Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Woodward, George Moutard

by Freeman Marius O'Donoghue

WOODWARD, GEORGE MOUTARD (1760?–1809), caricaturist, son of William Woodward of Stanton Hall, Derbyshire, was born in that county about 1760. He received no artistic training, but, having much original talent, came to London, with an allowance from his father, and became a prolific and popular designer of social caricatures, much in the style of Bunbury, which were etched chiefly by Rowlandson and Isaac Cruikshank. Although their humour was generally of a very coarse and extravagant kind, they display a singular wealth of imagination and insight into character, and some are extremely entertaining. Among the best are ‘Effects of Flattery,’ ‘Effects of Hope,’ ‘Club of Quidnuncs,’ ‘Everybody in Town,’ ‘Everybody out of Town,’ and ‘Specimens of Domestic Phrensy.’ Woodward also wrote many light fugitive pieces in prose and verse, some of which were issued in a volume in 1805, with a portrait of the author from a drawing by A. Buck. He was of dissipated and intemperate habits, spending much of his time in taverns, and died in a state of penury at the Brown Bear public-house in Bow Street, Covent Garden, in November 1809. He published:

1. ‘Eccentric Excursions,’ with a hundred plates by I. Cruikshank, 1796.
2. ‘The Olio of Good Breeding, with Sketches illustrative of the modern Graces,’ 1801.
3. ‘The Musical Mania for 1802 … dedicated to Mrs. Billington.’
4. ‘The Bettyad: a Poem descriptive of the Progress of the young Roscius in London,’ 1805.
5. ‘Caricature Magazine, or Hudibrastic Mirror, being a Collection of original Caricatures,’ 1807.
6. ‘An Essay on the Art of ingeniously Tormenting,’ 1808.
7. ‘Chesterfield Travestie, or School for Modern Manners,’ 1808.

[Grego's Rowlandson the Caricaturist, 1880; H. Angelo's Reminiscences, 1828–30; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1809, ii. 1175.]

F. M. O'D.