British illustrator Charles Henry Bennett pioneered comic illustrations techniques during the Victorian era. From 1856, he drew a series of caricatures for the Illustrated Times, informally known as ‘Shadows’. Inspired by popular magic lantern slides of the period, each scene depicts a shadow cast by an individual to form a surprising, usually humorous shape to reveal something about their inner personality.
The series was eventually published as a book, Shadow and Substance (1860), with hand-coloured images matched with prose and poetry by Robert Brough, who Bennet had collaborated on the 1854 edition of Punch and Judy.
Related works
Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-02. Play and Illusion → MI-02-C02