One of the most noteworthy nineteenth-century illustrators to produce an extensive narrative-pictorial series for the 1768 novella, French artist and engraver Antoine Johannot (otherwise known as Tony Johannot, 1803-52), had already worked for British publishers when he undertook A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy for Willoughby in 1857. Although his work on Ainsworth's Windsor Castle did not equal the work of Cruikshank on that same 1844 novel, one cannot help but admire his painterly style in such illustrations as The Meeting of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn (August 1842).

Johannot was descended from French Hugenots who had settled in Offenbach am Main after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Johannot was a painter turned lithographer, having learned the art of engraving from his brothers Alfred and Charles. He collaborated with Alfred on the illustrations for the novels of James Fenimore Cooper and Sir Walter Scott. Although he initially preferred wood engraving, in the mid-1840s he resumed etching. He may have come to Ainsworth's attention through his book illustrations or through his exhibiting historical canvasses at the Paris Salon from 1831 onward.

Johannot's 1857 Illustrations: A Selection, including all * eight full-page plates

Illustrations by Jacque and Fussell: A Selection (1841)

Related material:

Johannot's Steel-engravings for Ainsworth's Windsor Castle, 1842-43

Bibliography

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Methuen, 1903. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.

Sterne, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. Illustrated with one hundred engravings on wood, by Bastin and G. Nichols, from original designs by Jacque and Fussell. London: Joseph Thomas, 1841.

Sterne, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. With 100 illustrations by Tony Johannot. London: Willoughby, 1857.


Last modified 12 October 2018