Author: KYD (pseudonym of Joseph Clayton Clarke); [DICKENS, Charles]
Title: Oliver Twist. 12 Original Character Studies from Oliver Twist
Description: [n.p.]: , 1893. A Unique Set of Original Dickens Artwork By The Artful "Kyd" KYD (pseudonym of Joseph Clayton Clarke), artist. [DICKENS, Charles]. 12 Original Character Studies from Oliver Twist. Drawn in colours by "Kyd". [N.p. n.d, ca. 1893]. Twelve fine original pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings illustrating Oliver Twist. Quarto (11 1/4 x 8 7/8 inches; 286 x 225 mm.). Twelve original pen, ink and watercolor drawings, each on fine laid paper, and signed by the artist. The Toby Crackit plate a little browned on margins. Original blue wrappers with "12 Original Character Studies from "Oliver Twist" Drawn in colors by 'Kyd'" in ink manuscript on front wrapper. Wrappers expertly repaired. Housed in a green cloth portfolio. "As the child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities. On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised in corrupt surroundings, his purity and virtue are absolute. Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Oliver’s character to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment is the source of vice. At the same time, Oliver’s incorruptibility undermines some of Dickens’s assertions. Oliver is shocked and horrified when he sees the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates pick a stranger’s pocket and again when he is forced to participate in a burglary. Oliver’s moral scruples about the sanctity of property seem inborn in him, just as Dickens’s opponents thought that corruption is inborn in poor people. Furthermore, other pauper children use rough Cockney slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper King’s English. His grammatical fastidiousness is also inexplicable, as Oliver presumably is not well-educated. Even when he is abused and manipulated, Oliver does not become angry or indignant. When Sikes and Crackit force him to assist in a robbery, Oliver merely begs to be allowed to “run away and die in the fields.” Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between good and evil—instead, he is goodness incarnate." (www.sparknotes.com). Kyd has faithfully recreated some of the immortal and lovable characters from one of Charles Dickens most famous novels. The characters of the novel here represented are: Oliver Twist, Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sikes, Mr. Bumble, The Artful Dodger, Charley Bates, Noah Claypole, Toby Crackit, Mr. Sowerberry, Mr. Grimwig, & Mr. Brownlow. Joseph Clayton Clark aka "KYD" (1856-1937) worked as a freelance artist with a particular affection for Dickens, his Dickens illustrations first appearing in 1887 in Fleet Street Magazine, with two collections soon to follow: The Characters of Charles Dickens (1889) and Some Well Known Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens (1892). In the first decade of the twentieth century, five sets of postcards based on his Dickens drawings were published, and seven sets of non-Dickensian comic cards by him were issued. Beginning in the 1920s, he earned his living from watercolor sketches, mainly of Dickens' characters, which he sold to and through the London book trade. Frederic G. Kitton gives him early notice in his classic text, Dickens and His Illustrators (1890); Kyd's watercolors were at that date already being avidly bought by major Dickens collectors (Kitton, p. 233), the Cosens sale in 1890 successfully selling a collection of 241 of Kyd's Dickens watercolors, and Mr. Tom Wilson, at the time the foremost collector of Dickens, possessing 331 of Kyd's drawings. "As a character 'Kyd' emulated those of Dickens and his own illustrations - slightly larger than life. In his style and dress he was mildly flamboyant for the period-He seldom varied his attire from a grey suit, spats, homburg hat, gloves and was never without a carnation or substitute flower in his button hole" (Sawyer, Richard. "Kyd" (Joseph Clayton Clark): A Preliminary Study of his Life and Work Together with an Essay on Fore-Edge Paintings, 1980. p. 7). A superb, singular and most desirable collection of Dickensiana. .

Keywords: [DICKENS, Charles] Nineteenth-Century Literature


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