Today is the birthday of Thomas Nast (September 27, 1840 – December 7, 1902) , a famous caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century, considered to be the Father of the American Cartoon.The image/portrait (to the right) depicts Thomas Nast sharpening his pencil (weapon) to get ready to draw a picture of William Tweed (Boss Tweed).
Thomas Nast's fame rests on his caricatures and political cartoons. He introduced the donkey to typify the Democratic party, the elephant to typify the Republican party, and the tiger to typify Tammany Hall, and introduced into American cartoons the practice of modernizing scenes from Shakespeare for a political purpose.
"Thomas Nast invented the image popularly recognized as Santa Claus. Nast first drew Santa Claus for the 1862 Christmas season Harper’s Weekly cover and center-fold illustration to memorialize the family sacrifices of the Union during the early and, for the north, darkest days of the Civil War. Nast’s Santa appeared as a kindly figure representing Christmas . . . continue article . . ."
Thomas Nast's Original 1865 "Santa Claus"
Nast's most famous drawing,
"Merry Old Santa Claus,"
from Harper's Weekly,
No comments:
Post a Comment