Randolph Caldecott Part 10

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTRAIT OF A LAWYER BY MORONI.]

For the foreign section of the book on the National Gallery he made many sketches, notably one of the "Portrait of a Lawyer" by Moroni.

Here the touch and method of line are different; quality was more considered, and an attempt made to give something of the effect of the picture.

But neither he, nor those with whom he worked in those days, had mastered the best methods of drawing for mechanical reproduction, as they are understood now; fascinating as it seemed to him, and to many other ill.u.s.trators also, to learn that the time had come when, by mechanical--or more properly chemical--engraving, the touch of the pen could be printed on the page.

It may be said generally in 1877, that Caldecott disliked drawing for "process," and that after years of experience, and having achieved most successful results by photographic engraving, he remained faithful to the wood engraver. The delicate little drawings in brown ink, which were dispersed in hundreds under the auctioneer's hammer in June, 1886, had nearly all been photographed on to wood blocks.

In June, 1877, Caldecott--staying at Shaldon, Teignmouth, South Devon, for the benefit of his health, chafing under enforced idleness and "debarred by the doctors from all sport," as he says--writes a letter with the following little sketch of "Waiting for a Boat."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "WAITING FOR A BOAT."]

"The weather has been unwell for many of the days, and has much interfered with the intellectual occupation of enticing 'dabs' on to hooks let down into the sea by pieces of string and concealed by shreds of mussels.

"On only one occasion have I been engaged in this exciting pursuit--all chases and pursuits are more or less exciting--but this one on that account can hardly be considered 'detrimental' to my health. There were three of us in the boat when I engaged in the sport. We had a large can of fine mussels. We threw out the lines and hauled them in every now and then, for three good hours, being about a mile out to sea. Two whole dabs were the result. I was quite calm as we rowed home.

"I do not boast of this exploit, although the larger dab was at least seven inches long by four and a half wide, and fully 3/8 of an inch thick. Still I glow a little as I recount his measurements."

Many ill.u.s.trations were made in the autumn of 1877 for the _Graphic_ and other publications which need not be detailed. A painting of one of his favourite hunting scenes was also in progress, in spite of dark days and delicate health.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "CLEOPATRA."]

CHAPTER XI.

"BRETON FOLK," ETC.

For Mr. Frederick Locker-Lampson, the poet, Caldecott made in the years 1877-8, twelve drawings to ill.u.s.trate _Bramble Rise_, _A Winter Phantasy_, _My Neighbour Rose_, and other verses. These ill.u.s.trations, most delicately drawn in pen and ink, have not yet been published. One was used in 1881 in a privately printed edition of the _London Lyrics_, and three in 1883, in a little volume of the _Lyrics_ printed by the "Book Fellows Club" in New York. Caldecott afterwards made four ill.u.s.trations for Mrs. Locker-Lampson's child's book, _What the Blackbird Said_, and two years afterwards, in 1882, an ill.u.s.tration to her _Greystoke Hall_. These two books are published by Messrs.

Routledge.

In 1878 he exhibited his picture of "The Three Huntsmen" riding home in evening light. It was hung rather high in Gallery VII. at the Royal Academy Exhibition, and technically could hardly be p.r.o.nounced a success; but it was a distinct advance on previous exhibited work, and drew the serious attention of critics to Caldecott as a painter. The sketch appeared in an article on the Academy in _L'Art_, vol. xx. p.

211. Of this oil painting, Mr. Mundella, the late President of the Board of Trade writes:--

"The picture was bought by me of poor Caldecott in 1878. I think it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year, but I bought it from his easel. It is an oil painting, 3 ft.

6 in. by 2 ft. 9 in., and the subject is the 'Three Huntsmen.' I remember his bringing the song to my house after the purchase, and reading the song with great enjoyment, pointing out to us how he had ill.u.s.trated the verse, 'We hunted and we holloed till the setting of the sun.' My little granddaughter (Millais' 'Dorothy Thorpe') was his model for several of his Christmas books. She is the little girl in _Sing a Song of Sixpence_ and several others, and possesses copies sent by him with little sketches and dedications. He is indeed a national loss."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE THREE HUNTSMEN (OIL PAINTING).

Royal Academy, 1878.]

In the Grosvenor Gallery of the same year Caldecott exhibited a small metal bas-relief of "A Boar Hunt," of which he made the following sketch in _Grosvenor Notes_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A BOAR HUNT" (BAS-RELIEF). Grosvenor Gallery, 1878.

No. 232. 8 in. 18 in.]

Special interest attaches to this design, also to "The Horse Fair in Brittany," reproduced on page 137, for the insight it gives of Caldecott's varied artistic powers, which, by force of circ.u.mstances, were always held in reserve. If, as a writer remarks, "The treatment of reliefs is a test of the state of a school of sculpture," these examples may help to "place" Caldecott amongst contemporary artists.

Early in 1878, Mr. Edmund Evans, the wood engraver, came to him with a proposal that he should ill.u.s.trate some books for children to be printed in colours. The plan was soon decided upon, and the first of the _Picture Books_ was begun. In the summer of the same year, Caldecott went with the writer for a second time to Brittany.

It was at first intended to take a gig and drive through and through the country, giving an account of adventures from day to day, and Caldecott (who was more at home perhaps, in a gig than in any other position of life) favoured the idea; but time and other circ.u.mstances prevented.

The next proposal was to give a general description of the country and its people, its churches and ruined castles, as they exist to-day. But Caldecott did not take to this idea; he never in his lifetime drew buildings with the same facility as figures, and, at that time, to attempt to make drawings of chateaux, cathedrals and the like, would have been unsuccessful. So the book, _Brittany Picturesque_, which had already been partly written, was laid aside to give s.p.a.ce for sketches of _Breton Folk_.[10]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE TRAP."]

"We obtained a trap in a few days"--not the gig, independent of a driver, which Caldecott always sighed for. His delight and high spirits on the first journey, in 1874, are seen in the sketch where he is waving farewell to some astonished peasantry. To be "on the road" was always a pleasure to Caldecott, from the "old Whitchurch days," which he often described to his friends--driving home in the dark at reckless speed after a late supper, in a dog-cart full of rather uproarious company--down to 1885 at Frensham, when as host, he would drive his friends in the lanes of Surrey.

At least 200 sketches must have been made in these journeys; besides jottings of heads, figures and the like, and several drawings in water colours.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.]

The summer fetes and "pardons," all through the country, furnished capital material for his pencil, the women's caps of different districts were each recorded, and here and there a solemn suggestive landscape noted for a picture which was never to be completed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRETON FARMER AND CATTLE.]

The circ.u.mstances under which some of the sketches were made is indicated on page 171.

One of the first drawings made in Brittany, both in colour and black and white (a scene of which Caldecott was always desirous of making a finished picture), was the buckwheat harvest, with the women at work in the fields. Many similar scenes were put down in note-books, many were the studies of clouds careering over the wind-blown land, which were never engraved or published.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WAYSIDE CROSS.]

Two of the princ.i.p.al events in these journeys were visits to a horse fair at Le Folgoet, and to a cattle fair at Carhaix, where Caldecott made the following sketches:--

"Le Folgoet is in the north of Finisterre, in the north-west corner of Brittany. The country is for the most part flat and dreary in aspect; a few fields of buckwheat, corn, and rye are pa.s.sed on the road, protected by banked-up hedges, and skirted by pollard trees.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AT THE HORSE FAIR, LE FOLGOET.]

"On the road as we approach the fair, a mile and a half from the town, is a characteristic figure, a barefooted _gamin_ with red cap and grey jersey trotting out an old chestnut mare." As he stops and turns to look back, he is thus rapidly recorded in a sketch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TROTTING OUT HORSES AT CARHAIX.]

Apart from the artistic material so abundant everywhere, Caldecott's love for animals and knowledge of them, his interest in everything connected with farming, markets, country life and surroundings, roused him to exertions at Carhaix which none but the most hardy "special artist" would have attempted.

It was an exciting time for Caldecott, both on the road and at the fair; materials for his pencil were everywhere, and for three days there was little rest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CATTLE FAIR AT CARHAIX.]

Carhaix being in the centre of Brittany, far remote from railways, had special attractions in the variety of character and costume. Here, weak in health as Caldecott then was, he stood and worked all day, being especially interested in the trotting out and sale of horses. Turning to our diary:--