Dan Leno (1860-1904)
Alfred Bryan (1852-1899)
c. 1899
Source: Leno, jacket illustration
Dan Leno was a popular music hall artist, highly energetic, brilliant at a diversity of roles, especially female ones. He was "five foot three in height, skeletally thin, with high arched eyebrows and wide mouth" (Richards 372). Alfred Bryan has captured his verve and the brilliant mix of grotesqueness, agility, and good cheer, and it speaks volumes that Leno himself used a lively caricature by Bryan for his front cover.
Images (see below as well) and commentary added by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Three more of Bryan's depictions of Leno
Left to right: (a) Leno in his own person, sporting a very tall, crumpled top hat (facing p. 112); Leno as an (almost) toy soldier, captioned: "with soldiers like this to fall back upon, England will never be in danger" (facing p. 126); Leno meeting the Prince of Wales, captioned, "H.R.H, to "Variety" High Lights: "You have been doing such wonders lately at the music-halls that I must try to arrange a performance at Windsor" (facing p. 138).
Bibliography
Leno, Dan. Dan Leno, Hys Booke. London: Greening, 1890. Internet Archive, contributed by Brigham Young University. Web. 29 January 2022.
Richards, Jeffrey. The Golden Age of Pantomime: Slapstick, Spectacle and Subversion in Victorian England. London & New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
Created 30 January 2022