Randolph Caldecott Part 11

"The horse fair was held in a large square or _place_. Under the trees was a crowd of men and women in the dust and heat; horses, cattle, pigs and dogs, in confused movement; with much drinking and shouting at the booths which lined one side of the enclosure."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TYPICAL BRETON.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BRETONNE.]

It was in this year (1878) that he made some extraordinarily rapid sketches in colour with the brush direct, without a touch of the pencil or anything to guide him on the paper. Few sketches of this kind exist, excepting rough notes in books not intended for publication. In the evening the figures in the streets and at the inns had to be noted down.

The next day, which Caldecott called "a rest," was devoted to visiting two farms in the neighbourhood, seeing as much as possible of the interiors of the old houses near Carhaix, with their carved bedsteads, cabinets and clocks, old bra.s.swork and embroideries. It was a rather anxious time for his travelling companion, for there was no restraining Caldecott with such material before him, and he was overworked.

It was in this district that he made one of his most successful sketches; a typical Breton (p. 177), in ancient costume with long hair and knee breeches; a figure rarely met with in these days.

In the south-west corner of Brittany, a few miles south of Quimperle, at a point where the river spreads out into a narrow estuary four miles from the sea, is the primitive little village called appropriately Pont Aven.

Caldecott was much amused, and scandalised at the aspect of the village on our arrival one afternoon; a scene which he thus records on a letter, and afterwards drew for _Breton Folk_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Writing from Pont Aven and recounting "the places which we have visited, done, sketched, interviewed and memorandumed"--he adds:--

"On this journey I have seen more pleasing types of Bretons (and Bretonnes, especially) than in my former rambles in the Cotes du Nord; but there is generally something wrong about each hotel. This particular inn is comfortable. Seven Americans, two or three of them ladies, and about four French people dined with us, mostly of the artist persuasion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CAP OF FINISTERRE.]

"The village and the river sides, the meadows and the valleys reek with artists. A large gang pensions at another inn here.

"On approaching Pont Aven the traveller notices a curious noise rising from the ground and from the woods around him.

It is the flicking of the paint brushes on the canva.s.ses of the hardworking painters who come into view seated in leafy nooks and shady corners. These artists go not far from the town where is cider, billiards and tobacco."

[Ill.u.s.tration: RETURNING FROM LABOUR--PONT AVEN, 1878.]

One of the best of Caldecott's sketches here was "Returning from Labour," a quiet spot on the banks of the Aven where he made several studies.

"Here we feel inclined for the first time to stay and sketch, wandering along the coast to the fishing villages, and visiting farms and homesteads."

From another inn, in an "out of the way" part of Finisterre, he writes:--

"The Hotel du Midi where we put up is conducted in a simple manner; ladies would not like its arrangements. Several inhabitants, and a visitor or two, dine at the table d'hote, but all are unable to carve a duck excepting the English visitor, who is accordingly put down as a cook."

Many works, such as the frieze of a horse fair (p. 137), models in terra cotta and paintings, were the outcome of the Brittany journeys in 1874 and 1878; but Caldecott did not give himself a chance to do what he wished in France; other work crowded upon him in 1878, and before he had time to finish the sketches for _Breton Folk_, he had to return to London to complete drawings for his _Picture Books_, and other work in hand for the _Graphic_ newspaper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BRETON.]

In a letter from London, received at the Abbey of St. Jacut in Brittany on the 29th August, 1878, he says:--

"I have not been able to settle well down to work yet.

Sitting about on hotel benches for a month with Mr.

Blackburn is unhinging. * * * "I fancied somehow that, after the wild career of dissipation in other parts of Brittany, he might find the calm of a cloister insufficiently exciting, and consequently might drag you round to more lively places. I am glad that I am wrong."

The drawings of the "Family Horse," (of "Cleopatra" on page 165,) the sketch in Woburn Park, and several others, were made when on a visit in the neighbourhood in October 1878. A letter referring to his visit to Woburn says:--"On the last evening of Mr. Caldecott's visit here, he was sitting at the dining-room table with the two little boys on his knees, and the rest of the family standing round him. We asked him to draw us each something, and he made us choose our own subjects.

The sketch of himself riding in the park is one of them; it amused him very much to see the deer standing gazing at us."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A FAMILY HORSE."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH IN WOBURN PARK]

At another time there comes a coloured birthday card to a child in London who was fond of flowers; a dark red carnation the size of life, presented by a Lilliputian figure in old-fashioned green coat, with white frill and periwig.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CARNATION.]

Side by side with Caldecott's missives to little children might be printed many a kindly letter to a young author who had sent him ma.n.u.scripts to read. These letters had to be read and answered always in the evenings. A long letter of this kind was written to a lady at Didsbury, near Manchester, in 1878, from which the following extracts are taken[11]:--

"DEAR MISS M.,--Your packet reached me safely, and as I call to mind very readily my feelings in times gone by, after I had posted a piece of literary or artistic composition to some friend acquainted with the dread editor of some magazine, or even to the dread editor himself, I think it only your due that I should write to you without delay about the sketches of country life which you have kindly allowed me to read, and my opinion of which you flatter me by desiring to know. You asked me for my candid opinion; in these cases I always try to be candid.... I think that your papers are, as they stand, hardly interesting enough for the ma.s.s of readers, though to me they draw out pictures which please, and also revive old a.s.sociations.... Their fault, however, if I may speak of faults, is not so much in subject as in style. You have chosen simple subjects, in which is no harm of course; but simple subjects in all kinds of art require a masterly hand to delineate them. The slightest awkwardness of execution is noticed, and mars the simplicity of the whole. When a thrilling story is told, or a very interesting and novel operation described, faults of style are overlooked during the excitement of hearing or reading.

Is it not so?...

"R. C."

In another letter some remarks on the misuse of old English words (a subject on which he says, "I am very ignorant") are worth recording.

"As regards the misuse of certain words, I consult the authorities when a doubt crosses my mind, and I find with sorrow, in which I am joined by other anxious spirits, that the English language is being ruined, chiefly by journalists, English and American. Words of good old nervous meaning, because common, are discarded for words of less force but finer sound, borrowed from other tongues. The use of these new words is often a difficulty to all but cla.s.sical scholars, for the p.r.o.nunciation, the accent, the quant.i.ties, are varied even amongst equally educated people.

"On the introduction of a new word there is always a halo of pedantry about it. Some admire the halo and adopt the word.

The journalists cuddle it. The readers ask what it means, think it sounds rather fine--perhaps genteel--throw over the humble friend who has done them and their conservative forefathers such good service.

"The poor ill-used old fellow of a word then only finds friends amongst the lowly and the loyal; and if in course of time the usurping word, as he rolls by in his carriage and footmen, hears the former wearer of his honours come out from the pa.s.sing pedestrians, he curls his proud lip, pulls up his haughty collar, distends his Grecian nose, and wonders where vulgar people will go to--albeit this vulgar word is better born, and has a higher instep than the carriage word."

In the late Autumn of 1878 Caldecott is again in the south of France, sending home letters--one with a portrait of himself (back view), seated next to a young lady, "whose father is rather deaf."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hotel Gray et d'Albion Cannes, 15 Nov. 1878.]

"I have come here," he says, "in order that rheumatism may forget me and not recognise me on return to Albion's sh.o.r.es. * * *

"I open my bag and take out your letter of 20th November, 1877, which has been ready at hand for reply ever since I received it with a welcome. Letters ought always to be replied to within the twelve months."

[Ill.u.s.tration: AT MENTONE.]

CHAPTER XII.

AT MENTONE, ETC.

From the Riviera in 1879 came the following pictures in letters to friends.

"This hotel is indeed a calm spot, but the food is good, and I have a pleasant little room or two, where I can work comfortably. I know the inhabitant of one villa here, an American; and I think there are two people whom I know in an hotel, so when I feel very lonely I shall hunt them up. There is much snow on the rocky hills near the town, and the weather is rather cold, but the aspect of everything around (nearly) is very fine and worth coming to see."