Marie Duval
French cartoonist, Actress
Isabelle Émilie de Tessier (25 September 1847 – 11 June 1890), who worked under the pseudonyms Marie Duval and Ambrose Clarke, was a British cartoonist, known as co-creator of the seminal cartoon character Ally Sloper, the popular character was spun off into his own comic, Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, in 1884.
Early life and career
Isabelle Emily Louisa Tessier was born in London on 25 September 1847 to parents of French descent. She initially became a governess but left to become an actor.
Her first known appearance on stage was at the St James's Theatre in 1868 when she was in a pantomime. She adopted the stage name Marie Duval, and appeared in plays written by Charles Henry Ross.
Career as a cartoonist
In 1869, Duval joined three other women cartoonists contributing to the British satirical magazine Judy, edited by Ross, signing her work as Marie Duval. She also provided illustrations to Ross's 1869 novel The Story of a Honeymoon, using the pseudonym Ambrose Clarke.
The Ally Sloper character had been created for Judy by Ross in 1867. By 1869, the strips were signed by Duval and Ross. Afterwards, Duval became the strip's primary illustrator, assuming creative responsibility for the character.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Marie Duval” is french cartoonist, Actress. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Marie, Duval and French, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3292499. VIAF identifies the subject as 173022945. The Library of Congress control number is no2018003624. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1847, 1890, 1884 and 1868.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marie Duval” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.