The Pictorial Press Part 20

The late Mr. S. Read, who was one of the first special artists employed on the pictorial press, travelled much abroad, yet he knew little or nothing of any language save his mother tongue. Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, were all visited by him, and he got on very well without speaking the language of any of those countries. He was a man of genial humour, accustomed to make the best of everything, and not easily put out by trifles. He was once travelling in the south of France when a fellow-pa.s.senger in the train accosted him in French, and was much surprised to find he was not understood.

'Vat!' said the Frenchman; 'you travel and speak no French! Speak you German?'

'No.'

'Nor Italian?'

'No.'

'Spanish?'

'No.'

'Ah, mon Dieu! you travel and speak noting!' and with a pitying grimace and shrug of the shoulders he looked round at the other pa.s.sengers.

Presently our artist took his revenge. As they were pa.s.sing a town with a ruined castle on a hill he said, with much fervour, addressing the Frenchman,--

'How beautifully that old tower is relieved by the dark foliage! What a splendid contrast is the cold grey of the hill behind! How harmoniously the distance is blended with the middle distance, and the middle distance with the foreground, by means of the bridge across the river!'

The Frenchman stared, stammered, and confessed he did not comprehend.

'What!' said our artist; 'you travel and do not understand English!'

'Ver leetle.'

'Do you speak Scotch?'

'Non, m'sieur.'

'Nor Irish!'

'Non.'

'Welsh?'

'Non.'

'Suffolk?'

'Non, non, m'sieur.'

With an exact imitation of the Frenchman's contemptuous shrug our friend turned to their fellow-travellers amid the loud laughter of those who understood the joke.

When the special artist exercises his vocation at home, though he lacks the excitement of danger, he meets with many amusing incidents. An artist who attended the meeting of the British a.s.sociation at Lincoln many years ago desired to sketch the house which was reputed to have been the residence of John o' Gaunt, and asked the waiter at the hotel if he could direct him to it. 'Johnny Gaunt, Sir?' said the waiter, evidently puzzled; 'I don't know him, Sir, but I'll inquire.' In a few minutes he returned and said he had inquired at the bar, but that no such person as Johnny Gaunt resided thereabouts. Another, who was something of a wag, was once making a sketch in the heart of St.

Giles's; there were no School Boards in those days, and numbers of idle street boys surrounded our sketcher, performing all manner of bewildering gymnastics. Not at all disturbed, however, he amused himself by asking his young friends numerous questions, all of which were answered with rapid pertness. At last he inquired of one active imp if he could read. 'No, I can't read,' said the young gentleman, 'but I can stand on my head and drink a quartern o' gin.'

The methods pursued by special artists in obtaining their sketches are as various as the methods of painters in producing their pictures, or of authors in writing their books. One man uses a very small sketch-book, another prefers a large one, but they all require to supplement their hurried sketches with marginal notes. When there is not time to sketch a complete cow, it is good to write underneath the sketch, 'This is a cow.' Many events have to be sketched that last only a few minutes, and in such cases some little mistakes will occur even with old pract.i.tioners. Literary correspondents are liable to the same misfortune. At a certain royal marriage in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, the Lord Chamberlain obligingly sent a gentleman to attend the members of the press, and inform them as to the name and rank of the distinguished guests as they entered the chapel. The correspondents courteously allowed the artists of the pictorial press to take front places, so that some of their number were unable to see what was going on, and had to trust to their comrades for information. When the Duke of A----, in full Highland costume, entered the chapel, there was a general inquiry, 'Who is that?' 'That,' said the gentleman from the Lord Chamberlain's department, 'is the Duke of A----, the great Mac Callum More.' 'Who is it?' cried some of the gentlemen in the background, and the name was pa.s.sed on, but by the time it reached the outer fringe of correspondents it was changed into 'The Duke of A---- with the Great Claymore,' and under that style and t.i.tle his grace's name figured in at least one newspaper next day.

What may be called the shorthand notes for a sketch are sometimes difficult to make out without explanation. On one occasion a sketch was under consideration, when the editor made certain suggestions to the artist, who was very good natured, and of a most pliant disposition. 'I think, you know,' said the editor, 'if you were to add two or three more figures in the foreground it would improve the composition and help to detach the princ.i.p.al group from this windmill.' 'Well, the fact is,'

replied the artist, 'what you call a windmill I intended for a man on horseback, but if you think it will come better as a windmill I'll alter it with pleasure.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SPECIAL ARTIST ON THE ROAD.]

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This incident was ill.u.s.trated in _Punch_, and lest I should be accused of using up old material, I must explain that the hero of the adventure, on his return to England, told the story to one of the _Punch_ artists, who made a sketch of the incident, which was afterwards published.

CHAPTER X.

Artists who have a.s.sisted in founding the Pictorial Press--Sir John Gilbert, R.A., G. H. Thomas, and others--Wood-Engraving and its Connexion with the Pictorial Press--Other Methods of producing Ill.u.s.trations--Wood-Engraving in England before and after Bewick's time--Its wide Diffusion owing to the kindred Art of Printing--The resources of the Art developed by Pictorial Newspapers--Conclusion.

Newspapers a Necessity of Civilised Life--The _Acta Diurna_ of the Romans--Early Newspapers in Venice, Germany, and the Low Countries--List of Ill.u.s.trated Newspapers published Abroad.

The establishment of the pictorial press as an English inst.i.tution was greatly aided by the active co-operation of many distinguished artists, the very foremost in this connexion being Sir John Gilbert. Other Royal Academicians and eminent painters have drawn on wood for the ill.u.s.trated newspapers, but Gilbert stands out pre-eminently the great popular ill.u.s.trator of the Victorian era. He it was who first gave a distinctive character to the ill.u.s.tration of news. He seemed to possess an inborn knowledge of the essentials of newspaper art, and could express by a few freely drawn lines and touches the hurried movement of street crowds or the state and dignity of Court ceremonies. Whether he had to draw a knight in armour or a gentleman in a paletot he did it in a way exactly suited to rapid engraving and printing. The feeling which, in his pictures, makes him delight in battle-fields, blazoned banners, velvet and gold, made his drawings on wood brilliant in handling and always picturesque. It was most fortunate that the commencement of his career was coincident with the foundation of the pictorial press. William Harvey and other artists were already in the field, but Gilbert's style was better adapted to newspaper work. His quickness and versatility made him just the man that was wanted. Harvey had drawn some of the subjects published in the _Observer_, but his style was not suited to the ill.u.s.tration of current events.

Nothing came amiss to Gilbert, who supplied the pictorial press for twenty years with a constant succession of effective drawings, embracing all kinds of subjects, and he never failed in that most essential quality of a newspaper artist--_punctuality_. It is as the popular ill.u.s.trator that the name of Gilbert stands at the head of that numerous band of artists who contributed to the foundation of ill.u.s.trated journalism in this country.

The late George H. Thomas was not less successful than Gilbert in the spirit and vigour of his drawings. His bold and eminently artistic pencil alternated with Gilbert's in portraying the exciting events following the revolutionary period of 1848-49. His contributions to the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_ during the Crimean war were marked by great force and truthfulness, and procured him the notice and patronage of her Majesty Queen Victoria. Mr. Thomas's premature death in 1868 was a great loss to the world of art in general, and to the pictorial press in particular.

It is remarkable that many of our distinguished artists should have begun their careers as engravers or draughtsmen on wood. The production of works in black and white, whether as engravings or drawings, is no doubt good artistic practice in the study of light and shade, and the young artist who draws on wood as a means of helping him to live while he is waiting for fame, is at the same time pursuing a useful branch of his art education. Luke Fildes, A.R.A., Birket Foster, W. Small, R. C.

Woodville, C. Gregory, A.R.A., and many others began in this way, and among deceased artists occur the names of S. Read, E. Duncan, and F. W.

Topham. The two last were both engravers. All these men have done good work on the pictorial press, and some of them first won distinction through its medium. Both the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_ and the _Graphic_ may claim to have done good service to art and artists in this respect.

Their pages have always been open to young artists of ability, and while they have helped forward struggling genius they have opened up new sources of enjoyment to the general public.

The pictorial press has. .h.i.therto been mainly dependent on the art of wood-engraving for its ill.u.s.trations, but latterly several inventions have been used, not unsuccessfully, in the production of blocks in relief, to be printed in the same manner as woodcuts. The great improvements that have been made in surface printing render it probable that in the future these _process_ blocks may be extensively used in ill.u.s.trated newspapers. They are recommended by their cheapness and rapid production; and as the intermediate process of engraving is dispensed with, they retain the exact touch of the artist, and are not liable to be mutilated by careless or hasty engraving. It may be said of all these inventions, however, that they are best suited for slight sketches, and should not be applied to the production of highly-finished subjects. For the latter there is nothing better than a woodcut, which, when well executed and carefully printed, has a richness superior to any other method of engraving. But in the present day compet.i.tion is so great and the march of events is so rapid that cheapness and rapidity of production will override artistic excellence, and _process_-engraving, as it is called, will probably be the method adopted for the _daily_ pictorial press, the era of which is approaching.

Wood-engraving, as an art, scarcely existed in this country before the time of Thomas Bewick. To him we owe its revival, and he was thus indirectly concerned in the creation of the pictorial newspaper. Though we have seen that the _Grub Street Journal_ and the _Observer_ on a few occasions used copperplate ill.u.s.trations, it is perfectly certain that an ill.u.s.trated newspaper, properly so-called, never could have existed but for the art of wood-engraving. It was an essential agent in bringing into life this novel offspring of the printing press, just as it a.s.sisted in the birth of the old 'block books.' When Caxton brought the art of printing into this country the woodcuts printed at his press were probably executed by the printers whom he brought with him. His successors ill.u.s.trated their books in the same way, and even after wood-engraving was practised in England as a distinct profession many of the ill.u.s.trations in books and pamphlets were the work of printers. When something of superior design and finish was wanted, ready-made woodcuts were procured from Nuremberg or Lyons, then the chief marts for such productions. The blocks so obtained were sometimes used without much regard to the book in which they were printed. Cuts originally designed for an edition of _Ovid_ appeared in the Bible, and no notice was taken of this mixture of sacred and profane things. Albert Durer's influence on the art of wood-engraving was very great, but it never extended to this country. Hans Holbein, who came to England two years before Durer's death, made a few designs for the wood-engravers during his long residence here. His transient use of the art, however, did not raise it to a better condition, and printers continued to be the chief producers of woodcuts. In the time of Queen Elizabeth there flourished a printer and engraver of the name of John Day, who took for his mark an emblematic device of the day-spring of the reformed religion, with the motto, 'Arise, for it is Day.' The best ill.u.s.trated books of that period were produced by him. About this time the art was rapidly declining in other countries, but in England it was in a better condition than at any previous period. It soon, however, declined in this country also, but was kept alive by Edward Kirkall, John Baptiste Jackson, and others, until it was revived by Thomas Bewick.

The low condition of the art of wood-engraving in this country was chiefly owing to the want of good designers, and it was not until a man arose who possessed the power to _draw_ as well as to _engrave_ that an English school of wood-engraving was created. Bewick possessed the artistic faculty as a direct gift from nature; and though it was from accidental circ.u.mstances that he was led to exercise this innate power in drawing and engraving on wood, he soon discovered of what the art was capable, and devoted his chief attention to it. He drew such things as he understood and had studied from nature, and thoroughly comprehending the scope and power of wood-engraving, he was able, with little labour, to produce the best results.

At the time of Bewick's death, in 1828, England had scarcely recovered from the exhausting wars of Napoleon, trade was stagnant, and taxation was heavy. The ma.s.s of the people had no money to spend on such luxuries as ill.u.s.trated books, and the enterprise of publishers was confined to the production of the well-known 'Annuals' of that day; but they were ill.u.s.trated with steel engravings, and were only purchased by the wealthier cla.s.ses. Such works as _Robinson Crusoe_ and the _Pilgrim's Progress_, for which there is always a demand, were ill.u.s.trated by Cruikshank and Harvey. There was _Northcote's Fables_, on which all the best engravers of the day were employed; but it was not until the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge began its operations, and Charles Knight took the lead in ill.u.s.trated literature, that wood-engraving began to be extensively used. The art was so little known that when the woodcuts of the _Penny Magazine_ began to attract attention a n.o.bleman of that day spoke of them as the productions of a new art. Ill.u.s.trations were so seldom used that the preparation of even a small woodcut was of much moment to all concerned. I have heard the late William Harvey relate that when Whittingham, the well-known printer, wanted a new cut for his 'Chiswick Press' series, he would write to Harvey and John Thompson, the engraver, appointing a meeting at Chiswick, when printer, designer, and engraver talked over the matter with as much deliberation as if they were about to produce a costly national monument, and after they had settled all points over a snug supper, the result of their labours was the production, months afterwards, of a small woodcut measuring perhaps two inches by three. At this time only about a dozen persons, besides Bewick's pupils, were practising the art of wood-engraving in England, and in France the art was so low that a few years later the blocks for the _Magazin Pittoresque_ were sent from Paris to London to be engraved. In Germany, the cradle of the art, it languished as in other countries, while in America, a country which is now taking a leading part in the cultivation of wood-engraving, the art was almost unknown as a native production. It is now in use all over the civilised world, and there is scarcely a capital city without its newspaper ill.u.s.trated with woodcuts. It has even penetrated to the sunless regions of ice and snow. In the Library of the South Kensington Museum there is a book with ill.u.s.trations drawn and engraved on wood by Esquimaux!

The cause of this wide diffusion and extended employment of the art of wood-engraving is undoubtedly its close alliance with the kindred art of printing. No other method of engraving lends itself so easily to the rapid productions of the printing-press. From the earliest days of printing the two arts have advanced hand in hand, aiding in the growth of knowledge and the spread of civilisation. The application of steam to the art of printing revolutionised the world of typography, and wood-engraving was not slow in adapting itself to the new conditions.

The advancing spirit of education created a demand for cheap knowledge.

Penny magazines and pictorial newspapers came into existence. The steam printing-press spread them far and wide, and wood-engraving since the time of Bewick has shown that it possesses capabilities which that genuine old artist would have rejoiced to behold.

In tracing the origin and progress of the pictorial press I have confined my researches to British journalism, but the subject might be widely extended. From the days of the _Acta Diurna_ of the Romans something in the shape of a newspaper appears to have been a necessity of civilised life. Soon after the invention of printing small news-sheets appeared in various towns of Germany and in Venice. In the Low Countries an ill.u.s.trated war gazette was published as early as 1605.

It was called the _Niewetijdinghe_, and it was the precursor of the _Gazette van Antwerpen_, which survived till 1805. During the Spanish and Austrian rule in Belgium each town had its privileged newspaper. As the printers of those days were well acquainted with the art of wood-engraving, it is not unlikely that some of these early newspapers contained ill.u.s.trations. The earlier newspapers of Holland were chiefly devoted to commercial intelligence, and afforded little scope for ill.u.s.tration, but ill.u.s.trated broadsides were not uncommon. In Germany the first regular newspaper appeared in 1615, when the art of wood-engraving had greatly declined; and when the physician Renaudot started the first newspaper in France, in 1631, if the idea of ill.u.s.trating it had occurred to him he would have had to rely on his printer for the production of the woodcuts. As, however, the low condition of ill.u.s.trative art in the seventeenth century did not deter English printers of 'News-books' from seeking such pictorial aid as they could obtain, it is highly probable their Continental brethren did the same, however insufficient might be the means at their command.

When the history of our own age comes to be written the pictorial newspapers will form an inexhaustible store-house for the historian. The following list of cities in Europe, America, and the English colonies, with the names of the ill.u.s.trated newspapers published by them, will convey some idea of the extent to which pictorial journalism has spread during the last forty years:--

PARIS:

_L'Ill.u.s.tration._ _Le Monde Ill.u.s.tre._ _L'Univers Ill.u.s.tre._ _La Republique Ill.u.s.tree._ _La France Ill.u.s.tree._

BERLIN: