The Victorian era had its notable black and white artists, as readers of Punch know; and the life of the age with its whims and fancies, fashions and manners is indelibly stamped on the work of such men John Leech, Charles Keene, and George du Maurer.
In the last decade the century and the early years of new, there are half a dozen first rate men where there was only before. It is the age of Phil May, Raven Hill Harry Furness, Bernard Partridge and few would dispute the place of honor of Phil May.
His art epitomized all the humors of town life. Simplicity and good-natured tolerance that made him equally popular with his brother artists and the public at large. There is no movement in the literature of the time that does not find pictorial expression I in black and white art.