The fourth full-page illustration for Nicholas Nickleby House: Miss La Creevy, by Sol Eytinge, Jr. 7.3 cm high by 9.9 cm wide (2 ⅞ by 3 ⅞ inches), framed. The Diamond Edition of Dickens's Works, Volume IV (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., rpt. from 1867), facing p. 64. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Kate Nickleby sits for a Miniaturist
In the original serial Phiz introduces the landlady, Miss La Creevy, as Kate's confidant: Kate Nickleby Sitting to Miss La Creevy (June 1838).
On the second morning after the departure of Nicholas for Yorkshire, Kate Nickleby sat in a very faded chair raised upon a very dusty throne in Miss La Creevy’s room, giving that lady a sitting for the portrait upon which she was engaged; and towards the full perfection of which, Miss La Creevy had had the street-door case brought upstairs, in order that she might be the better able to infuse into the counterfeit countenance of Miss Nickleby, a bright salmon flesh-tint which she had originally hit upon while executing the miniature of a young officer therein contained, and which bright salmon flesh-tint was considered, by Miss La Creevy’s chief friends and patrons, to be quite a novelty in art: as indeed it was.
"I think I have caught it now," said Miss La Creevy. "The very shade! This will be the sweetest portrait I have ever done, certainly."
"It will be your genius that makes it so, then, I am sure," replied Kate, smiling.
"No, no, I won’t allow that, my dear," rejoined Miss La Creevy. "It’s a very nice subject — a very nice subject, indeed — though, of course, something depends upon the mode of treatment." [Chapter X, "How Mr. Ralph Nickleby provided for his Niece and Sister-in-Law," 64-65]
Commentary: Portrait of a Portrait-maker
Whereas other illustrators of the novel have focussed on the Nicklebys' landlady as both an artist and Kate's confidant, Eytinge shows her working in her studio, surrounded by portrait miniatures of her own execution. Dickens brings closure to her role as a secondary character by marrying her off to the Cheerybles' clerk, Tim Linkinwater. She is yet another Dickens original, a woman of fifty with the disposition of an adolescent. Eytinge captures her devotion to her craft, her age, and even something of her good humour, but does not render her relationship to the Nicklebys as explicitly as Phiz (1838), Barnard )1875), and Furniss (1910).
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1838, 1875 and 1910)
Left: In the original serial Phiz introduces the landlady, Miss La Creevy, as Kate's confidant: Kate Nickleby Sitting to Miss La Creevy (June 1838). Centre: In the 1910 CHarles Dickens Library Edition, Harry Furniss depicts Kate sitting for her miniature portrait: Kate Nickleby sits for her Portrait/span>. Right: Fred Barnard's illustration for Chapter 5 introduces the Nicklebys' artistic landlady: "Snubs and Romans are plentiful enough, and there are flats of all sorts and sizes when there's a meeting at Exeter Hall." (1875). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators
- Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
- Phiz's monthly illustrations for the novel, April 1838-October 1839.
- Cover for monthly parts
- Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise, engraved by Finden
- "Hush!" said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder. (Vol. 1, 1861)
- The Rehearsal (Vol. 2, 1861)
- "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
- Newman had caught up by the nozzle an old pair of bellows . . . (Vol. 4, 1861).
- The Diamond Edition of Charles Dickens’s Works
- Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edition (1875)
- C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edition (1875)
- Harry Furniss's frontispiece: Nicholas's Vengeance on Squeers in The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
- Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., Late Ticknor and Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1875 [re-print of 1867 Diamond Edition, Vol. IV].
_______. Nicholas Nickleby.Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. IV.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 9.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 12: Nicholas Nickleby." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17, 147-170.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens andHis Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer,Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering,1972. Re-print of the London 1899 edition.
Lester Valerie Browne. Chapter 8., "Travels with Boz." Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. 58-69.
Loomis, Rick. First American Editions of Charles Dickens: The Callinescu Collection, Part 1. Yarmouth, ME: Sumner & Stillman, 2010.
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader'sCompanion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 14-50.
Vann, J. Don. "Nicholas Nickleby." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.
Winter, William. "Charles Dickens" and "Sol Eytinge." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. Pp. 181-202, 317-319.
Last modified 16 April 2021