Mr. Punch in the Arts: A Painting of George Cameron as Mr. Punch, 1945



Charles Cameron as Mr. Punch
Albert Houthuesen, 1945
The Victoria & Albert Museum

 Our Mr. Punch has had a deep influence on all of the creative arts for many a century. Not only has he been directly incorporated into a variety of media, his image has been used as inspiration and has been copied to send a host of different messages. In many ways, he’s more than a puppet. An argument can be made that he’s the most famous man in Britain.

Here, we see a full-length portrait of the clown Charles Cameron as Mr. Punch. While most of us don’t know who Charles Cameron is, we do know Punch. So, clearly the celebrity of our wooden-headed friend has far outlived that of those who would mimic him.

Cameron wears a night cap and baggy white trousers which owe more to Mr. Punch’s Italian ancestor, Pulcinella, than they do to Punch himself. It’s the actor’s face, however, which most resembles Punch. Seen in profile, Cameron has been painted with the characteristic Punch-like nose and jutting chin. He holds his hands to his face with palms turned outwards, and one foot and affects a balletic pose with one foot in front of the other.

The painting heralds from the Doncaster Theatre and dates to 1945. It is signed in ink on the reverse, “Houthuesen.”

This painting is the work of Albert Houthuesen who, it seems, enjoyed painting clowns. Charles Cameron was one of several clown portraits that Houthuesen drew while at the Doncaster Theatre in 1945. During this period, Houthuesen and his family were living temporarily in Tickhill, near Doncaster, and had a close affiliation with the theatre. But, what was it exactly that drew the artist to clowns? Houthuesen's biographer reports that for the artist, the clown became a symbol of art and poetry. Houthuesen often portrayed the clown as philosopher and saint.

Albert Houthuesen (1903-1979) was born in Amsterdam. He traveled to London with his mother in 1912 after the death of his father. There, he attended the Royal College of Art and became a teacher and a full-time artist. He often depicted scenes which showed his affection for the theatre, dance and clowns, and he enjoyed a long friendship with The Hermans, a family of Russian Jewish clowns.