Cover of “The Piccadilly Peep-Show” (1879)

Wallis Mackay (1852-1907)

According to the Belfast News-Letter, Mackay's collection of cartoons satirised the Royal Academy exhibition with "good nature and taste" ("The Royal Academy"). Baily's Magazine of 1879 also found it "most amusing" and "extremely clever," giving an example, wishing he had made fun of more works, and adding: "His drawings are quite unique and unrivalled" (60). Here is an interesting use of the popular peep-show to raise laughs.

Image download and text by Jacqueline Banerjee

By kind permission of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, University of Exeter, offsite here.