Graphic Large Irish Print Going to Market 1871

“The Graphic" was founded by William Luson Thomas, a wood engraver and social reformer. The first editor was Henry Sutherland Edwards, and Thomas also recruited a number of gifted artists including Luke Fildes, Hubert von Herkomer, Frank Holl, and John Millais. "The Graphic" was published on a Saturday and its original cover price was sixpence. In its first year, it described itself to advertisers as "a superior illustrated weekly newspaper, containing twenty-four pages imperial folio, printed on fine toned paper of beautiful quality, made expressley for the purpose and admirably adapted for the display of engravings".

When it started out, the newspaper was printed in a rented house. However it was a rapid success, and by 1882 the company owned three buildings, twenty printing machines and employed over 1,000 people.

It had subscribers all around the British Empire and inNorth America.

Artists employed on The Graphic and The Daily Graphic at the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century included Alexander Boyd, Frank Brangwyn, James H. Dowd, Harry Furniss, Phil May, Leonard Raven-Hill, Edmund Sullivan, George Stampa, Sidney Sime, Bert Thomas and F. H. Townsend.

Writers for the paper included George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, H. Rider Haggard and Anthony Trollope.

"The Graphic" was designed to compete with the famous "Illustrated London News" (established in 1842), and became its most successful rival. Earlier rivals such as the Illustrated Times and the Pictorial Times had either failed to compete or been merged with the ILN. It appealed to the same middle-class readership, but The Graphic, as its name suggests, was intended to use images in a more vivid and striking way than the rather staid ILN. To this end it employed some of the most important artists of the day, making an immediate splash in 1869 with Houseless and Hungry, Luke Fildes' dramatic image of the shivering London poor seeking shelter in a workhouse.

The paper covered home news and news from around the British Empire, devoted much attention to literature, arts, sciences, the fashionable world, sport, music and opera. Royal occasions and national celebrations and ceremonials were also given prominent coverage.

In 1889, Thomas's company H.R. Baines and Co. commenced publication of the first daily illustrated newspaper in England, which was called The Daily Graphic. This is not to be confused with its American precursor, the Daily Graphic, which was the first American daily illustrated newspaper, founded in 1873.