King Richard Killing a Child

Richard Doyle

Hand-coloured wood engraving by the Dalziels

4¾ x 3½ inches

Titmarsh, M. A. [W. M. Thackeray],Rebecca and Rowena, facing 42.

A disturbing illustration in which the violence of the event is accentuated by disparities of scale, especially the difference between the huge king and the tiny child, and the boy’s diminutive weapon and Richard’s battle-axe. The image exemplifies the undercurrent of brutality that runs throughout Doyle’s apparently innocuous, child-like art.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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