Modern Illustration Part 7

of 1857 is gratifying proof that a large number of people do care for good work, and that the endeavour to swamp us with poor drawings, tedious photographs, and worn-out _cliches_ will probably have its just reward. F. Sandys, one of the greatest of all, though still living, scarcely produces anything; F. Shields' designs for Defoe's "Plague"

were Rembrandt-like in power; while H. Herkomer, in his ill.u.s.trations to Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," has, within the last few years, done some of his most striking work. Linley Sambourne, whose name was made years ago, pursues the even tenor of his ways, his reputation having been well secured by his ill.u.s.trations to the "Water Babies,"

and his countless "Punch" contributions. From the quant.i.ty of work produced by Harry Furniss it is quite evident that he is one of the most popular men in England. The fund of imagination which he devotes to perpetuating the unimportant actions of trivial members of Parliament is truly amazing. J. F. Sullivan has made caricature of the British workman his speciality, and he has recorded many of the antics of that personality with a truth that the labour organs might imitate to advantage. Sir John Tenniel is the legitimate successor of the old political cartoonist, but, luckily for him, his reputation rests, not upon his portrayal of the events of the moment, but upon his marvellous "Alice in Wonderland" and his cla.s.sic ill.u.s.trations to the "Legendary Ballads." Political caricature rarely, however, has an exponent like Tenniel, and though the work of J. Proctor, G. R. Halkett, and F. C.

Gould is good in its way, owing to the conditions under which much of it has to be produced, and the absolute artlessness of the subject, their aim naturally is to drive home a political point, and not to produce a work of art. The most genuine caricaturist who has ever lived in England was W. G. Baxter, the inventor of "Ally Sloper." Baxter died a few years ago. Happily, the three men who, in a great measure, are responsible for modern English ill.u.s.tration are working to-day: Birket Foster, Sir John Gilbert, and Harrison Weir, but, save the latter, they now produce scarcely any designs. Few of the brilliant band who succeeded them, however, are at work save Du Maurier and W. Small.

One has to deplore the recent death of Charles Keene, the greatest of all English draughtsmen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY (SIR) JOHN TENNIEL. ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY H. HARRAL.

FROM GATTY'S "PARABLES" (BELL, 1867).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY W. G. BAXTER. FROM "ALLY SLOPER'S" CARTOONS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY PHIL MAY. A PEN DRAWING FROM "THE GRAPHIC."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY G. DU MAURIER. FROM "TRILBY" (OSGOOD, McILVAINE AND CO.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY G. DU MAURIER. FROM "TRILBY" (OSGOOD, McILVAINE AND CO.).]

One therefore turns with interest to some of the younger men--men who have made and are making ill.u.s.tration their profession. Among them, one looks first to that erratic genius, Phil May, who has produced work which not only will live, but which successfully runs the gamut of all wit and humour. Nothing in its way has been done in England to approach his designs for the "Parson and the Painter." They appeared first in the pages of the "St. Stephen's Review," where they were scarcely seen by artists. But on their reappearance in book form, though even more badly printed than at first, what remained of them was good enough to make May's reputation. Between him and everyone else, there is a great gulf fixed, but the greatest is between May and his imitators.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY W. SMALL. FROM "Ca.s.sELL'S MAGAZINE."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY W. SMALL. FROM "Ca.s.sELL'S MAGAZINE."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY R. ANNING BELL. FROM AN ORIGINAL PEN DRAWING.]

Most of the younger men of individuality have studied abroad and, like Americans, have returned home more or less affected by continental ideas. It would be quite impossible for me to place any estimate on their work, or even attempt to describe it. But certainly it is to some of the new weekly and daily journals and less known monthlies that one must look for their ill.u.s.trations. It seems to me that E. J. Sullivan, A. S. Hartrick, T. S. Crowther, H. R. Millar, F. Pegram, L. Raven-Hill, W. W. Russell are doing much to brighten the pages of the papers to which they contribute. Raven-Hill, Maurice Greiffenhagen, Edgar Wilson and Oscar Eckhardt have made a most interesting experiment in "The b.u.t.terfly," which I hope will have the success it deserves.[20] R.

Anning Bell, Aubrey Beardsley, Reginald Savage, Charles Ricketts, C. H.

Shannon and L. p.i.s.sarro have the courage of their convictions and the ability often to carry out their ideas. Beardsley, in his edition of the "Morte d'Arthur," "Salome," and his "Yellow Book" pictures, among other things, has acquired a reputation in a very short s.p.a.ce of time. R.

Anning Bell has become known by his very delightful book-plates, while Ricketts, Shannon and p.i.s.sarro, are not only their own artists and engravers, but editors and publishers as well. "The Dial" is their organ, and it has contained very many beautiful drawings by them, though they have contributed covers and t.i.tle-pages to various books and magazines, and have brought out an edition of "Daphnis and Chloe" which must serve to perpetuate the imperfections of the Middle-Age wood-cutter. Wal Paget, W. H. Hatherell, and G. L. Seymour, in very different ways, head a long list of ill.u.s.trators who can decorate a story with distinction, or depict an event almost at a moment's notice.

In facility, I suppose there is no one to equal Herbert Railton, unless it be Hugh Thomson. They have together ill.u.s.trated "Coaching Days and Coaching Ways." Railton must have drawn almost all the cathedrals and historic houses in the country; and Thomson is in a fair way to resurrect many forgotten and unforgotten authors of the last century. J.

D. Batten's ill.u.s.trations to Celtic, English, and Indian fairy tales are extremely interesting, while Launcelot Speed and H. J. Ford have for several years been making designs for Mr. Lang's series of fairy books.

Laurence Housman has this year scored a decided success with his ill.u.s.trations for Miss Rossetti's "Goblin Market." To Bernard Partridge has fallen of late the task of upholding "Punch" from its artistic end; this has apparently proved too much even for him, since I note that for the first time in its existence that paper is employing outsiders and even foreigners. To what is England, or rather "Punch," coming? His drawings for Mr. Anstey's sketches have been deservedly well received, while lately he, too, has fallen a victim to the eighteenth century in his striking ill.u.s.trations for Mr. Austin Dobson's "Beau Brocade." Mr.

E. T. Reed, of the same journal, during the last year has developed not only a most delightful vein of humour, but an original style of handling--his burlesques of the decadents are better than the originals almost. Reginald Cleaver can probably produce a drawing for a cheap process with more success than anyone, and yet, at the same time, his work is full of character. It is pleasant to turn to men like Sir George Reid and Alfred Parsons, with whom exquisite design and skilled technique, and not cheapness, is the aim in their ill.u.s.trative work.

Parsons has, with Abbey, in "Old Songs," "A Quiet Life," etc., and alone in Wordsworth's "Sonnets," and also in the "Warwickshire Avon," produced the books which reach the high-water mark of English ill.u.s.tration, although they were first published in America. On the other hand Sir George Reid's designs for "Johnny Gibb," "The River Tweed and the River Clyde," and several other publications of David Douglas of Edinburgh, have been brought out altogether in this country.

[20] I did not mean I hoped it would die. It has now ceased to appear.

I should like to discuss the schools that have been developed by the Arts and Crafts Society in some of the provincial centres. But as none of the students approach for a moment such an exquisite draughtsman as Sandys, to say nothing of the work of the older men whom they attempt to imitate, it seems rather premature to talk about them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE. FROM AUSTIN DOBSON'S "PROVERBS IN PORCELAIN" (KEGAN PAUL AND CO.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY HOLMAN HUNT. FROM GATTY'S "PARABLES" (BELL, 1867).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY E. H. NEW. FROM A PEN DRAWING FOR "THE QUEST," NO. 3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY WINIFRED SMITH. FROM "CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES"

(NUTT).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY ALFRED PARSONS. FROM THE "ENGLISH ILl.u.s.tRATED MAGAZINE."]

Still, A. J. Gaskin, limiting himself in a way that seems quite unnecessary, has ill.u.s.trated Andersen's "Fairy Tales" very well, if one adopts his standpoint. E. H. New has made portraits that are decorative; and, under Gaskin's direction, a little book of "Carols" has been ill.u.s.trated by his pupils; while, in the same style, C. M. Gere and L.

F. Muckley are doing notable work, and they are about to start a magazine "The Quest." The "Hobby Horse," the organ of the Century Guild, has contained many good designs by Herbert Horne and Selwyn Image. On much the same lines, too, Heywood Sumner, Henry Ryland, Reginald Hallward, Christopher Whall and others have been very successful. Nor can one ignore the initials and borders of William Morris, made for his own publications.

There are dozens of artists, whose names, like their works, are household words, Forrestier, Montbard, W. L. Wyllie, Barnard, Nash, Overend, Wollen, Staniland, Caton Woodville, Durand, Stacey, Rainey, Barnes, and Walter Wilson, who have a power of rendering events of the day in a fashion unequalled elsewhere, and whose excellent designs are seen continuously in the pages of the "Graphic," the "Ill.u.s.trated London News," and "Black and White." There is also another set who amaze us by their power of compelling editors to publish weekly, and even daily, stacks of their drawings, when those of better men go a-begging.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY ALFRED PARSONS. REDUCED FROM A LARGE DRAWING IN "THE DAILY CHRONICLE." 1895.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY SIR GEORGE REID. FROM "THE LIFE OF A SCOTCH NATURALIST" (MURRAY).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY W. PAGET. FROM "Ca.s.sELL'S MAGAZINE."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY L. RAVEN-HILL. FROM "THE b.u.t.tERFLY."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY L. RAVEN-HILL. FROM "THE b.u.t.tERFLY."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY EDGAR WILSON. PROCESS BLOCK FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR "THE UNICORN."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY C. E. MALLOWS. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING, PUBLISHED IN "THE BUILDER."]

Though wood-engraving is purely an English art, and though some of the greatest wood-engravers even in modern times have been Englishmen, the art no longer flourishes here as it should. The strongest of modern engravers, Cole and Linton, are both Englishmen, but their reputations are due chiefly to America. W. Bis...o...b.. Gardner is almost the only man who has continued to produce good interpretative work, engraving his own designs, while W. H. Hooper easily leads in _facsimile_ work. This decline of wood-engraving has been especially felt by such important firms as Dalziel and Swain. An International Society of Wood-engravers has lately been started, and one hopes its members will succeed in the task they have set themselves: that of encouraging original wood-engraving. In colour-printing England has always held a leading place, the work of Edmund Evans and the Leighton Brothers being universally appreciated. A very strong endeavour is being made by Messrs. Way to revive original lithography. As this art is now beginning to be again practised by eminent artists, there is every probability that their efforts will be successful. "Vanity Fair" has always been ill.u.s.trated by chromo-lithography, and in it appeared the work of the late Carlo Perugini, while "Spy" and others still carry out his methods.

The architectural papers also use, mainly, photo-lithography for reproducing the drawings which they print. In England the fashion of making pictorial perspective drawings for architects has been very extensively practised; it is only an outgrowth of the work of Prout and Harding, but it has been enormously developed since their day; at present, several architectural papers are published which solely contain drawings of this sort, drawings mainly the outcome of the T-square, and the inner consciousness of the architectural perspective man, who has never seen the house, nor the landscape, nor street elevation in which his subject may be ultimately built; nevertheless some of these drawings are most interesting. The work of the late W.

Burgess, A.R.A., of A. B. Pite, in mediaeval design; of G. C. Horsley, A.

B. Mitch.e.l.l, T. Raffles Davison, Rowland Paul, and, above all, of C. E.

Mallows. Mr. Mallows is an artist; to him a drawing is as important as the building it represents; he does everything he can from nature, and his drawings of old work, notably difficult studies in perspective, like the cloisters of Gloucester, have never been equalled by any of the Prout-Harding-Cotman set. He feels that architecture and the delineation of it are a part of the fine arts--and he makes others feel it too. And to do this is simply to be an artist. This fashion of architectural drawing has spread to America and Germany, but it has no support in France. Much has also been accomplished in etching, and England possesses to-day in William Hole, Robert Macbeth, William Strang, Frank Short, D. Y. Cameron, C. J. Watson, C. O. Murray, a number of etchers whose fame is justly great.

Whether the idea of the "special artist on the spot" originated in England or not, I cannot say; certainly he was employed, and his work acknowledged in the early numbers of the "Ill.u.s.trated London News." But, at any rate, many Englishmen have devoted themselves almost entirely to this form of pictorial reporting and correspondence. The man who has had probably the most extensive experience is William Simpson, of the "Ill.u.s.trated London News,"[21] but F. Villiers, Melton Prior, and Sidney Hall have a.s.sisted at almost all the scenes of national joy or grief--have followed the fortunes of war, or the progress of royalty, or any other important event in every quarter of the world. These artists'

methods of work were most interesting. They trained themselves to sketch under the most dangerous, fatiguing, and difficult conditions--making rather shorthand notes than sketches, which were quite intelligible to a clever band of artists attached to their various journals. These artists, on receiving the sketches, produced finished drawings in a few hours, or, at longest, a few days. Now, however, matters have changed somewhat. The editors (not the public) have learned to appreciate sketches, and men who can either produce a complete work of art on the spot, or work from their own sketches, are more generally engaged in this way. I do not mean to say that the war correspondents I have named could not do this work, only that often they did not, owing to exigencies of time and other difficulties. Mr. Hall's work at present is finished on the spot. His drawings at the Parnell trial were most notable. But I think in the next artistic generation the correspondent will have to work harder--if he produces less.

[21] S. Read was the first artist correspondent; he worked during the Crimean War.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY R. CATON WOODVILLE. REDUCED FROM "THE ILl.u.s.tRATED LONDON NEWS."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY SYDNEY P. HALL. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE GRAPHIC."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY. FROM A DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY WALTER WILSON. REDUCED FROM "THE ILl.u.s.tRATED LONDON NEWS."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BY F. S. CHURCH. FROM AN ETCHING IN "THE CONTINENT."]

CHAPTER VI.

AMERICAN ILl.u.s.tRATION.

In many ways the ill.u.s.trative work of America is more interesting than that of any other country. The rapidity of its growth, the encouragement that has been given it by publishers, and the surprisingly important artistic results obtained have won it recognition all over the world.