Nurse and Doctor
Frederick Walker
Wood engraving by Joseph Swain
6¼ x 4¼ inches
W. M. Thackeray,Philip, serialized in The Cornhill Magazine, 3 (May 1861): facing 556.
This is the first illustration entirely by Walker. The modelling of the figures and the emphasis on suspended motion – with characters engaged in an unexpected encounter – exemplifies his emphasis on psychological realism. Walker’s naturalism is radically different from Thackeray’s cartoon-like drawing and connects the story to the facts of everyday life in the 1860s.
Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.