Abstract
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) is best known as Walter Scott's son-in-law and biographer. Even though Lockhart has always been strongly associated with literature: he wrote poetry, published several highly praised novels and biographies, edited and translated both from German and Spanish, and he was also an editor of the best-selling Quarterly Review from 1825 till 1853.
The QR was published by the most prestigious publishing house in London "John Murray", and Lockhart quickly became one of the most influential personas in the early Victorian literary world. Literature wasn't Lockhart's only hobby; he was surprisingly good at drawing caricatures too.
Even though he never took his doodles seriously, after his death, they started gaining more and more popularity over time. Lockhart's caricatures were used as illustrations in a great number of books from the mid-19th century onwards, but they have never been seriously studied.
Last year, I noticed that a collection of pictures traditionally attributed to another period artist James Howe might be in fact Lockhart's works, and the Scottish National Gallery accepted my theory earlier this year. Lockhart's caricatures deserve more academic attention as they shed new light on his life and personality, as well as on the society that surrounded him.
This paper explores and analyses Lockhart's artwork, including the newest findings, all produced between 1809 and c. 1830 (in the early 1830s, Lockhart abruptly ceased drawing altogether and threw away his old albums).