Xit, now Sir Narcissus Le Grand entertaining his friends on his wedding day,

1840

A master illustrator best remembered for his work with Charles Dickens, Cruikshank here depicts a festive wedding party for W. H. Ainsworth’s novel The Tower of London. William Thackeray, whose self-portrait hangs nearby, said of Cruikshank’s plates for another of Ainsworth’s novels: “Let any reader of the novel think over it for a while, now that it is some months since he has perused and laid it down—let him think, and tell us what he remembers of the tale. George Cruikshank’s pictures—always George Cruikshank’s pictures.” A true collaborator—for this project he and Ainsworth took frequent strolls around the Tower of London together—Cruikshank left an indelible imprint. In this drawing’s left margin, note the profile of the bewildered then curious then mischievous monkey, who in the novel disrupts the festivities but in this scene is shown just before the commotion, crouched on the table.