The Thunderbolt

Artist: Fred Barnard

Engravers: The Dalziels

1870s

Wood-engraving

5.5 x 4 1/8 inches

Illustration for Charles Dickens's Dombey and Son

This illustration appears in the book review in the 1908 Dickensian on page 301 that comments upon Barnard's importance as an illustrator who formed many late-Victorian ideas of Dickens's characters [continued below].

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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL.]

Although the scene that the reviewer has chosen does not represent Barnard's best work for the Household Edition, the plate exemplifies the illustrator's penchant for theatrical scenes in which two or three characters in a tight stage set, with the eye well forward, on the figures, rather than absorbed with the kinds of background details, notably pictures and texts, that Phiz loved to embed as symbols in his best work. In contrast, Barnard has dressed the set with ornately framed pictures without even supplying recognizable images for those background elements and has elaborated neither the wallpaper nor the carpet. Furthermore, he poses the three characters in such a way that each is highly individualized and communicates a contrasting attitude (indignation, suspicion, surprise respectively here), Dombey's gripping the chair back being particularly revealing.

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Last modified 31 August 2009