Randolph Caldecott Part 1

Randolph Caldecott.

by Henry Blackburn.

PREFACE.

The object of this memoir is to give some information as to the early work of Randolph Caldecott, an artist who is known to the world chiefly by his _Picture Books_.

The extracts from letters have a personal charm apart from any literary merit. The majority of the letters, and the sketches which accompanied them, were sent to the author's family; others have been kindly lent for this memoir by Mr. William Clough, Mr. Locker-Lampson, Mr.

Whittenbury, and other friends. Acknowledgments are also due to the publishers who have lent engravings.

At the desire of Mr. Caldecott's representatives,--to whom the author is indebted for extracts from diaries and other material--the consideration of his later work is reserved for a future time.

Although the text of this book is little more than a setting for the ill.u.s.trations, it is hoped that the material collected may be found interesting.

H. B.

103, VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER, _September 1886_.

CHAPTER I.

HIS EARLY ART CAREER.

Randolph Caldecott, the son of an accountant in Chester, was born in that city on the 22nd of March, 1846, and educated at the King's School, where he became the head boy. He was not studious in the popular sense of the word, but spent most of his leisure time in wandering in the country round. Thus, his love of sport and fondness for rural pursuits, which never forsook him, were evidenced at an early age. His artistic instincts were also early developed, and many treasured sketches, models of animals, &c., cut out of wood, were produced in Chester by the boy Caldecott.

Perhaps the best and most characteristic record of his early life is, that he and his brother were "two of the best boys in the school;" the genius that consists in "an infinite faculty for taking pains" having much to do with his after career of success.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST CLERK--"GOT JONES' LEDGER?"

SECOND DO. (NEWLY MARRIED)--"YES, LOVE!"]

In 1861 Caldecott was sent to a bank at Whitchurch in Shropshire, where, for six years, he seems to have had considerable leisure and opportunity for indulging in his favourite pursuits. Here, living at an old farm-house about two miles from the town, he used to go fishing and shooting, to the meets of hounds, to markets and cattle fairs, gathering in a store of knowledge useful to him in after years. The practical, if half-unconscious, education that he thus obtained in his "off-time," as he termed it, whilst clerk at the Whitchurch and Ellesmere Bank, was often referred to afterwards with pleasure. Thus from the earliest time it will be seen that he lived in an atmosphere favourable to his after career. But the bank work was never neglected; from the day he left his school in Chester in 1861 to become a clerk in Whitchurch, until the spring of 1872 when he left Manchester finally for London, the record of his office work was that he "did it well."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "COOM, THEN."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THREE FRIENDS."]

During the Whitchurch days he had, as we have indicated, unusual advantages of leisure, and the opportunity of visiting many an old house and farm, driving sometimes on the business of the bank, in his favourite vehicle, a country gig, and "very eagerly," writes one of his fellow clerks and intimate friends, "were those advantages enjoyed. We who knew him, can well understand how welcome he must have been in many a cottage, farm, and hall. The handsome lad carried his own recommendation. With light brown hair falling with a ripple over his brow, blue-grey eyes shaded by long lashes, sweet and mobile mouth, tall and well-made, he joined to these physical advantages a gay good humour and a charming disposition. No wonder that he was a general favourite."

But soon he was transferred to Manchester, where a very different life awaited him--a life of more arduous duties--in the "Manchester and Salford Bank," but with opportunities for knowledge in other directions, of which he was not slow to avail himself. If in his early years his father discouraged his artistic leanings, he was now in a city which above all others encouraged the study of art--"as far as it was consistent with business." In the Brasenose Club, and at the houses of hospitable and artistic friends in Manchester, Caldecott had exceptional opportunities of seeing good work, and obtaining information on art matters.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

One who knew him well at this time, writing in the _Manchester Courier_ of Feb. 16th, 1886, says:--

"Caldecott used to wander about the bustling, murky streets of Manchester, sometimes finding himself in queer out-of-the-way quarters, often coming across an odd character, curious bits of antiquity and the like. Whenever the chance came, he made short excursions into the adjacent country, and long walks which were never purposeless. Then he joined an artists' club and made innumerable pen and ink sketches. Whilst in this city so close was his application to the art that he loved that on several occasions he spent the whole night in drawing."

For five years, from 1867 to 1872, Caldecott worked steadily at the desk in Manchester, studying from nature whenever he had the chance in summer; and at the school of art in the long evenings, sometimes working long and late at some water colour drawing. Caldecott owed much to Manchester, as he often said, and he never forgot or undervalued the good of his early training. The friends he made then he kept always, and they were amongst his dearest and best.

In Manchester on the 3rd of July, 1868--his first drawings were published in a serio comic paper called _Will o' the Wisp_; and in 1869, in another paper called _The Sphinx_, he had several pages of drawings reproduced. He was painting a little at the same time, making many hunting and other studies; they were chiefly for friends, but one picture was exhibited at the Manchester Royal Inst.i.tution in 1869.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "CONSIDER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, THE SAD POSITION IN WHICH MY CLIENT IS PLACED--DESERTED BY HIS WIFE AND LEFT TO SUPPORT HIMSELF AND TENDER INFANT BY HIS OWN EXERTIONS."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FULL CRY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "IN THE HUNTING FIELD."]

There was no restraining Caldecott now, his artistic bent and his delightful humour were finding expression in sketches in odd hours and minutes, on bits of note paper, on old envelopes, and on the blotting paper before him at his desk, until everybody about him must have been alive to his talent. He might no doubt have eventually attained a good position in the bank, for, as one of his friends writes of him very truly,

"Caldecott's ability was general, not special. It found its natural and most agreeable outlet in art and humour, but everybody who knew him, and those who received his letters, saw that there were perhaps a dozen ways in which he would have distinguished himself had he been drawn to them."

The unpublished sketches dispersed through this chapter indicate but slightly the originality and fecundity of Caldecott's genius at this time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THIS IS NOT A CULPRIT GOING TO GAOL--IT IS ONLY A GENTLEMAN IN LOVE WHO HAPPENS TO BE WALKING BEFORE A POLICEMAN!"]

There was clearly but one course to pursue--to give up commercial pursuits and go to London--if such sketches as these were to be found scattered amongst bank papers!

[Ill.u.s.tration: "SOCIETY IN MANCHESTER."]

And so, in May, 1870, Caldecott, as his diary records, went to London for a few days with a letter of introduction to Mr. Thomas Armstrong from Mr. W. Slagg; and in the same year, 1870, some of his drawings were shown to Shirley Brooks, and to Mark Lemon, then editor of _Punch_. Mr. Clough thus records the event:--

"Bearing an introductory letter he went up to London on a flying visit, carrying with him a sketch on wood and a small book of drawings of the 'Fancies of a Wedding.' He was well received. The sketch was accepted, and with many compliments the book of drawings was detained.

"'From that day to this,' said Mr. Caldecott, 'I have not seen either sketch or book.' Some time after, on meeting Mark Lemon, the incident was recalled, when the burly, jovial editor replied, 'My dear fellow, I am vagabondising to-day, not _Punching_.' I don't think Mr. Caldecott rightly appreciated that joke."

From this date and all through the year 1871, Caldecott was at work in Manchester and sending to London drawings, some of which have hardly been exceeded for humour and expression in a few lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A NEW CONTRIBUTOR."]

CHAPTER II.

DRAWING FOR "LONDON SOCIETY."

It was in February 1871, in the pages of _London Society_--a magazine which at that time included amongst its contributors J. R. Planche, Shirley Brooks, Francis T. Palgrave, Frederick Locker, G. A. Sala, Edmund Yates, Percy Fitzgerald, F. C. Burnand, Arthur a Beckett, Tom Hood, Mortimer Collins, Joseph Hatton, &c.; and amongst its artists Sir John Gilbert, Charles Keene, Linley Sambourne, G. Bowers, Mrs.

Allingham, W. Small, F. Barnard, F. W. Lawson, M.E.E., and many other notable names--that Caldecott made his first appearance before a London public.