Sketch for "Mrs. Pottles Can't Abide a Crowd" (1856): Art, History and Details

Sketch for "Mrs. Pottles Can't Abide a Crowd" (1856) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Leech (British, 1817–1864).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Created for a cartoon in Punch magazine, this satirical sketch shows an older woman climbing to her house’s roof to see fireworks rather than face the street crowds. Illustrated magazines like Punch played an important role in shaping Victorian visual culture. They also offered artists a way to reach wider audiences and a source of steady income. John Leech joined Punch soon after its founding in 1841. His weekly sketches helped shape the magazine’s light humor, which was aimed at the middle class. Leech’s depictions of everyday people and use of sequential scenes were important precedents for modern comics.

Object facts

• Title: Sketch for "Mrs. Pottles Can't Abide a Crowd"
• Date: 1856
• Creator attribution: John Leech (British, 1817–1864)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 16.4 x 15.4 cm (6 7/16 x 6 1/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1924.1004

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.