merry Wives of Windsor)
- King Lear (King Lear)
- Lear, Edgar, and Fool (King Lear)
- Falstaff, Bardolph, and Hostess. (King Henry the Fifth)
- Fluellen, Williams, and Gower (King Henry the Fifth, Act IV)
- Bardolph, Pistol, Nym, and Mrs. Quickly (King Henry the Fifth)
- Hamlet, Horatio, and Ghost (Hamlet)
- Marjorie Jourdain, Bolingbroke, etc (Henry the Sixth (Part II))
- Cleopatra (Anthony and Cleopatra)
- Rosalind (As You Like It)
- Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Illustrations from Heads of the People
- The “Lion” of a Party
- The Dress-Maker
- The Stock-Broker
- The Fashionable Physician
- The Beadle of the Parish
- The Spoilt Child
- The Theatrical Manager
- The Printer’s Devil
- The Maid of All Work
Bibliography
The Complete Works of Shakspeare [sic] Containing the Illustrations of Kenny Meadows, Frith, Nicholson, Courbould, Hayter, etc.. Volume 2 (Comedies). London and New York: The London Printing and Publishing Company, n.d. [1839-42] Hathi Trust online version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 6 August 2021.
Houfe, Simon. The Dictionary of 19th Century British Book illustrators. Rev. Ed. Woodbridge: Suffolk: The Antique Collectors Club, 1998.
Meadows, Kenny. Heads of the People, or, Portraits of the English. London: Robert Tyas, 1840. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the Brigham Young University Library. Web. 5 August 2021.
Last modified 16 August 2021