The Brothers Dalziel were a highly productive firm of Victorian engravers founded in 1839 by George Dalziel (1815-1902) and his brother Edward Dalziel (1817-1905). They were later joined by John Dalziel and Thomas Dalziel

Thomas Dalziel (engraver)

Thomas Dalziel was an engraver known chiefly for his illustrations of the work of Charles Dickens.Thomas Dalziel produced many illustrations for books published by the family firm, the Brothers Dalziel...

 (1823-1906). All were sons of the artist, Alexander Dalziel of Wooler

Wooler

Wooler is a small town in Northumberland, England. It lies on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, by the Cheviot Hills and so is a popular base for walkers and is referred to as the "Gateway to the Cheviots"...

 in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

.

The Dalziel brothers worked with many important Victorian artists, producing illustrations for the burgeoning magazine and book market of the period.
Among the artists they worked with were Arthur Boyd Houghton

Arthur Boyd Houghton

Arthur Boyd Houghton , who usually signed his name A. B. Houghton, was a British painter and illustrator.Born in Kotagiri, Madras, India on 13 March 1836 and died in London on 25 Nov 1875....

, Richard Doyle

Richard Doyle (illustrator)

Richard "Dickie" Doyle was a notable illustrator of the Victorian era. His work frequently appeared, amongst other places, in Punch magazine; he drew the cover of the first issue, and designed the magazine's masthead, a design that was used for over a century.Born at 17 Cambridge Terrace, London,...

, John Gilbert

John Gilbert (painter)

Sir John Gilbert was an English artist, illustrator and engraver.-Biography:He was born in Blackheath, Surrey, and taught himself to paint. Skilled in several media, he gained the nickname, "the Scott of painting"...

, William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Biography:...

, John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...

, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...

 and James McNeill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...

. They cut the illustrations to Edward Lear

Edward Lear

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...

's Book of Nonsense (1862); Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...

.

They also produced independent ventures, most notably The Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, (Routledge, 1864), illustrated by Millais, and contributed humorous cartoons to magazines such as Fun

Fun (magazine)

Fun was a Victorian weekly magazine, first published on 21 September 1861. The magazine was founded by the actor and playwright H. J. Byron in competition with Punch magazine.-Description:...

, which George and Edward acquired in 1865.

Until the advent of photo-mechanical processes c 1880, they were pre-eminent in their trade. Examples of their work can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

 in London.

At the end of the nineteenth century they collaborated on an autobiographical summary of their work "The Brothers Dalziel, A Record of Work, 1840-1890" published by Methuen.

External links

• Biography of Edward Dalziel
• Dalziels's Parables of Our Lord
• Excerpts from the Dalziel Brothers autobiography, with some of their engravings
• Books with engravings by the Dalziel brothers from the University of Florida Digital Collections
  University of Florida Digital Collections
  The University of Florida Digital Collections are supported by the University of Florida Digital Library Center in the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The University of Florida Digital Collections comprise a constantly growing collection of digital resources from the...