Well, This is a New Way of Taking a Fence-She Doesn't Seem to Take Offence Anyhow

Hablot Knight Browne · n.d.

Medium

Watercolor, with graphite, heightened with touches of white gouache, on gray wove paper, perimeter mounted on ivory wove paper

Original size

18.9 × 27.3 cm (7 1/2 × 10 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

This witty watercolor plays on a double meaning in its title — "taking a fence" versus "taking offence" — and embodies the kind of sharp, affectionate humor that defined Victorian illustrated satire at its best. Hablot Knight Browne, better known by his pseudonym "Phiz," made his name as the principal illustrator of Charles Dickens's novels, bringing an instinctive warmth and comic timing to the page that few of his contemporaries could match. His watercolors reveal a looser, more personal side of his practice, with graphite underdrawing and delicate white gouache highlights giving his figures a lively sense of spontaneity. The gray wove paper grounds the composition with a tonal richness that oil paint, applied with care, can translate into something equally atmospheric. Browne adopted the pseudonym "Phiz" as a deliberate nod to Dickens's own pen name "Boz" — a small detail that speaks to the easy creative kinship between the two men throughout their long collaboration. The hand-painted oil reproduction held in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection honors both the playful spirit of the original and the delicate interplay of line, wash, and highlight that makes Browne's work so immediately engaging.