ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN" BY KATE GREENAWAY (EDMUND EVANS)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN" BY KATE GREENAWAY (EDMUND EVANS)
In "Granny's Story Box" (Piper, Stephenson, and Spence, about 1855), a most delicious collection of fairy tales illustrated by J. Knight, we find the author in his preface protesting against the opinion of a supposititious old lady who "thought all fairy tales were abolished years ago by Peter Parley and thePenny Magazine." These fanciful stories deserve to be republished, for they are not old-fashioned, even if their pictures are.
To what date certain delightfully printed little volumes, issued by Tabart and Co., 157 Bond Street, may be ascribed I know not—probably some years before the time we are considering, but they must not be overlooked. The title of one, "Mince Pies for Christmas," suggests that it is not very far before, for the legend of Christmas festivities had not long been revived for popular use.
"The Little Lychetts," by the author of "John Halifax," illustrated by Henry Warren, President of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours (now the R.I.) is remarkable for the extremely uncomely type of children it depicts; yet that its charm is still vivid, despite its "severe" illustrations, you have but to lend it to a child to be convinced quickly.
"Jack's Holiday," by Albert Smith (undated), suggests a new field of research which might lead us astray, as Smith's humour is more often addressed primarily to adults. Indeed, the effort to make this chronicle even representative,much less exhaustive, breaks down in the fifties, when so much good yet not very exhilarating material is to be found in every publisher's list. John Leech in "The Silver Swan" of Mdme. de Chatelaine; Charles Keene in "The Adventures of Dick Bolero" (Darton, no date), and "Robinson Crusoe" (drawn upon for illustration here), and others of thePunchartists, should find their works duly catalogued even in this hasty sketch; but space compels scant justice to many artists of the period, yet if the most popular are left unnoticed such omission will more easily right itself to any reader interested in the subject.
Many show influences of the Gothic revival which was then in the air, but only those which have some idea of book decoration as opposed to inserted pictures. For a certain "formal" ornamentation of the page was in fashion in the "forties" and "fifties," even as it is to-day.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "CAPE TOWN DICKY" BY ALICE HAVERS (C. W. FAULKNER AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "CAPE TOWN DICKY" BY ALICE HAVERS(C. W. FAULKNER AND CO.)
To the artists named as representative of this period one must not forget to add Mr. Birket Foster, who devoted many of his felicitous studies of English pastoral life to the adornment of children's books. But speaking broadly of the period from the Queen's Accession to 1865, except that the subjects are of a sort supposed to appeal to young minds, their conception differs in no way from the work of the same artists in ordinary literature. The vignettes of scenery have childish instead of grown-up figures in the foregrounds; the historical or legendary figures are as seriously depicted in the one class of books as in the other. Humour is conspicuous by its absence—or, to be more accurate, the humour is more often in the accompanying anecdote than in the picture. Probably if the authorship of hundreds of the illustrations of "Peter Parley's Annuals" and other books of this period could be traced, artists as famous as Charles Keene might be found to have contributed. But, owing to the mediocre wood-engraving employed, or to the poor printing, the pictures are singularly unattractive. As a rule, they are unsigned and appear to be often mere pot-boilers—some no doubt intentionally disowned by the designer—others the work of 'prentice hands who afterwards became famous. Above all they are, essentially, illustrations to children's books only because they chanced to be printed therein, and have sometimes done duty in "grown-up" books first. Hence, whatever their artistic merits, they do not appeal to a student of our present subject. They are accidentally present in books for children, but essentially they belong to ordinary illustrations.
Indeed, speaking generally, the time between "Felix Summerley" andWalter Crane, which saw two Great Exhibitions and witnessed many advancesin popular illustration, was too much occupied with catering for adults to be specially interested in juveniles. Hence, notwithstanding the names of "illustrious illustrators" to be found on their title-pages, no great injustice will be done if we leave this period and pass on to that which succeeded it. For the Great Exhibition fostered the idea that a smattering of knowledge of a thousand and one subjects was good. Hence the chastened gaiety of its mildly technical science, its popular manuals by Dr. Dionysius Lardner, and its return in another form to the earlier ideal that amusement should be combined with instruction. All sorts of attempts were initiated to make Astronomy palatable to babies, Botany an amusing game for children, Conchology a parlour pastime, and so on through the alphabet of sciences down to Zoology, which is never out of favour with little ones, even if its pictures be accompanied by a dull encylopædia of fact.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WHITE SWANS" BY ALICE HAVERS (By permission of Mr. Albert Hildesheimer)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WHITE SWANS" BY ALICE HAVERS (By permission of Mr. Albert Hildesheimer)
Therefore, except so far as the work of certain illustrators, hereafter noticed, touches this period, we may leave it; not because it is unworthy of most serious attention, for in Sir John Gilbert, Birket Foster, Harrison Weir, and the rest, we have men to reckon with whenever a chronicle of English illustration is in question, but only because they did not often feel disposed to make their work merely amusing. In saying this it is not suggested that they should have tried to be always humorous or archaic, still less to bring down their talent to the supposed level of a child; but only to record the fact that they did not. For instance, Sir John Gilbert's spirited compositions to a "Boy's Book of Ballads" (Bell and Daldy) as you see them mixed with other of the master's work in the reference scrap-books of the publishers, do not at once separate themselves from the rest as "juvenile" pictures.
Nor as we approach the year 1855 (of the "Music Master"), and 1857 (when the famous edition of Tennyson's Poems began a series of superbly illustrated books), do we find any immediate change in the illustration of children's books. The solitary example of Sir Edward Burne-Jones's efforts in this direction, in the frontispiece and title-page to Maclaren's "The Fairy Family" (Longmans, 1857), does not affect this statement. But soon after, as the school of Walker and Pinwell became popular, there is a change in books of all sorts, and Millais and Arthur Hughes, two of the three illustrators of the notable "Music Master," come into our list of children's artists. At this point the attempt to weave a chronicle of children's books somewhat in the date of their publication must give way to a desultory notice of the most prominent illustrators.For we have come to the beginning of to-day rather than the end of yesterday, and can regard the "sixties" onwards as part of the present.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)
It is true that the Millais of the wonderful designs to "The Parables" more often drew pictures of children than of children's pet themes, but all the same they are entirely lovable, and appeal equally to children of all ages. But his work in this field is scanty; nearly all will be found in "Little Songs for me to Sing" (Cassell), or in "Lilliput Levee" (1867), and these latter had appeared previously inGood Words. Of Arthur Hughes's work we will speak later.
Another artist whose work bulks large in our subject—Arthur Boyd Houghton—soon appears in sight, and whether he depicted babies at play as in "Home Thoughts and Home Scenes," a book of thirty-five pictures of little people, or imagined the scenes of stories dear to them in "The Arabian Nights," or books like "Ernie Elton" or "The Boy Pilgrims," written especially for them, in each he succeeded in winning their hearts, as every one must admit who chanced in childhood to possess his work. So much has been printed lately of the artist and his work, that here a bare reference will suffice.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)
Arthur Hughes, whose work belongs to many of the periods touched upon in this rambling chronicle, may be calledthechildren's "black-and-white" artist of the "sixties" (taking the date broadly as comprising the earlier "seventies" also), even as Walter Crane is their "limner in colours." His work is evidently conceived with the serious make-believe that is the very essence of a child's imagination. He seems to put down on paper the very spirit of fancy. Whether as an artist he is fully entitled to the rank some of his admirers (of whom I am one) would claim, is a question not worth raising here—the future will settle that for us. But as a children's illustrator he is surely illustrator-in-chief to the Queen of the Fairies, and to a whole generation of readers of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" also. His contributions to "Good Words for the Young" would alone entitle him to high eminence. In addition to these, which include many stories perhaps better known in book form, such as: "The Boy in Grey" (H. Kingsley), George Macdonald's "At the Back of the North Wind," "The Princess and the Goblin," "Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood," "Gutta-Percha Willie" (these four were published by Strahan, and now may be obtained in reprints issued by Messrs. Blackie), and "Lilliput Lectures" (a book ofessays for children by Matthew Browne), we find him as sole illustrator of Christina Rossetti's "Sing Song," "Five Days' Entertainment at Wentworth Grange," "Dealings with the Fairies," by George Macdonald (a very scarce volume nowadays), and the chief contributor to the first illustrated edition of "Tom Brown's Schooldays." In Novello's "National Nursery Rhymes" are also several of his designs.
This list, which occupies so small a space, represents several hundred designs, all treated in a manner which is decorative (although it eschews the Dürer line), but marked by strong "colour." Indeed, Mr. Hughes's technique is all his own, and if hard pressed one might own that in certain respects it is not impeccable. But if his textures are not sufficiently differentiated, or even if his drawing appears careless at times—both charges not to be admitted without vigorous protest—granting the opponent's view for the moment, it would be impossible to find the same peculiar tenderness and naïve fancy in the work of any other artist. His invention seems inexhaustible and his composition singularly fertile: he can create "bogeys" as well as "fairies."
ILLUSTRATION FROM "DOWN THE SNOW STAIRS." BY GORDON BROWNE (BLACKIE AND SON)ILLUSTRATION FROM "DOWN THE SNOW STAIRS." BY GORDON BROWNE (BLACKIE AND SON)
It is true that his children are related to the sexless idealised race of Sir Edward Burne-Jones's heroes and heroines; they are purged of earthy taint, and idealised perhaps a shade too far. They adopt attitudes graceful if not realistic, they have always a grave serenity of expression; and yet withal they endear themselves in a way wholly their own. It is strange that a period which has bestowed so much appreciation on the work of the artists of "the sixties" has seen no knight-errant with "Arthur Hughes" inscribed on his banner—no exhibition of his black-and-white work, no craze in auction-rooms for first editions of books he illustrated. He has, however, a steady if limited band of very faithful devotees, and perhaps—so inconsistent are we all—they love his work all the better because the blast of popularity has not trumpeted its merits to all and sundry.
Three artists, often coupled together—Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway—havereally little in common, except that they all designed books for children which were published about the same period. For Walter Crane is the serious apostle of art for the nursery, who strove to beautify its ideal, to decorate its legends with a real knowledge of architecture and costume, and to "mount" the fairy stories with a certain archæological splendour, as Sir Henry Irving has set himself to mount Shakespearean drama. Caldecott was a fine literary artist, who was able to express himself with rare facility in pictures in place of words, so that his comments upon a simple text reveal endless subtleties of thought. Indeed, he continued to make a fairly logical sequence of incidents out of the famous nonsense paragraph invented to confound mnemonics by its absolute irrelevancy. Miss Greenaway's charm lies in the fact that she first recognised quaintness in what had been considered merely "old fashion," and continued to infuse it with a glamour that made it appear picturesque. Had she dressed her figures in contemporary costume most probably her work would have taken its place with the average, and never obtained more than common popularity.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE" BY GORDON BROWNE (BLACKIE AND SON)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE" BY GORDON BROWNE(BLACKIE AND SON)
But Mr. Walter Crane is almost unique in his profound sympathy with the fantasies he imagines. There is no trace of make-believe in his designs. On the contrary, he makes the old legends become vital, not because of the personalities he bestows on his heroes and fairy princesses—his people move often in a rapt ecstasy—but because the adjuncts of hismise-en-scènesare realised intimately. His prince is much more the typical hero than any particular person; his fair ladies might exchange places, and few would notice the difference; but when it comes to the environment, the real incidents of the story, then no one has more fully grasped both the dramatic force and the local colour. If his people are not peculiarly alive, they are in harmony with the re-edified cities and woods that sprang up under his pencil. He does not bestow the hoary touch of antiquity on his mediæval buildings; they are all new and comely, in better taste probably than the actual buildings, but not more idealised than are his people. He is the true artist of fairyland, because he recognises its practical possibilities, and yet does not lose the glamour which was never on sea or land. No artist could give more cultured notions of fairyland. In his work the vulgar glories of a pantomime are replaced by well-conceived splendour; the tawdry adjuncts of a throne-room, as represented in a theatre, are ignored. Temples and palaces of the early Renaissance, filled with graceful—perhaps a shade too suave—figures, embody all the charm of the impossible country, with none of the sordid drawbacks that are common to real life. In modern dress, as in his pictures to many of Mrs. Molesworth's stories, there is a certain unlikeness to life as we know it, which does not detract from the effect of the design; but while this is perhaps distracting in stories ofcontemporary life, it is a veryreal advantage in those of folk-lore, which have no actual date, and are therefore unafraid of anachronisms of any kind. The spirit of his work is, as it should be, intensely serious, yet the conceits which are showered upon it exactly harmonise with the mood of most of the stories that have attracted his pencil. Grimm's "Household Stories," as he pictured them, are a lasting joy. The "Bluebeard" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" toy books, the "Princess Belle Etoile," and a dozen others are nursery classics, and classics also of the other nursery where children of a larger growth take their pleasure.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE." BY WILL PAGET. (CASSELL AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE."BY WILL PAGET.(CASSELL AND CO.)
Without a shade of disrespect towards all the other artists represented in this special number, had it been devoted solely to Mr. Walter Crane's designs, it would have been as interesting in every respect. There is probably not a single illustrator here mentioned who would not endorse such a statement. For as a maker of children's books, no one ever attempted the task he fulfilled so gaily, and no one since has beaten him on his own ground. Even Mr. Howard Pyle, his most worthy rival, has given us no wealth of colour-prints. So that the famous toy books still retain their well-merited position as the most delightful books for the nursery and the studio, equally beloved by babies and artists.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "ENGLISH FAIRY TALES" BY J. D. BATTEN (DAVID NUTT)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ENGLISH FAIRY TALES" BY J. D. BATTEN (DAVID NUTT)
Although a complete iconography of Mr. Walter Crane's work has not yet been made, the following list of such of his children's books as I have been able to trace may be worth printing for the benefit of those who have not access to the British Museum; where, by the way, many are not included in that section of its catalogue devoted to "Crane, Walter."
The famous series of toy books by Walter Crane include: "The Railroad A B C," "The Farmyard A B C," "Sing a Song of Sixpence," "The Waddling Frog," "The Old Courtier," "Multiplication in Verse," "Chattering Jack," "How Jessie was Lost," "Grammar in Rhyme," "Annie and Jack in London," "One, Two, Buckle my Shoe," "The Fairy Ship," "Adventures of Puffy," "This Little Pig went to Market," "King Luckieboy's Party," "Noah's Ark Alphabet," "My Mother," "The Forty Thieves," "The Three Bears," "Cinderella," "Valentine and Orson," "Puss in Boots," "Old Mother Hubbard,""The Absurd A B C," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Blue Beard," "Baby's Own Alphabet," "The Sleeping Beauty." All these were published at sixpence. A larger series at one shilling includes: "The Frog Prince," "Goody Two Shoes," "Beauty and the Beast," "Alphabet of Old Friends," "The Yellow Dwarf," "Aladdin," "The Hind in the Wood," and "Princess Belle Etoile." All these were published from 1873 onwards by Routledge, and printed in colours by Edmund Evans.
"SO LIGHT OF FOOT, SOLIGHT OF SPIRIT." BYCHARLES ROBINSON"SO LIGHT OF FOOT, SO LIGHT OF SPIRIT." BY CHARLES ROBINSON
ILLUSTRATION FROM "ENGLISH FAIRY TALES." BY J. D. BATTEN (DAVID NUTT)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ENGLISH FAIRY TALES." BY J. D. BATTEN(DAVID NUTT)
A small quarto series Routledge published at five shillings includes: "The Baby's Opera," "The Baby's Bouquet," "The Baby's Own Æsop." Another and larger quarto, "Flora's Feast" (1889), and "Queen Summer" (1891), were both published by Cassells, who issued also "Legends for Lionel" (1887). "Pan Pipes," an oblong folio with music was issued by Routledge. Messrs. Marcus Ward produced "Slate and Pencilvania," "Pothooks and Perseverance," "Romance of the Three Rs," "Little Queen Anne" (1885-6), Hawthorne's "A Wonder Book," first published in America, is a quarto volume with elaborate designs in colour; and "The Golden Primer" (1884), two vols., by Professor Meiklejohn (Blackwood) is, like all the above, in colour.
Of a series of stories by Mrs. Molesworth the following volumes are illustrated by Mr. Crane:—"A Christmas Posy" (1888), "Carrots" (1876), "A Christmas Child" (1886), "Christmas-tree Land" (1884), "The Cuckoo Clock" (1877), "Four Winds Farm" (1887), "Grandmother Dear" (1878), "Herr Baby" (1881), "Little Miss Peggy" (1887), "The Rectory Children" (1889), "Rosy" (1882), "The Tapestry Room" (1879), "Tell me a Story," "Two Little Waifs," "Us" (1885), and "Children of the Castle" (1890). Earlier in date are "Stories from Memel" (1864), "Stories of Old," "Children's Sayings" (1861), two series, "Poor Match" (1861), "The Merry Heart," with eight coloured plates (Cassell); "King Gab's Story Bag" (Cassell), "Magic of Kindness" (1869), "Queen of the Tournament," "History of Poor Match," "Our Uncle's Old Home" (1872), "Sunny Days" (1871), "The Turtle Dove's Nest" (1890). Later come "The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde" (1880), the famous edition of Grimm's "Household Stories" (1882), both published by Macmillan, and C. C. Harrison's "Folk and Fairy Tales" (1885), "The Happy Prince" (Nutt, 1888). Of these the "Grimm" and "Fiorimonde" are perhaps two of the most important illustrated books noted in these pages.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE (HARPER AND BROTHERS)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE(HARPER AND BROTHERS)
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE (HARPER AND BROTHERS)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE(HARPER AND BROTHERS)
Randolph Caldecott founded a school that still retains fresh hold of the British public. But with all respect to his most loyal disciple, Mr. Hugh Thomson, one doubts if any successor has equalled the master in the peculiar subtlety of his pictured comment upon the bare text. You have but to turn to any of his toy books to see that at times each word, almost each syllable, inspired its own picture; and that the artist not only conceived the scene which the text called into being, but each successive step before and after the reported incident itself. In "The House that Jack Built," "This is the Rat that Ate the Malt" supplies a subject for five pictures. First the owner carryingin the malt, next the rat driven away by the man, then the rat peeping up into the deserted room, next the rat studying a placard upside down inscribed "four measures of malt," and finally, the gorged animal sitting upon an empty measure. So "This is the Cat that Killed the Rat" is expanded into five pictures. The dog has four, the cat three, and the rest of the story is amplified with its secondary incidents duly sought and depicted. This literary expression is possibly the most marked characteristic of a facile and able draughtsman. He studied his subject as no one else ever studied it—he must have played with it, dreamed of it, worried it night and day, until he knew it ten times better than its author. Then he portrayed it simply and with irresistible vigour, with a fine economy of line and colour; when colour is added, it is mainly as a gay convention, and not closely imitative of nature. The sixteen toy books which bear his name are too well known to make a list of their titles necessary. A few other children's books—"What the Blackbird Said" (Routledge, 1881), "Jackanapes," "Lob-lie-by-the-Fire," "Daddy Darwin's Dovecot," all by Mrs. Ewing (S.P.C.K.), "Baron Bruno" (Macmillan), "Some of Æsop's Fables" (Macmillan), and one or two others, are of secondary importance from our point of view here.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE (HARPER AND BROTHERS. 1894)ILLUSTRATION FROM"THE WONDER CLOCK."BY HOWARD PYLE(HARPER AND BROTHERS. 1894)
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE. (HARPER AND BROTHERS)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE. (HARPER AND BROTHERS)
It is no overt dispraise to say of Miss Kate Greenaway that few artists made so great a reputation in so small a field. Inspired by the children's books of 1820 (as a reference to a design, "Paths of Learning," reproduced onp. 9will show), and with a curious naïvety that was even more unconcerned in its dramatic effect than were the "missal marge" pictures of the illuminators, by her simple presentation of the childishness of childhood she won all hearts. Her little people are thebeau-idéalof nursery propriety—clean,good-tempered, happy smallgentlefolk. For, though they assume peasants' garb, they never betray boorish manners. Their very abandon is only that of nice little people in play-hours, and in their wildest play the penalties that await torn knickerbockers or soiled frocks are not absent from their minds. Whether they really interested children as they delighted their elders is a moot point. The verdict of many modern children is unanimous in praise, and possibly because they represented the ideal every properly educated child is supposed to cherish. The slight taint of priggishness which occasionally is there did not reveal itself to a child's eye. Miss Greenaway's art, however, is not one to analyse but to enjoy. That she is a most careful and painstaking worker is a fact, but one that would not in itself suffice to arouse one's praise. The absence of effort which makes her work look happy and without effort is not its least charm. Her gay yet "cultured" colour, her appreciation of green chairs and formal gardens, all came at the right time. The houses by a Norman Shaw found a Morris and a Liberty ready with furniture and fabrics, and all sorts of manufacturers devoting themselves to the production of pleasant objects, to fill them; and for its drawing-room tables Miss Greenaway produced books that were in the same key. But as the architecture and the fittings, at their best, proved to be no passing whim, but the germ of a style, so her illustration is not a trifling sport, but a very real, if small, item in the history of the evolution of picture-books. Good taste is the prominent feature of her work, and good taste, if out of fashion for a time, always returns, and is treasured by future generations, no matter whether it be in accord with the expression of the hour or distinctly archaic. Time is a very stringent critic, and much that passed as tolerably good taste when it fell in with the fashion, looks hopelessly vulgar when the tide of popularity has retreated.Miss Greenaway's work appears as refined ten years after its "boom," as it did when it was at the flood. That in itself is perhaps an evidence of its lasting power; for ten or a dozen years impart a certain shabby and worn aspect that has no flavour of the antique as a saving virtue to atone for its shortcomings.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE. (HARPER AND BROTHERS)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE. (HARPER AND BROTHERS)
It seems almost superfluous to give a list of the principal books by Miss Kate Greenaway, yet for the convenience of collectors the names of the most noteworthy volumes may be set down. Those with coloured plates are: "A, Apple Pie" (1886), "Alphabet" (1885), "Almanacs" (from 1882 yearly), "Birthday Book" (1880), "Book of Games" (1889), "A Day in a Child's Life" (1885), "King Pepito" (1889), "Language of Flowers" (1884), "Little Ann" (1883), "Marigold Garden" (1885), "Mavor's Spelling Book" (1885), "Mother Goose" (1886), "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" (1889), "Painting Books" (1879 and 1885), "Queen Victoria's Jubilee Garland" (1887), "Queen of the Pirate Isle" (1886), "Under the Window" (1879). Others with black-and-white illustrations include "Child of the Parsonage" (1874), "Fairy Gifts" (1875), "Seven Birthdays" (1876), "Starlight Stories" (1877), "Topo" (1878), "Dame Wiggins of Lee" (Allen, 1885), "Stories from the Eddas" (1883).
Many designs, some in colour, are to be found in volumes ofLittle Folks,Little Wideawake,Every Girl's Magazine,Girl's Own Paper, and elsewhere.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES" BY WINIFRED SMITH (DAVID NUTT. 1894)ILLUSTRATION FROM "CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES" BY WINIFRED SMITH (DAVID NUTT. 1894)
The art of Miss Greenaway is part of the legend ofthe æsthetic craze, and while its storks and sunflowers have faded, and some of its eccentricities are forgotten, the quaint little pictures on Christmas cards, in toy books, and elsewhere, are safely installed as items of the art product of the century. Indeed, many a popular Royal Academy picture is likely to be forgotten before the illustrations from her hand.Bric-à-bracthey were, but more than that, for they gave infinite pleasure to thousands of children of all ages, and if they do not rise up and call her blessed, they retain a very warm memory of one who gave them so much innocent pleasure.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "UNDINE" BY HEYWOOD SUMNER (CHAPMAN AND HALL)ILLUSTRATION FROM "UNDINE" BY HEYWOOD SUMNER (CHAPMAN AND HALL)
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK" BY L. SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 1895)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK" BY L. SPEED (LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 1895)
Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, beginning as they do with "Undine" (1845), already mentioned, include others in volumes for young people that need not be quoted. But with his designs for "Alice in Wonderland" (Macmillan, 1866), and "Through the Looking Glass" (1872), we touchthetwo most notable children's books of the century. To say less would be inadequate and to say more needless. For every one knows the incomparable inventions which "Lewis Carroll" imagined and Sir John Tenniel depicted. They are veritable classics, of which, as it is too late to praise them, no more need be said.
Certain coloured picture books by J. E. Rogers were greeted with extravagant eulogy at the time they appeared "in the seventies." "Worthy to be hung at the Academy beside the best pictures of Millais or Sandys," one fatuous critic observed. Looking over their pages again, it seems strange that their very weak drawing and crude colour could have satisfied people familiar with Mr. Walter Crane's masterly work in a not dissimiliar style. "Ridicula Rediviva" and "Mores Ridiculi" (both Macmillan), were illustrations of nursery rhymes. To "The Fairy Book" (1870), a selection of old stories re-told by the author of "John Halifax," Mr. Rogers contributedmany full pages in colour, and also to Mr. F. C. Burnand's "Present Pastimes of Merrie England" (1872). They are interesting as documents, but not as art; for their lack of academic knowledge is not counterbalanced by peculiar "feeling" or ingenious conceit. They are merely attempts to do again what Mr. H. S. Marks had done better previously. It seems ungrateful to condemn books that but for renewed acquaintance might have kept the glamour of the past; and yet, realising how much feeble effort has been praised since it was "only for children," it is impossible to keep silence when the truth is so evident.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "KATAWAMPUS" BY ARCHIE MACGREGOR (DAVID NUTT)ILLUSTRATION FROM "KATAWAMPUS" BY ARCHIE MACGREGOR (DAVID NUTT)
Alfred Crowquill most probably contributed all the pictures to "Robinson Crusoe," "Blue Beard," and "Red Riding Hood" told in rhyme by F. W. N. Bayley, which have been noticed among his books of the "forties." One of the full pages, which appear to be lithographs, is clearly signed. He also illustrated the adventures of "Master Tyll Owlglass," an edition of "Baron Munchausen," "Picture Fables," "The Careless Chicken," "Funny Leaves for the Younger Branches," "Laugh and Grow Thin," and a host of other volumes. Yet the pictures in these, amusing as they are in their way, do not seem likely to attract an audience again at any future time.
E. V. B., initials which stand for the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, are found on many volumes of the past twenty-five years which have enjoyed a special reputation. Certainly her drawings, if at times showing much of the amateur, have also a curious "quality," which accounts for the very high praise they have won from critics of some standing. "The Story without an End," "Child's Play" (1858), "The New Child's Play," "The Magic Valley," "Andersen Fairy Tales" (Low, 1882), "Beauty and the Beast" (a quarto with colour-prints by Leighton Bros.), are the most important. Looking at them dispassionately now, there is yet a trace of some of the charm that provoked applause a little more than they deserve.
In British art this curious fascination exerted by the amateur is always confrontingus. The work of E. V. B. has great qualities, yet any pupil of a board school would draw better. Nevertheless it pleases more than academic technique of high merit that lacks just that one quality which, for want of a better word, we call "culture." In the designs by Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, one encounters genius with absolutely faltering technique; and many who know how rare is the slightest touch of genius, forgive the equally important mastery of material which must accompany it to produce work of lasting value.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY." BY R. ANNING BELL (DENT AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY." BY R. ANNING BELL (DENT AND CO.)
Mr. H. S. Marks designed two nursery books for Messrs. Routledge, and contributed to many others, including J. W. Elliott's "National Nursery Rhymes" (Novello), whence our illustration has been taken. Two series of picture books containing mediæval figures with gold background, by J. Moyr Smith, if somewhat lacking in the qualities which appeal to children, may have played a good part in educating them to admire conventional flat treatment, with a decorative purpose that was unusual in the "seventies," when most of them appeared.
In later years, Miss Alice Havers in "The White Swans," and "Cape Town Dicky" (Hildesheimer), and many lady artists of less conspicuous ability, have done a quantity of graceful and elaborate picturesofchildren rather thanforchildren. The art of this later period shows better drawing, better colour, better composition than had been the popular average before; but it generally lacks humour, and a certain vivacity of expression which children appreciate.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "FAIRY GIFTS." BY H. GRANVILLE FELL (DENT AND CO.)ILLUSTRATION FROM "FAIRY GIFTS." BY H. GRANVILLE FELL (DENT AND CO.)
In the "sixties" and "seventies" were many illustrators of children's books who left no great mark except on the memories of those who were young enough at the time to enjoy their work thoroughly, if not very critically. Among these may be placed William Brunton, who illustrated several of the Right Hon. G. Knatchbull-Hugessen's fairy stories, "Tales at Tea Time" for instance, and was frequent among the illustrators of Hood's Annuals. Charles H. Ross (at one time editor ofJudy) and creator of "Ally Sloper," the British Punchinello, produced at least one memorable book for children. "Queens and Kings and other Things," a folio volume printed in gold and colour, with nonsense rhymes and pictures, almost as funny as those of Edward Lear himself. "The Boy Crusoe," and many other books of somewhat ephemeral character are his, and Routledge's "Every Boy's Magazine" contains many of his designs. Just as these pages are being corrected the news of his death is announced.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND RHYMES" BY MARY J. NEWILL (METHUEN AND CO. 1895)ILLUSTRATION FROM"A BOOK OF NURSERYSONGS AND RHYMES"BY MARY J. NEWILL(METHUEN AND CO. 1895)
Others, like George Du Maurier, so rarely touched the subject that they can hardly be regarded as wholly belonging to our theme. Yet "Misunderstood," by Florence Montgomery (1879), illustrated by Du Maurier, is too popular to leave unnoticed. Mr. A. W. Bayes, who has deservedly won fame in other fields, illustrated "Andersen's Tales" (Warne, 1865), probably his earliest work, as a contemporary review speaks of the admirable designs "by an artist whose name is new to us."
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE ELF-ERRANT" BY W. E. F. BRITTEN (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1895)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE ELF-ERRANT" BY W. E. F. BRITTEN (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1895)
It is a matter for surprise and regret that Mr. Howard Pyle's illustrated books are not as well known in England as they deserve to be. And this is the more vexing when you find that any one with artistic sympathy is completely converted to be a staunch admirer of Mr. Pyle's work by a sight of "The Wonder Clock," a portly quarto, published by Harper Brothers in 1894. It seems to be the only book conceived in purely Düreresque line, which can be placed in rivalry with Mr. Walter Crane's illustrated "Grimm," and wise people will be only too delighted to admire both without attempting to compare them. Mr. Pyle is evidently influenced by Dürer—with a strong trace of Rossetti—but he carries both influences easily, and betrays a strong personality throughout all the designs. The "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Otto of the Silver Hand" are two others of about the same period, and the delightful volume collected fromHarper's Young Peoplefor the most part, entitled "Pepper and Salt," may be placed with them. All the illustrations to these are in pure line, and have the appearance of being drawn not greatly in excess of the reproduced size. Of all these books Mr. Howard Pyle is author as well as illustrator.
Of late he has changed his manner in line, showing at times, especially in "Twilight Land" (Osgood, McIlvaine, 1896), the influence of Vierge, but even in that book the frontispiece and many other designs keep to his earlier manner.
In "The Garden behind the Moon" (issued in London by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen) the chief drawings are entirely in wash, and yet are singularly decorative in their effect. The "Story of Jack Bannister's Fortunes" shows the artist's "colonial" style, "Men of Iron," "A Modern Aladdin," Oliver Wendell Holmes' "One-Horse Shay," are other fairly recent volumes. His illustrations have not beenconfined to his own stories as "In the Valley," byHarold Frederic, "Stops of Various Quills" (poems by W. D. Howells), go to prove.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "SINBAD THE SAILOR" BY WILLIAM STRANG (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)ILLUSTRATION FROM "SINBAD THE SAILOR" BY WILLIAM STRANG (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ALI BABA" BY J. B. CLARK (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ALI BABA" BY J. B. CLARK (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)
ILLUSTRATION FROM "SINBAD THE SAILOR" BY WILLIAM STRANG (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)ILLUSTRATION FROM "SINBAD THE SAILOR" BY WILLIAM STRANG (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)
ILLUSTRATION FROM "ALI BABA" BY J. B. CLARK (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)ILLUSTRATION FROM "ALI BABA" BY J. B. CLARK (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)
It is strange that Mr. Heywood Sumner, who, as his notable "Fitzroy Pictures" would alone suffice to prove, is peculiarly well equipped for the illustration of children's books, has done but few, and of these none are in colour. "Cinderella" (1882), rhymes by H. S. Leigh, set to music by J. Farmer, contains very pleasant decoration by Mr. Sumner. Next comes "Sintram" (1883), a notable edition of De la Motte Fouqué's romance, followed by "Undine" (in 1885). With a book on the "Parables," by A.L.O.E., published about 1884; "The Besom Maker" (1880), a volume of country ditties with the old music, and "Jacob and the Raven," with thirty-nine illustrations (Allen, 1896), the best example of his later manner, and a book which all admirers of the more severe order of "decorative illustration" will do well to preserve, the list is complete. Whether a certain austerity of line has made publishers timid, or whether the artist has declined commissions, the fact remains that the literature of the nursery has not yet had its full share from Mr. Heywood Sumner. Luckily, if its shelves are the less full, its walls are gayer by the many Fitzroy pictures he has made so effectively, which readers ofThe Studiohave seen reproduced from time to time in these pages.
Mr. H. J. Ford's work occupies so much space in the library of a modern child, that it seems less necessary to discuss it at length here, for he is found either alone or co-operating with Mr. Jacomb Hood and Mr. Lancelot Speed, in each of the nine volumes of fairy tales and true stories (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, and the rest), edited by Mr. Andrew Lang, and published by Longmans. More than that, at the Fine Art Society in May 1895, Mr. Ford exhibited seventy-one original drawings, chiefly those for the "Yellow Fairy Book," so that his work is not only familiar to the inmates of the nursery, but to modern critics who disdain mere printed pictures and care for nothing but autograph work. Certainly his designs have often lost much by their great reduction, for many of the originals were almost as large as four of these pages. His work is full of imagination, full of detail; perhaps at times a little overcrowded, to the extent of confusion. But children are not averse from a picture that requires much careful inspection to reveal all its story; and Mr. Ford's accessories all help to reiterate the main theme. As these eight volumes have an average of 100 pictures in each, and Mr. Ford has designed the majority, it is evident that, although his work is almost entirely confined to one series, it takes a very prominent place in current juvenile literature. That he must by this time have established his position as a prime favourite with the small people goes without saying.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE FLAME FLOWER." BY J. F. SULLIVAN (DENT AND CO. 1896)ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE FLAME FLOWER." BY J. F. SULLIVAN (DENT AND CO. 1896)
Mr. Leslie Brooke has also a long catalogue of notable work in this class. For since Mr. Walter Crane ceased to illustrate the long series of Mrs. Molesworth's stories, he has carried on the record. "Sheila's Mystery," "The Carved Lions," "Mary," "My New Home," "Nurse Heathcote's Story," "The Girls and I," "The Oriel Window," and "Miss Mouse and her Boys" (all Macmillan), are the titles of these books to which he has contributed. A very charming frontispiece and title to John Oliver Hobbs' "Prince Toto," which appeared in "The Parade," must not be forgotten. The most fanciful of his designs are undoubtedly the hundred illustrations to Mr.Andrew Lang's delightful collection of "Nursery Rhymes," just published by F. Warne & Co. These reveal a store of humour that the less boisterous fun of Mrs. Molesworth had denied him the opportunity of expressing.
Mr. C. E. Brock, whose delightful compositions, somewhat in the "Hugh Thomson" manner, embellish several volumes of Messrs. Macmillan's Cranford series, has illustrated also "The Parachute," and "English Fairy and Folk Tales," by E. S. Hartland (1893), and also supplied two pictures to that most fascinating volume prized by all lovers of children, "W. V., Her Book," by W. Canton. Perhaps "Westward Ho!" should also be included in this list, for whatever its first intentions, it has long been annexed by bolder spirits in the nursery.
A. B. Frost, by his cosmopolitan fun, "understanded of all people," has probably aroused more hearty laughs by his inimitable books than even Caldecott himself. "Stuff and Nonsense," and "The Bull Calf," T. B. Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy," and many another volume of American origin, that is now familiar to every Briton with a sense of humour, are the most widely known. It is needless to praise the literally inimitable humour of the tragic series "Our Cat took Rat Poison." In Lewis Carroll's "Rhyme? and Reason?" (1883), Mr. Frost shared with Henry Holiday the task of illustrating a larger edition of the book first published under the title of "Phantasmagoria" (1869); he illustrated also "A Tangled Tale" (1886), by the same author, and this is perhaps the only volume of British origin of which he is sole artist. Mr. Henry Holiday was responsible for the classic pictures to "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll (1876).
Mr. R. Anning Bell does not appear to have illustrated many books for children. Of these, the two which introduced Mr. Dent's "Banbury Cross" series are no doubt the best known. In fact, to describe "Jack the Giant Killer" and the "Sleeping Beauty" in these pages would be an insult to "subscribers from the first." A story, "White Poppies," by May Kendall, which ran throughSylvia's Journal, is a little too grown-up to be included; nor can the "Heroines of the Poets," which appeared in the same place, be dragged in to augment the scanty list, any more than the "Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Keats'sPoems." It is singular that the fancy of Mr. Anning Bell, which seems exactly calculated to attract a child and its parent at the same time, has not been more frequently requisitioned for this purpose. In the two "Banbury Cross" volumes there is evidence of real sympathy with the text, which is by no means as usual in pictures to fairy tales as it should be; and a delightfully harmonious sense of decoration rare in any book, and still more rare in those expressly designed for small people.