Henry Anelay was closely associated with G.W.M. Reynolds (1814–79), providing drawings for several of his serials. He was also widely-known as a portrait artist, an illustrator of children’s books and religious books, and later in life as a landscape painter. Yet he is totally forgotten today. He merits only a very brief entry in Simon Houfe’s Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914; he has no Wikipedia entry; and he has been overlooked by almost every study of 19^th century illustration.

Early Life

He was born on 10 January 1816 (not in 1817 as all other sources say) in Kingston upon Hull, and baptised at the local Holy Trinity Church on 23 March 1816. His parents were William Anelay, a pawnbroker (died 1833) and his wife Catharine, née Whiting, who had married in 1810.[1]

Nothing can be discovered about Henry’s early life, and where he received his artistic education. He first appears in public records in the 1841 census, when he was living in Castleton, Derbyshire, described as an artist. He presumably moved to London shortly after this, possibly being taken on by the engraver and printer Stephen Sly, and then working for The Penny Magazine (published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge), and becoming one of the first artists to work for The Illustrated London News, which was launched by Herbert Ingram in May 1842. Opinions of his work (he produced drawings on wood which were then engraved) varied – the publisher and writer Henry Vizetelly wrote in his autobiography that Anelay

“may certainly be credited with having produced in the earlier numbers some of the worst figure subjects the paper ever published.”[2]

On the other hand, Priti Joshi, a Professor of English at an Arts College in Washington, noted recently that Anelay

“was well-regarded at the ILN, as was the engraver who executed his lines on wood, Frederick James Smyth…..Both Anelay, the draftsman, and Smyth, the engraver, had the cachet to claim signatory space on the images that appeared in the newspaper. Not every draftsman or engraver had such clout.”[3]

Anelay’s Periodical Work

Anelay went on to work for several other periodicals, including The People’s Journal, The British Workman, The Illustrated Exhibitor and Magazine of Art, The Illustrated Juvenile Miscellany, The Friendly Visitor, The Children’s Friend, The Children’s Prize, The Infant’s Friend, The Weekly Welcome, Cassell’s Illustrated Family Paper, The Home Circle, and The Band of Hope Review. He also worked for the London Journal, founded in 1845, alongside G.W.M. Reynolds, but when Reynolds left to launch Reynolds’s Miscellany (published by John Dicks) the following year, Anelay moved with him, staying for several years. In addition he worked for The Halfpenny Gazette (launched in August 1861 by John Dicks following the repeal of the tax on paper) for its entire run until it ended in December 1865.

Amongst Anelay’s work for Reynolds were illustrations for the first series of The Mysteries of the Court Of London; The Seamstress, or The White Slave of England; The Coral Island, or The Hereditary Curse; The Bronze Statue, or The Virgin’s Kiss; Wagner the Wehr-Wolf; The Greek Maiden, or The Banquet of Blood; The Loves of the Harem: A Tale of Constantinople; Robert Macaire, or The French Bandit in England; The Pixy, or The Unbaptised Child; and Master Timothy’s Book-Case, or the Magic Lanthorn of the World. Anelay also illustrated Susannah Frances Reynolds’s story Gretna Green, or All For Love.

He also illustrated sensational, adventure and romance stories issued by other publishers, including Adeline, or Mysteries, Romance, and Realities of Jewish Life (by Osborne Heihway, 1854), The Boy Rover, or The Smuggler of the South Seas (serialised by Henry Lea in 1864), and a re-issue of The Vale of Cedars, or the Martyr (by Grace Aguilar, 1869),

At the time of the 1851 census Anelay was living at 5 Maze Pond, Southwark, described as a “Designer on Wood.” Just over three years later, on 26 December 1854, he married Maria Upton at the Baptist Church, Dagnall Lane, St. Albans. Born in St Albans on 15 April 1831, Maria was the daughter of the Rev. William Upton (a Protestant Dissenting Minister) and his wife Sarah, née Hunt. They went on to have four children: Catherine Eyre (1857-1890), Maria Mabel (1858-1929), Jessie Upton (1861-1927), and Henry Frank (1863-1917).

By 1861 the family had moved to Eyre Cottage, Jews Walk, Sydenham, Kent.[4] Henry described himself as an “Artist/Designer on Wood.” Also in the household were Henry’s cousin (a salesman) and his wife and two domestic staff (a nursing governess and a general servant). Eyre Cottage, which was to remain the family home until the death of Anelay’s wife in 1890, was a substantial semi-detached dwelling with six bedrooms, a bathroom, box room, dining room drawing room, morning room, studio, kitchen, scullery, larder, cellars and two large gardens.[5]

Anelay’s versatility as an artist was shown by him being equally at home illustrating Reynolds’s sensational serials and more prosaic works. His early book illustrations appeared in How’s Illustrated Book of British Songs (1845), The Picture Scrap Book (1850), Aunt Jane’s Verses for Children (1851), A Kiss for a Blow, or a Collection of Stories for Children (1851), Words by the Wayside, or The Children and the Flowers (1854), The White Violets, or Little Effie and Other Tales (1857), A Volume of Sunday Readings (1859), and A Birthday Gift for Boys and Girls (1860). He went on to illustrate many more books for young children (sometimes in conjunction with other illustrators), including new editions of several titles by Mrs Henry Mackarness (including A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam, Amy’s Kitchen, The House on the Rock, and The Star in the Desert).

Books he illustrated for older children included Salt Water, or The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D’Arcy, Midshipman (by W.H.G. Kingston, 1857), Paul Blake, or The Story of a Boy’s Perils in the Islands of Corsica and Monte Cristo (by Alfred Elwes, 1858), Sidney Grey: A Tale of School Life (by Annie Keary, 1857), a new edition of The History of Sandford and Merton (1860), Guy Rivers, or A Boy’s Struggles in the Great World (by Alfred Elwes, 1862), and Always Happy, or Anecdotes of Felix and His Sister Serena (by Maria Budden, 1879).

Amongst the religious works he illustrated were Illustrations of a State Church (1848), The Christian Times Portrait Gallery (1849), The Popular Preachers of the Ancient Church (1859), Cassell’s Illustrated Family Bible (published in weekly parts between 1859 and 1863), Illustrated Songs and Hymns for the Little Ones (1861), A Mother’s Lessons on the Lord’s Prayer (1862), Life and Lessons of Our Lord (1864), and an edition of Isaac Watts’s Divine and Moral Songs for Children (1867).

Other books Anelay contributed to included editions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1852), Eugene Sue’s The Wandering Jew (1861), The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1864), and Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield (1864).

As well as John Dicks, the publishers Anelay worked with included Grant & Griffith; Charles Gilpin, James Hogg, Partridge & Oakey; Dean & Son; the Religious Tract Society; Darton & Co., T. Nelson & Sons; John F. Shaw; Virtue Brothers; S.O. Beeton; Nisbet & Co., Houlston & Wright; Seeley, Jackson & Halliday; Henry Lea; and Henry James Tressider.

Anelay’s Activism

Anelay was also very active away from art. He was a strong supporter of the “Ocean Penny Post” campaign, launched in 1847 with the aim of establishing a cheap rate (actually threepence) to send post to any part of the British Empire, and designed several special envelopes for the campaign. Other causes with which he was associated in the 1850s included the British Anti-State Church Association (later the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control, which campaigned for the disestablishment of the Church of England), the League of Universal Brotherhood (which aimed at promoting peace and ending slavery), and he was also a member of the British Temperance League and one of its counterparts, the Blue Ribbon Union. He was also a strong advocate of vegetarianism. After moving to Sydenham, he became involved in local affairs, joining the Upper Norwood Discussion Society, and serving on the committee of the Sydenham Board Schools.[6]

At the time of the 1871 census, Anelay described himself as “Retired Designer on Wood,” although books containing his illustrations continued to appear. He was, however, concentrating on painting, in both oil and watercolour. He had already exhibited four times at the Royal Academy of Arts, since 1858, and at several other galleries, and was most notably an exhibitor with the Society of British Artists.

At the time of the 1881 census, his daughters Catherine and Jessie were still living at Eyre Cottage, described as students, alongside his son Henry who was an apprentice mechanical engineer. His other daughter, Mabel, was at Girton College, Cambridge.

Anelay died on 10 January 1883, leaving an estate valued at £22,302 (around £3 million in today’s terms). His wife died seven years later, on 7 December 18990, having apparently squandered her inheritance and leaving just £134 (£18,600 in today’s terms). Both Anelay and his wife were buried in Norwood Cemetery, Lambeth.

Conclusion

[1] These and the genealogy details which follow are gleaned from Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk.

[2] Henry Vizetelly, Glances Back Through Seventy Years, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. (London), 1893, Vol. 1, p 238.

[3] Priti Joshi, “Copying Elites: The British Illustrated Press, Indian Portraiture, and Alienated Labour” in Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide, Volume 24, Issue 1, Spring 2025.

[4] Jews Walk was named after two Jewish brothers who created a tree-lined walk between Sydenham Common and their house in around 1770. In the early 1850s the residents of Jews Walk objected to its name and started referring to it as “The Grove.” But in 1874 the Metropolitan Board of Works refused to recognise the new name, and the old name remains to this day.

[5] Announcement of sale of Eyre Cottage by auction, Sydenham, Forest Hill and Penge Gazette, 11 January 1890, p 1.ß

[6] Some details taken from The Norwood Review and Crystal Palace Reporter, 27 January 1883, p 5.