Martin ('Cynicus') Anderson (1854–1932)
Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection (Dundee City Council)
Martin Anderson [commonly known as "Cynicus"] was born at Leuchars, near Dundee, Scotland on 14 April 1854 and studied under Robert Greenlees (1820-1894)) at Glasgow School of Art. After leaving the GSA he worked for a period as a designer for a textile printing firm and began contributing illustrations to the 'News of the Week,' a short-lived Glasgow periodical. In 1879 he moved to London, however, soon after he was invited by the publisher John Leng & Co. of Dundee to work for them as a staff artist on the 'Dundee Advertiser' and their other publications. He subsequently moved to Broughty Ferry, near Dundee. In 1881 he became a regular contributor to to 'The Quiz', a comic weekly. By late 1887 he had assumed the pseudonym "Cynicus" for his illustrations.
In 1891 he left Dundee and moved back to London where he established his own publishing business, Cynicus Publishing Company in Drury Lane and began producing books of his Cynicus cartoons. At the same time, he started contributing cartoons to 'Pall Mall Budget', 'Tatler', and other magazines. He also began producing artwork for the postcard publisher Blum & Degan. In 1902 he relocated Cynicus Publishing Company to Tayport, Fifeshire, and over the next six years the company successfully produced thousands of postcards. However, in 1908 the market for postcards began to decline and his business ran into financial difficulties. Cynicus Publishing Company was eventually forced into liquidation in 1911.
In 1912 Anderson moved to Leeds and set up a new postcard publishing business, Cynicus Art Publishing Company. With the outbreak of World War One in 1914, he closed the business and in 1915 he moved to Edinburgh. Anderson was opposed to the war and later that year produced a controversial anti-war poster entitled 'War!' Following the war, he produced another poster in which he expressed his antipathy for capitalism.
Following the destruction of his printing works in Edinburgh by fire in 1924, Anderson retired. In 1930 he wrote a memoir which was serialised in the 'Glasgow Evening News'. He died at his home, Castle Cynicus, in Tayport, Fife, Scotland on 14 April 1932.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
