Phiz
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9.9
- proper noun
- I'm thinking in particular of the vast difference in tone of Phiz's comic illustrations that tend to render characters as caricatures, and the more realistically rendered drawings of Marcus Stone for Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend.
Examples
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If you compare the Marcus Stone illustrations of Our Mutual Friend with those of Frederic Leighton for George Eliot's Romola as an example of 1860s illustrations, they are quite similar, whereas Phiz looks back to a much earlier tradition of caricature.
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Many readers admire the charm of Phiz's illustrations in classic Dickens novels.
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"with 40 illustrations by Phiz.
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Your post made me wonder, though, how much of the actual chapter would have struck me as funny were it not for Phiz.
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Time again to showcase the latest of Phiz's illustrations that would now be available to the public.
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Phiz's involvement with this story fascinates me.
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The collection I was using (before I trekked to the UK) had Phiz's illustrations.
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The pairing of Phiz and Boz on previous stories has been rightly celebrated, whereas his work for two cities has been criticized: what changed?
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Occasionally we encounter a picture that is under par, but actually on the whole most pictures are fine or fantastic, so is the bigger problem here a growing discrepancy between Phiz's style and the evolution of Dickens as a writer?
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I recall our discussions of the murder of the bench at the time, and it seems Phiz has definitely decided to emphasize the humor and absurdity of the scenario, while Dickens's text perhaps leaves more scope for exploring the darker psychology of the moment.
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Compounds
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word Phiz was the pen name of Hablot Knight Browne, the illustrator who signed many of Charles Dickens's books. One popular story says the name is a short, playful form of the old word physiognomy ('face'), so the name fits someone famous for drawing and signing characters' faces.