Visual Source 17.5
John Leech, Capital and Labour
Visual Source 17.5, an image by British artist John Leech, moves beyond the impact of industrial life on individuals to a larger social critique. Published in 1843 in Punch, a magazine of humor and social satire, it reflects a common theme in the artistic and literary representations of industrial Britain.
Question
How precisely would you define that theme?
Question
How are the sharp class differences of industrial Britain represented in this visual source?
Question
How does this visual source connect the Industrial Revolution with Britain’s colonial empire? Notice the figure in the upper right reclining in exotic splendor, perhaps in India.
Question
To what extent does the image correspond to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s description of industrial society in Document 17.4? How does it compare with the 1911 socialist poster?
Question
How might you understand the figure of the woman and small angel behind a door at the left?