Who illustrated the first edition of Oliver Twist?

George Cruikshank illustrated the first edition of Oliver Twist.

Cruikshank was a leading English caricaturist and illustrator of the early Victorian period. For Oliver Twist, he produced the visual designs that accompanied Dickens's story, including the famous images of Oliver asking for more, Fagin's den, and the novel's criminal underworld. His illustrations strongly influenced how later readers imagined the characters.

Oliver Twist first appeared serially in Bentley's Miscellany between February 1837 and April 1839. Cruikshank supplied one steel etching for each monthly instalment. When the novel was issued in three-volume book form in 1838, the first edition included 24 steel-engraved plates by him. The title page identified the work as Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress.

Readers sometimes confuse Cruikshank with Hablot Knight Browne, known as “Phiz,” who illustrated many other Dickens novels, including The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield. Richard Doyle and John Leech were also prominent Victorian illustrators, but neither illustrated the first edition of Oliver Twist.