Randolph Caldecott Part 4

The artistic interest in these drawings is great, if only from the fact that they are amongst the few of his works drawn in pen and ink for direct reproduction without the intervention of the wood-engraver.

Caldecott was one of the first to try, and to avail himself of, the various methods of reproduction for the newspaper press; and in the pages of the _Daily Graphic_, his facile touch and play of line was made to appear with startling emphasis on the printed page.[6]

But after all, the humour and drollery of Caldecott's nature appears with more unrestrained effect in the sketches on his letters to friends, such as are scattered through this volume; the natural awe of publication in any form having a restraining effect.

In July and August he is working "in the loose box at Farnham Royal,"

the country cottage sketched on page 90 and referred to in the following and other letters.

[Ill.u.s.tration "HOGARTH CLUB, 84, CHARLOTTE STREET, FITZROY SQUARE, W.]

"Dear ----,--The poet sings, 'Oh! have you seen her lately?'

to which I answer, 'Yes.' But, whether or no, I returned to-day from a fortnight's sojourn in Buckinghamshire, and the first thing I was going to do was to write to you and say that I have no acquaintance with the happy medium who resides in my very old rooms in Great Russell Street. I have left those rooms, and am a wanderer and an Ishmaelite. I dare not take those rooms when she leaves. I called at the house just now and found another note from you. I had a good look at Europe during my Vienna expedition. I was away a month and saw many towns, and conversed with many peoples and tongues. I could say much, but will defer till we meet over the flowing bowl. Since I came back I have been staying with a friend at Holborn Circus, and also with some friends at Farnham Royal, near Slough, a lovely country place. There I have been working off some sketches of Vienna and England for the use of the neighbouring country of America. But I could not help being interrupted. Fancy a being like this bobbing about! Howsomedever, I am again in town at Bank Chambers, Holborn Circus, E.C., where I may be consulted daily. Please observe signature on the box, without which none others are genuine, post free for thirteen stamps. So you see that I have had a seven weeks' delightful mixture of toil and pleasure, and ought now to have a bout of toil only. There is a book waiting to be ill.u.s.trated.

"R. C."

In the same month (August 1873), he went with a letter of introduction to Dalou, the French sculptor, then living in Chelsea. Of this interview he writes, "M. Dalou very kind in hints, showing me clay, &c." A friendship followed, cemented in the first instance by a bargain that Caldecott should come and work at the studio and teach the sculptor to talk English, whilst Dalou helped him in his modelling!

Caldecott profited by the arrangement, and often spoke in after years of the value of Dalou's practical teaching. Many visits were paid to the sculptor's studio in the year 1873.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY DECORATIVE DESIGN, THE PROPERTY OF G. AITCHISON, A.R.A.]

In the intervals of work Caldecott also made life studies at the Zoological Gardens in London, and anatomical studies of birds.

In September he made a drawing of Mark Twain lecturing in London, for the _Daily Graphic_, and in October records the purchase by Mr. G.

Aitchison, the architect, of a cast of his "first bas relief," a hunting subject; also of "two brown paper pelican drawings," one reproduced on the last page.

In November he writes the following to a friend in Manchester:--

"46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C.,

"_November 16, 1873_.

"Dear ----,--I have nothing to say to you--nothing at all.

Therefore I write. I don't like writing when I have aught to say, because I never feel quite eloquent enough to put the business in the proper light for all parties. Having a love and yearning for Bowdon and Dunham, and the 'publics' which there adjacent lie, I think of you on these calm Sunday evenings about the hour when my errant legs used to repose beneath the deal of the sequestered inn at Bollington. How are you? I was pleased to see that the _Athenaeum_ gave a long s.p.a.ce to your book, although I presume you did not care for the way they reviewed it. That is nothing. I have been very busy--not coining money, oh no!--but occupied, or I should say have descended into the country, during last month. 'Graced with some merit, and with more effrontery; his country's pride, he went down to the country.' My summer rambles shall be talked of, and the wonderful works in the regions of art shall be described when next I see you. Till then, farewell! This short letter is like a call.--Yours, R. C."

The last entry of interest in his diary in 1873, is on December 3rd.

"To _Graphic_ office, saw Mr. Thomas. Fixed that I should go down to Leicestershire next week for hunting subjects."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THIS IS NOT A FIRST-CLa.s.s COW."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDIES FOR A LARGE DECORATIVE DESIGN, 1874.]

CHAPTER V.

DRAWING FOR "THE PICTORIAL WORLD," ETC.

Let us now glance at Caldecott's diary for 1874, which, with his letters to friends and the sketches which so often accompanied them, give an insight into the character of his work at this time. It is altogether an extraordinary record.

On the 14th of January, 1874, he is "working in the afternoons, sketching swans at Armstrong's." This was part of a large decorative design which he afterwards a.s.sisted in painting (see ill.u.s.tration on page 89).

On the 23rd January, 1874, is an interesting note.

"J. Cooper, engraver, came and proposed to ill.u.s.trate, with seventy or eighty sketches, Washington Irving's _Sketch Book_. Went all through it and left me to consider. I like the idea."

In February he completed a drawing of the Quorn Hunt for the _Graphic_ newspaper.

On the 12th March, he enters in his diary, "Preparing sketch of choir for W. Irving's _Sketch Book_;" showing that he was already at work on the book which was to make his reputation.

At the same time he was preparing ill.u.s.trations and trying new processes of drawing for reproduction, to aid in founding a new newspaper.

How far Mr. Caldecott was ready to conquer difficulties in his art, and how heartily he aided his friends in any project with which he was connected, are matters of history closely connected with his engagement on the _Pictorial World_, which had a bright promise for the future in 1874.

Some of the large ill.u.s.trations were produced by Dawson's "Typographic Etching" process. The drawings were made with a point on plates covered with a thin coating of wax, the artist's needle, as in etching, removing the wax and exposing the surface of the plate wherever a line was required in relief--"a fiendish process!" as Caldecott described it, but with which he succeeded in obtaining excellent results--better than any artist previously.

On the 7th of March, 1874, a new ill.u.s.trated newspaper called the _Pictorial World_ was started in London, of which the present writer was the art editor.

It was the time of the general election of 1874, when the defeat of Mr.

Gladstone, the question of "Home Rule," and many exciting events were being recorded in the newspapers. Caldecott was asked to make a cartoon of the elections, and at once sat down and made the pencil sketch overleaf.

For some reason this drawing was not completed; but instead, a group of various election scenes was drawn by him and appeared in the _Pictorial World_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE POLLING BOOTH.]

There were numerous sketches combined on one page, three of which are reproduced here. The ill.u.s.trations on pages 70, 72, 80, 81, 82, and 84 were drawn (generally under great pressure of time) with an etching needle on Dawson's plates. This was the beginning of what are now familiarly known as "process" drawings in newspapers, but the system of photographic engraving, now largely used, was not then perfected. In 1874 it would have been impossible to reproduce rapidly in a newspaper, either the delicate lines of a pen and ink sketch, or such a pencil drawing as that given above.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOME RULE--MARCH 1874.

Facsimile of pencil sketch for the _Pictorial World_.]

Caldecott rendered valuable a.s.sistance at this time, and the early numbers of the paper are worth having if only for the reproduction of his work. It is not generally known how many of the large ill.u.s.trations in the _Pictorial World_ were by his hand, or how much he was identified with the publication in the first days of its career.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "ON THE STUMP."]

Amongst the best ill.u.s.trations by Caldecott for the newspaper at that period were sketches and studies that he had made for pictures, selected from his studio; such for instance as "Coursing," "Somebody's Coming," and the "Morning Walk," on pp. 75, 77, and 86. The latter design was not drawn specially for the _Pictorial World_, but Caldecott made a drawing of it for the paper, which appeared in the number for 18th July, 1874.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SCOTCH ELECTIONS--"GOING TO THE HUSTINGS."]

From a bundle of sketches (some very pretty) of subjects connected with Saint Valentine, he made a page for the same paper. These again, may seem small matters to record, but they are facts in the history of a life teeming with interest, and show that Caldecott's talent as an ill.u.s.trator was revealed in 1874; that he was "invented," as the saying is, long before the publication of Washington Irving's _Sketch Book_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAIRING TIME]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COURSING.]