WHERE THE WORD COMES FROM

Every toon was
once a pattern.

A cartoon started as a big sheet of paper.

For centuries a cartoon was a painter's full-size working drawing, used to copy a design onto a wall, a canvas or a tapestry. Only in the 1840s did the word start to mean a funny picture.

Questions this page answers

Where does the word cartoon come from?
How did painters copy a cartoon onto a wall?
Why were tapestry designs drawn in reverse?
When did cartoon start to mean a funny drawing?
Is a cartoon the same as animation?
Choose a cartoon

A large charcoal drawing of draped figures on heavy paper pinned to a painter's studio wall, its outlines dotted with tiny pinholes — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

Drawn full size
Pricked and pounced
Turned into a joke in 1843
From pattern to punchline

THE SHORT ANSWER

A cartoon was
a full-size plan.

The National Gallery, the V&A and Britannica
all start with the same big sheet of paper.

THE WORD

Cartone, large paper

The word comes from the Italian cartone, a large sheet of paper. A cartoon was a full-size, usually detailed drawing prepared for a fresco, canvas, panel or tapestry.

Pick a cartoon

THE METHOD

Pricked and pounced

The lines could be pricked with tiny holes and charcoal pounced through, leaving a dotted copy of the design on the surface below.

Try it at home

TAPESTRY

Drawn the wrong way round

Some looms weave a mirror image of the design, so tapestry cartoons sometimes had to be conceived in reverse.

See the numbers

A QUICK CARTOON PICKER

Which kind of
cartoon?

Pick a kind of cartoon to see what the word meant in each case. The bar shows how far that sense has moved from the original big sheet of paper.

Cartoon picker

Choose a cartoonA fresco or painting cartoonA tapestry cartoonAn editorial cartoonA comic stripAn animated cartoon

A fresco or painting cartoonThe original

A full-size drawing on paper, traced with a stylus, incised, or pricked and pounced to copy the design onto the wall, canvas or panel.

A tapestry cartoonThe original

A full-size design for weavers. Some looms produce a reversed image, so the design sometimes had to be drawn in reverse.

An editorial cartoonSince the 1840s

Britannica dates the sense of a pictorial parody using caricature, satire and usually humour to the early 1840s. Newspapers use cartoons for political comment.

A comic stripA series

Cartoons are usually single images, but they can form a series, such as a comic strip, to tell a story.

An animated cartoonMade to move

Animation shows a sequence of still images in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement, a long way from a pattern pinned to a wall.

Sources: National Gallery glossary, Cartoon; Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cartoon and What's the difference between cartoons and animation.

Based on the National Gallery glossary, the V&A and Encyclopaedia Britannica. General information only.

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

Big paper,
big crowds.

One figure from a famous set of tapestry cartoons,
one from the exhibition that changed the word.

7of 10

Designs from about 1515–16 that survive

Of ten full-scale tapestry designs commissioned in about 1515, seven survive at the V&A. They were cut into long vertical strips, probably before being sent to the weavers in Brussels in December 1516.

TAPESTRY CARTOONS · V&A

≈ 1,800a day

Average visitors a day to a cartoon contest

About 150 painters competed for ten prizes with cartoons for murals in the new Houses of Parliament. Attendance averaged about 1,800 a day from 3 to 15 July 1843.

WESTMINSTER HALL, 1843 · VICTORIAN WEB

The V&A says Brussels used low-warp looms, which produce a reversed image of the design, so the artist had to plan each composition the other way round.

TRY THE OLD METHOD

Pounce a drawing,
the painter's way.

Pricking and pouncing needs only a pin, paper and a little charcoal dust. It is a neat way to repeat one design on several sheets.

Draw it full size
Make your drawing on paper at exactly the size you want the copy to be, just as a cartoon was.
Prick the lines
Rest the sheet on a soft surface and push a pin through along the outlines to make a row of tiny holes.
Pounce the dust
Lay the sheet on the new surface and dab powdered charcoal or chalk through the holes.
Join the dots
Lift the sheet and draw over the dotted outline left behind. For a mirror image, simply flip the cartoon first.

A weaver's hands passing coloured wool between the vertical warp threads of a tapestry loom, the half-finished picture showing below — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

HOW IT BECAME FUNNY

One magazine
changed the word.

A hand dabbing a small cloth bag of charcoal dust over a pricked paper drawing, leaving a dotted outline on the board beneath — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

In July 1843 a government competition showed large cartoons, sketches for murals in the new Houses of Parliament, in Westminster Hall. Entry cost a shilling, and subjects had to come from British history, Spenser, Shakespeare or Milton.

On 15 July 1843 the magazine Punch printed a satirical drawing titled Cartoon No.1: Substance and Shadow, contrasting the show with the hungry poor. After that, the word came to mean pictorial satire and, eventually, any humorous drawing.

Questions

Questions people ask

Where does the word cartoon come from?

From the Italian cartone, meaning a large sheet of paper. The National Gallery defines a cartoon as a full-size and usually detailed preparation on paper for a painting or a tapestry.

How did painters copy a cartoon onto a wall?

They could trace the lines with a stylus, incise them, or prick them with tiny holes and pounce charcoal through, leaving a dotted outline on the surface below.

Why were tapestry designs drawn in reverse?

Some looms, such as the low-warp looms used in Brussels, produce a reversed image of the design, so the artist had to anticipate the mirror image.

When did cartoon start to mean a funny drawing?

Britannica dates the sense of a pictorial parody to the early 1840s. Punch printed its Cartoon No.1 on 15 July 1843, a satire on an exhibition of mural cartoons in Westminster Hall.

Is a cartoon the same as animation?

Not quite. Britannica describes cartoons as typically static images, sometimes in a series like a comic strip, while animation shows still frames in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement.

Sources

Every toon was
once a pattern.