Dickens and His Illustrators Part 14

[Sidenote: =A Tale of Two Cities, 1859.=]

Although "A Tale of Two Cities" was written specially for the pages of _All the Year Round_, it appeared concurrently in the familiar monthly numbers, with ill.u.s.trations by "Phiz." The artist, in writing to his son Walter, said: "A rather curious thing happened with this book. Watts Phillips, the dramatist, hit upon the very same identical plot: they had evidently both of them been to the same source in Paris for their story.

Watts's play ['The Dead Heart'] came out with great success, with stunning climax, at about the time of d.i.c.kens's sixth number. The public saw that they were identically the same story, so d.i.c.kens shut up at the ninth number, instead of going on to the eighteenth as usual." Whether this explanation is correct or not, the fact remains that "A Tale of Two Cities" was brought to a conclusion in the eighth number (not the ninth, as stated by "Phiz"), being therefore less than half the usual length of d.i.c.kens's serials.

As in the case of "Little Dorrit," the artist's signature does not appear in any of the sixteen etchings contributed by "Phiz" to this novel. It has been pointed out that the French personages in the pictures are not characteristic of the period, there being but little attempt at archaeological accuracy in the costumes. Only one set of the ill.u.s.trations was prepared, none being etched in duplicate; they were executed on eight quarto steels, each bearing two designs. Of the original drawings for "A Tale of Two Cities" I have seen only one (now in Mr. J. F. Dexter's collection), and this was never etched. The sketch in question, which is vigorously executed with pencil and brush, depicts the incident of the stoppage at the Fountain, and const.i.tutes an excellent subject for ill.u.s.tration.

The artist's design for the monthly wrapper is composed of distinct scenes separated by dividing lines. At the top of the page is St. Paul's Cathedral as viewed from the Thames, and at the base the Cathedral of Notre Dame is represented, while around are displayed some of the prominent characters in the story.

"A Tale of Two Cities" is the last of the novels containing ill.u.s.trations by "Phiz," for, with the completion of the final plate in that story, there came a severance of that fortuitous collaboration between novelist and artist which had been maintained during a period of twenty-three years. As there is no evidence of any actual rupture between them, it is fair to surmise that a legitimate desire on the part of d.i.c.kens for a new ill.u.s.trator const.i.tuted the actual reason for that severance. "Phiz" naturally felt aggrieved at "d.i.c.kens's strangely silent manner of breaking the connection," and could only surmise the reason; for, in an undated letter to Mr. Robert Young, written presumably a short time before the publication of the succeeding story, he said: "Marcus [Stone] is no doubt to do d.i.c.kens. _I_ have been a 'good boy,' I believe. The plates in hand are all in good time, so that I do not know what's 'up,' any more than you. d.i.c.kens probably thinks a new hand would give his old puppets a fresh look, or perhaps he does not like my ill.u.s.trating Trollope neck-and-neck with him--though, by Jingo, he need fear no rivalry _there_! Confound all authors and publishers, say I. There is no pleasing one or t'other. I wish I had never had anything to do with the lot."

The amicable relationship that had subsisted between the author and his princ.i.p.al ill.u.s.trator was not strained by this event. As a matter of fact, the artist ever entertained a tender regard and admiration for the famous romancer with whom he had so long been a.s.sociated, and we may readily believe what a writer in the _Frankfurt Zeitung_ tells us when he says: "Just after the death of Charles d.i.c.kens, 'Phiz' was considerably affected by the mere mention of the name of that ill.u.s.trious novelist, which seemed to stir up in his breast feelings of regret at losing such a friend."

Hablot Knight Browne, as designer of the plates for ten of the fourteen princ.i.p.al novels by "Immortal Boz," is justly termed "the ill.u.s.trator of d.i.c.kens." His name and fame are similarly identified with the works of Lever and Ainsworth, while, in addition to this, his familiar signature ("Fizz, Whizz, or something of that sort," as Tom Hood used to say, when endeavouring to recall the artist's sign-manual) may be found appended to innumerable etchings and woodcuts. He was born at Kennington, London, in July 1815, being the ninth son of William Loder Browne, who is somewhat indefinitely described as "a merchant." The artist's forefathers were of French descent, the original name (according to tradition) being Le Brun, a member of which family emigrated to England after the Ma.s.sacre of St Bartholomew in 1572. His ancestors lived in London in the early part of the last century and adopted the essentially English cognomen of Browne. With regard to the artist's baptismal names, it is interesting to learn that the first (Hablot) was the patronymic of a Colonel (or Captain) who was engaged to marry a sister of "Phiz," but was killed in a charge of Napoleon's Garde Imperiale at Waterloo, while the second (Knight) was received from Admiral Sir John Knight, an old friend of the family; thus, in respect of names, was the artist a.s.sociated with both Army and Navy.

"Phiz" inherited a strong artistic faculty, and, when a boy, was encouraged to cultivate his wonderful talent for drawing by his brother-in-law, Mr. Elhanan Bicknell, the well-known Art patron, who took so keen an interest in his welfare that he offered to defray all expenses of a thorough art education. It was through Mr. Bicknell's generosity that the youth was apprenticed to Finden, the engraver, who, it appears, more than once complained that his _protege_ persisted in covering with comic figures the entire margins of the plates entrusted to him, thus indicating the humorous bent of his mind. In after years he took occasional lessons in painting, but he never distinguished himself as a painter, although he occasionally exhibited at the Royal Academy and other public galleries. The only regular training he ever had was at Finden's; but the work he was required to perform there proved much too irksome and monotonous for one who, like "Phiz," possessed ideas so eminently original and fanciful. As in the case of his two famous contemporaries, Cruikshank and Leech, "Phiz" could never accustom himself to draw from the living model, which accounts, of course, for his conventional treatment of the human figure; his representations of moving crowds, as well as other scenes of life and character, being drawn either from recollection or by the aid of a few slightly-pencilled memoranda.

It is unfortunate for my present purpose that nearly all the correspondence which pa.s.sed between author and artist should have been destroyed. I am enabled, however, to print one or two brief notes indicating their friendly and familiar relationship. In 1841, "Phiz"

supplied some etchings to "The Pic Nic Papers," a collection of essays edited by d.i.c.kens and produced for the benefit of Mrs. Macrone, the widow of the well-known publisher, who had been left in impoverished circ.u.mstances. In reply to an inquiry on the part of the novelist respecting the ill.u.s.trations, the artist wrote:--

"MY DEAR d.i.c.kENS,--I have just got one boot on, intending to come round to you, but you have done me out of a capital excuse to myself for idling away this fine morning. I quite forgot to answer your note, and Mr. Macrone's book has not been very vividly present to my memory for some time past, for both of which offences I beg innumerable pardons. I think by the beginning of next [week] or the middle (_certain_) I shall have done the plates, but on the sc.r.a.ps of copy that I have I can see but _one good_ subject, so if you know of another, pray send it me. I should like 'Malcolm' again, if you can spare him.--Yours very truly,

"Very short of paper.

"HABLoT K. BROWNE."

The following terse epistle is undated, which is characteristic of "Phiz's" letters:--

"MY DEAR d.i.c.kENS,--I am sorry I cannot have a touch at battledore with you to-day, being already booked for this evening, but I will give you a call to-morrow after church, and take my chance of finding you at home.--Yours very sincerely,

"HABLoT K. BROWNE."

On March 15, 1847, when forwarding to the artist some written instructions respecting a "Dombey" ill.u.s.tration, the novelist made an interesting allusion to an early incident in his own life. "I wish you _had_ been at poor Hall's[28] funeral, and I am sure they would have been glad.... He lies in Highgate Cemetery, which is beautiful....Is it not a curious coincidence, remembering our connection afterwards, that I bought the magazine [_The Monthly Magazine_, Dec. 1833] in which the first thing I ever wrote was published ["A Dinner at Poplar Walk"] from poor Hall's hands? I have been thinking all day of that, and of that time when the Queen went into the City, and we drank claret (it was in their [Chapman & Hall's] earlier days) in the counting-house. You remember?"

Footnote 28: Partner in the firm of Chapman & Hall.

"Phiz" received fifteen guineas each for his early plates, but sometimes agreed to accept smaller fees; he estimated that it took him ten days to prepare and etch four designs. Being a bad business man, he never raised his prices, the consequence being that his income was not what it should have been for one who so long held a unique position as an ill.u.s.trator of popular books. During the first ten or twelve years of his professional life he was comparatively prosperous, but when etching as a means of ill.u.s.trating went out of favour, and he became somewhat indifferent concerning this method of work, his income suffered considerably. The artist did not actually experience financial difficulties, however, until he was seized with a serious illness in 1867, said to have been partly caused by his having slept in a draught at a seaside house. After five months of great suffering he again essayed to use his pencil, but it soon became obvious to his friends that his health was completely shattered, and that, in less than six months, he had become a broken-down old man. The worst trouble of all was a partial paralysis of the right arm and leg, which he persisted in calling "rheumatism," and in consequence of which his hand lost its cunning. Then it was that the demand for his work practically ceased. "I don't know where to turn or what to do," he wrote in 1879. "I have at last come to a full stop, and don't see my way just yet to get on again.

My occupation seems gone, extinct; I suppose I am thought to be used up, and I have been long enough before the public. I have not had a single thing to do this year, nor for some months previous in the past year."

In 1878, at the suggestion of his friend Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., "Phiz"

applied to Government for a pension. The pet.i.tion was prepared by Mr.

Robert Young, but the result was unfavourable. Happily he received unexpected a.s.sistance from another quarter, in the shape of a well-deserved annuity from the Royal Academy, awarded in recognition of his distinguished services to Art. Ever hopeful of being restored to health, he began on his recovery to again use his pencil, but the crippled condition of his right hand, together with the rapid decline of his fanciful imagination and power of invention, made it impossible for him to produce anything worthy of his past reputation. At length his affliction became so p.r.o.nounced that all hope of recovery was abandoned, and on the 8th of July 1882 the famous "Phiz" breathed his last, in his sixty-seventh year. He spent the end of his busy life in the quiet seclusion of Hove, and his last resting-place is on the summit of a hill on the northern side of the extra-mural cemetery at Brighton.

"Phiz's" many excellent qualities far outweighed any defects in his character. A life-long friend of the artist, Mr. John Greville Fennell, writes thus to me: "No man knew more of Hablot Browne than I did, for though he was very reticent to most, he never, I believe, concealed anything from me. We used to wander together in the country for two or three weeks or more at a time, and a man more full of fun, when he had thrown off the 'harness,' I have not known in my large acquaintance."

His naturally modest disposition eventually developed into a remarkable shyness, and this, when coupled with a dislike of publicity, was often misconstrued as pride. Even d.i.c.kens had considerable difficulty in persuading him to meet a few friends and spend a pleasant evening. When he did accept such invitations, he invariably tried to seclude himself in a corner of the room or behind a curtain. In former years he was occasionally prevailed upon to attend certain dinners given by d.i.c.kens to celebrate the completion of his stories; and the novelist sometimes succeeded in inducing him to accept invitations to join him for a brief holiday by the sea, as we learn from a communication addressed to Forster, and dated from Bonchurch during the "Copperfield" days, in which d.i.c.kens said: "Browne is coming down when he has done his month's work." Eventually, all desire for social intercourse ceased, "Phiz"

preferring to lead the life of a recluse in his country home.

A short time prior to his severe illness in 1867, Hablot Browne received an extraordinary commission from Mr. F. W. Cosens, one of his most liberal patrons, who solicited the artist to make coloured _replicas_ of the entire series of his published designs for the works of the great novelist. In a letter to me on this subject in 1882, Mr. Cosens said: "I remember to have had only two or three interviews with him, and, as a stranger, found him shy and nervous. I desired to secure any sketches he might have of the ill.u.s.trations to d.i.c.kens, but understood him to say he had none, as he drew them on the blocks [plates]. He evidently did not like the drudgery of reproduction, and named such terms as he thought would deter me; but finding the honorarium was of great importance to him, the bargain was struck. The work extended over some years, and the later productions evince haste and inferiority. The work can hardly be called water-colour drawing, as it is simply sketching, slightly heightened by colour-washing." Strange to say, "Phiz" did not possess copies of d.i.c.kens's novels, so he borrowed Mr. Cosen's set, and from these he executed the tinted _replicas_. At the sale of Mr. Cosen's library at Sotheby's in 1890, this interesting collection, numbering 405 drawings, was disposed of for the aggregate sum of 671.

It should be mentioned in conclusion, that, besides the vignettes already described as having been prepared by "Phiz" for the Library Edition (1858-59), he also designed for that edition the following subjects, which were executed in water-colours and, like the rest, engraved on steel:--Mr. Trott and the "Boots," ill.u.s.trating "The Great Winglebury Duel" in "Sketches by Boz;" Mr. b.u.mble and Oliver, for "Oliver Twist;" Scrooge and Marley, for the series of Christmas Books; and a Vineyard Scene, which appropriately decorates the t.i.tle-page of "Pictures from Italy."

Although, as already stated, Hablot Browne was quite capable of biting-in his own designs upon the steel plates, he had not sufficient time to devote to this part of his work. From the "Pickwick" days onward the artist was fortunate in securing the services of his fellow-apprentice in Finden's studio, Mr. Robert Young, who was afterwards his partner in many artistic ventures, and always his most intimate friend and admirer. When at Finden's, Mr. Young acquired the art of biting-in, a process which, although to some extent a mechanical one, requires a considerable amount of artistic knowledge and manipulative skill, for there is nothing to guide the etcher as to the required effect, except in some cases a rough indication on paper. It was Mr. Young's duty, after each plate was bitten-in, to go over it with a graver and join any lines which in the etching had become broken or rotten. For biting-in and finishing the two subjects on one plate he received from Chapman & Hall (with whom he had a separate account) the sum of three guineas. Browne's ruling-machine for producing the mezzotint effects was kept in his colleague's room at Furnival's Inn, where, more than half-a-century ago, he and the artist took chambers for business purposes and to be near the publishers. These quarters, which were situated in the south-west corner of the Inn, have been lately demolished, together with the chambers at No. 15, rendered famous by the fact that the earlier portion of "Pickwick" was there written.

Mr. Young acted as Browne's a.s.sistant in the manner described during the greater part of the years of "Phiz's" popularity, and his co-operation extended not only to the d.i.c.kens ill.u.s.trations, but to the thousand-and-one designs that embellished the works of other writers.

The following brief note (quoted from Mr. Thomson's Memoir) is a specimen of the many communications which constantly pa.s.sed between the artist and his coadjutor:--

[_Circa 1845._]

"MY DEAR 'CO,'--Pray help me in an emergency. Put a bottle of aquafortis in your pockets, wax and all other useful adjuncts, and come to me to-morrow about one or two o'clock, and bite in an etching for me, ferociously and expeditiously. Can you?--will you?--oblige, Yours sincerely,

"H. K. BROWNE."

Mr. Robert Young, who is now in his eighty-second year, has recently favoured me with a few facts concerning himself, which are not devoid of interest in the present record. Writing from Norham-upon-Tweed, he says: "I was born in Dalkeith in 1816, educated in France, and, on leaving school, was apprenticed to Finden, the engraver, where my friendship with 'Phiz' commenced, which closed with his death. Some years ago I was presented with a clerkship in the Admiralty, and retired on a pension in 1878, which enables me to pa.s.s my last days in this humdrum village. I am, as you see, very old, have many infirmities, and cannot always remember past events."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

PLATE x.x.xVIII

GEORGE CATTERMOLE

From an Unpublished Photograph by

LAKE PRICE _Lent by the Artist's Daughter, Mrs. Edward Franks._

GEORGE CATTERMOLE

First Acquaintance with d.i.c.kens--Declines Offer of Knighthood--Favourite Subjects for Pictures--"MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK"--A Letter from d.i.c.kens respecting the Ill.u.s.trations--Cattermole's Designs Copied on Wood by "Phiz"

and Samuel Williams--Some d.i.c.kens Correspondence--Minute Directions to the Artist--Design for Frontispiece--Useful Hints and Suggestions--The "Maypole" Inn--"Grip," the Raven--Subjects for "Barnaby Rudge"--An Unpublished Letter from Cattermole to d.i.c.kens--Closing Chapters of the Story--The Novelist Approves of the Ill.u.s.trations--Frontispiece for the First Cheap Edition of "The Old Curiosity Shop"--Water-colour Drawings of "Little Nell's Home" and "Little Nell's Grave"--d.i.c.kens's Grat.i.tude to Cattermole--Death of the Artist--His Vivacity and Good-fellowship.

Born at d.i.c.kleburgh, Norfolk, in the year 1800, George Cattermole was a dozen years the senior of Charles d.i.c.kens. His acquaintance with the novelist began in 1838, and when, in the following year, he married Miss Elderton, a distant connection of the author of "Pickwick," the friendship subsisting between the two men ripened into sincere affection. George Cattermole had been elected a member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours as early as 1833, which indicates that his reputation was already well established, and in 1839 he had achieved such distinction in Art that he received the offer of knighthood,--an honour he modestly declined. The subjects he loved to portray were scenes from mediaeval history, fiction, or ballad literature, and he revelled in depicting incidents of bygone times, with their manners and customs, their architecture and costumes, in the representation of which he has been considered the chief exponent. It was this antiquarian feeling, as well as his powerful imagination and vivid fancy, which excited the admiration of John Ruskin, whose favourable criticisms of the artist's early productions proved of infinite service.

[Sidenote: =Master Humphrey's Clock, 1840-41.=]

George Cattermole had already enjoyed considerable experience as an ill.u.s.trator of books, and had made drawings of buildings and scenery described in Scott's novels, when, in 1840, d.i.c.kens invited him to collaborate with D. Maclise, R.A., and Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") in designing the woodcuts for "Master Humphrey's Clock." The earliest intimation received by the artist respecting the projected publication was contained in the following letter, dated January 13, 1840:--