The pseudonym used by Dickens’s illustrator Hablot Knight Browne was Phiz.
Browne was an English artist, illustrator, draughtsman, and etcher who became one of Charles Dickens’s most important visual collaborators. He illustrated several major Dickens novels, including The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Bleak House. His drawings helped establish the visual identities of characters such as Sam Weller, Uriah Heep, Micawber, and Mrs. Gamp.
Browne initially signed his first two etched plates for The Pickwick Papers as “Nemo.” He then adopted “Phiz,” choosing a name that harmonized with Dickens’s own pseudonym, “Boz.” The pairing became a memorable literary-artistic signature of the Victorian period. “Phiz” also echoed the period word “physiognomy,” relating to a person’s face or expression.
The main mix-up is with “Boz,” but Boz was Dickens’s pseudonym, not Browne’s. Browne’s work was not merely decorative: Dickens and Phiz collaborated closely, and the illustrator’s interpretations shaped how generations of readers imagined Dickens’s fictional world.