BY GUSTAVE DORÉ. WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM “SPAIN” (CASSELL AND CO., LIMITED).
BY A. DE NEUVILLE. FROM “COUPS DE FUSIL” (CHARPENTIER).Wood-engraving by Farlet.
BY GUSTAVE DORÉ.Process block, from a Lithograph.
A few words as to the men, and the books they have illustrated. The artist who was most in evidence twenty years ago was Gustave Doré. The unceasing stream of books which continued for years to delight the provinces and to amaze his biographers was then at its flood. That Doré was a man of the most marvellous imagination, no one will doubt; that his imagination ran completely away with him is equally true. He has had no influence upon anything but the very cheapest form of wood-engraving. Though it is easy to understand his popularity, it is difficult, considering how much really good work he did, to explainwhy he has been completely ignored as an artist. There is no question that some of his compositions were magnificent, even if every figure and type in them was mannered and hackneyed to a horrible degree. The only way in which we can accountfor his utter failure as an artist, is the fact that he was ruined by the praise of his friends. Although Doré started as a lithographer, carrying on the traditions of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries, Daumier and Gavarni, Raffet and Charlet, he soon took to drawing on the block, and for years the world was inundated with his work. In popularity no one ever approached him, but his drawing on the block is no more to be compared to Meissonier's, than his lithographs to Gavarni's, who contributed some of the most exquisite designs to "L'Artiste" in its early days.
In Alphonse de Neuville's "Coups de Fusil," one will find most delightful renderings of the late war, while many of his illustrations to Guizot's "History of France," or "En Campagne" are superb. His rival and successor, Detaille, has carried on the military tradition very well in "L'Armée Française," which contains the best illustrations of any sort that he ever did. P. G. Jeanniot also has done excellent work in the same field, but his studies of Parisiantypes are probably still more successful. The best work of all is probably contained in Dentu's edition of "Tartarin de Tarascon." L. Lhermitte, too, has made some striking drawings in charcoal, both for reproduction by photography and for engraving on wood, especially in "La Vie Rustique," where the designs were extraordinarily well engraved. Jean Paul Laurens heads a long list of painters who have made many pictures in black and white for the illustration of books, but most of them are duller as illustrators than painters. Maurice Leloir and V. A. Poirson have illustrated the "Sentimental Journey," the "Vicar of Wakefield," and some other English books, though their point of view is always that of the Frenchman who knows little about England; their drawings were reproduced mainly by photogravure, with small blocks printed in colour, or black and white process, interspersed. About 1880 an illustrated theatrical journal was started, "Les Premières Illustrées," and in this F. Lunel, Fernand Fau, L. Galice, G. Rochegrosse, and A. F. Gourget did remarkable work. Some of the painters, too, have allowed their sketch-books to be used, and from them books of travel have been manufactured, but these are hardly to be considered seriously as illustrations, as they were not specially made for the works which contain them.
PEN DRAWING BY D. VIERGE. FROM “PABLO DE SÉGOVIE” (FISHER UNWIN).
Daniel Vierge's "Pablo de Ségovie," though the work of a Spaniard, has for twelve years held its own as the best example of pen drawing for process reproduction published in France. Following, a long way behind, come men like Henri Pille andEdouard Toudouze. The development of the Guillaume half-tone process produced the curious series of little books known under that title; and also the larger series which contained "Madame Chrysanthème" and "François le Champi," books which made tone-process in France, and also the reputation of Myrbach and Rossi.
BY LOUIS MORIN. PEN DRAWING. FROM “L’ART ET L’IDÉE.”
BY CARLOS SCHWABE. PEN DRAWING. FROM ZOLA’S “LE RÊVE.”
BY EUGENE GRASSET. PEN DRAWING FROM “LES QUATRE FILS D’AYMON” (PARIS).
BY EUGENE GRASSET. PEN DRAWING FROM “LES QUATRE FILS D’AYMON” (PARIS).
BY LOUIS MORIN. PEN DRAWING. FROM “L’ART ET L’IDÉE.”
Several fine and limited editions have been published lately, illustrated by Albert Lynch, Mme. Lemaire, and Paul Avril, such as the "Dame aux Camélias;" while Octave Uzanne's series onfans and fashions were a great success. So, too, are many of the books issued by Conquet. Robida's designs for Rabelais virtually superseded those of Doré, and he followed up the success of this book with a number of others which have gradually degenerated in quality. Louis Morin, who is author as well as artist; E. Grasset, who, not content with this, is an architect too, and whose "Quatre Fils d'Aymon" should be seen as a beautiful piece of colour-printing; and Georges Auriol have done extremely good work in their different ways. Félicien Rops is a man who stands apart from all other illustrators; he possesses a style and individuality so marked that, at times, it is not easy to obtain any of his books, so carefully are they watched by that Cerberus of the press: the social puritan, who never fails to see anything to which he can possibly find objection. From the mystic Rops, have sprung, one might almost say, even more mystic Rosicrucians, headed by Carlos Schwabe, who has produced, in "Le Rêve" of Zola, one of the most beautiful and refined books, despite its disgraceful printing, ever issued from the French press.
PEN DRAWING BY JACQUEMART.
BY RAFFAËLLI. PEN DRAWING. FROM “PARIS ILLUSTRÉ.”
BY BOUTET DE MONVEL. PEN DRAWING FROM “JEANNE D’ARC” (PARIS, PLON).
BY H. IBELS. FROM “L’ART DU RIRE ET CARICATURE.”
But less mystical, and, possibly, even more beautifully drawn, are some of Luc Ollivier Merson's designs, notably those for Victor Hugo's works: a charming series of drawings, etched, I think, by Lalauze—to the national edition of Hugo almost every French painter has contributed—and the more mystic but less accomplished Séon is another of the same group; while the latest and most advanced are the Vebers. The list of really clever men is long. Marchetti and Tofani, Italians,whose work, continually seen in the supplements to "L'Illustration," is engraved with the greatest charm and distinction; Raffaëlli, who, though he draws but little now, has decorated during the last fifteen years some of the most notable French books. Giacomelli, Riou, Bayard, Haennen, Adrian Marie,[18]Metivet, who are willing, at a moment's notice, to make you a drawing, often distinguished, of any subject, no matter whether they have seen it or not, though Giacomelli is best known for his renderings of birds and flowers, often very charming; Habert Dys and Felix Régamey, who have adapted the methods of Japan to their own needs; Paul Renouard whose work is, as it should be, appreciated in England, and who has the distinction, when any important event is coming off in this country, to be commissioned by the "Graphic" to cross the Channel and "do" it; Boutetde Monvel, whose books for children have gained him a world-wide reputation; the long list of delineators of character, costume, and caricature who weekly fill the lighter papers: Ibels, the decadent of decadents, Caran d'Ache, Willette, Steinlein, Mars, Legrand, Forain, Job, Guillaume, and Courboin, whose work can be seen more orless badly reproduced every week in the comic papers to which they contribute. Caran d'Ache has made himself, one might almost predict, a lasting reputation with his "Courses dans l'Antiquité," his "Carnet de Chèques," and his variousother "Albums." A. Willette, when not playing at politics, is seriously working at his adventures of Pierrot. Steinlein, in his illustrations to Bruant's "Dans la Rue," probably did as much as the author to make known the life of Batignolles. Mars rules the fashions of the provinces, while if one were to take Forain's Albums as absolutely typical of French morals, France certainly would seem the most distressful country on the face of the earth. To Grasset and Chéret, Lautrec and Auriol have fallen the task of looking after the so-called decorative part of French work. But the fact that not only these men will do you a poster, a cover design, a head, or a tail-piece, but that almost allothers will too, is a positive proof that decoration cannot be separated from illustration, and also that all true artists are decorators.
BY H. IBELS. FROM “L’ART DU RIRE ET CARICATURE.”
BY STEINLEN. PROCESS BLOCK FROM COLOURED PRINT IN “GIL BLAS.”
BY STEINLEN. REPRODUCED FROM A COLOURED PRINT IN “GIL BLAS.”
BY A. WILLETTE. PEN DRAWING. FROM “LES PIERROTS” (VANIER).
BY CARAN D'ACHE. FROM “ALBUM” (PARIS, PLON).
BY ROBIDA. PEN DRAWING. FROM “JOURNAL D’UN TRÈS VIEUX GARÇON.”
BY A. WILLETTE. FROM “LES PIERROTS” (VANIER).
BY FORAIN. FROM “LA COMÉDIE PARISIENNE” (CHARPENTIER).
BY P. RENOUARD. CHALK DRAWING. FROM “THE GRAPHIC.”
Among wood-engravers, Baude and Florian hold the foremost place as reproductive artists, while Lepère stands quite apart, a brilliant many-sided man, at once draughtsman, engraver, etcher, and painter, a true craftsman in the best sense. Another man, F. Valloton, is making an endeavour to revive original wood-cutting, and though but few of his cuts are anything like so good as "Entêrrement en Province," he is the leader of a movement which may result in the resurrection, or indeed the creation of an original art of wood-cutting. But this desire of artists to engrave and print their own work is growing in France, as may be seen in such a collection as "Estampe Originale." Pannemacker and his followers have been the most popular, and their influence has been felt, sometimes with distinction, in all cheap French wood-engraving.
After enumerating this long list, it seems as if I had contradicted my own rather pessimistic view of illustration in France. I do not think so. It is true that the artists, though few in number, are in the country, but to-day the opportunities for them to express their art are lacking: as a proof, the only book devoted solely to French illustration which has ever appeared has just been published in America.
BY LALANNE. FROM A PENCIL DRAWING. (FRENCH.)
In writing upon drawing on the Continent, I have heretofore found it only necessary to classify illustrators under three nationalities. In discussing illustration it seems to me that this question of nationality can be even further simplified. Italy and Spain have not produced a single original illustrated book of real importance. Although several of the foremost illustrators of the day were born in one or the other of these countries and partially educated there, they have left their native land as quickly as possible, for France or for Germany.
BY MARTIN RICO. FROM A PEN DRAWING.
FROM AN ORIGINAL PEN DRAWING BY H. TEGNER.
In Italy the important publishing house of the Fratelli Trevès, in Milan, has made many attempts to bring out fine books, the works of de Amicis being among their best-known productions, but this importance comes from their literary rather than artistic side; and I am not aware that the Fratelli Trevès have ever done anything to surpassthe "C'era una Volta" of Luigi Capuana, illustrated by Montalti, published in 1885, a most extraordinary example of the skilful use ofpapier Gillot, or scratch paper. The Fratelli Trevès issue a large number of magazines and papers, a certain amount of good newsy wood-engraving is seen in these, process having been almost entirely given up, especially in the leading illustrated Italian weekly, "L'Illustrazion Italiana." In Spain I know of no notable illustrated books published of late. I may be labouring under a mistake, but I must frankly admit that I have never heard of, or seen any.[19]If they do exist I should be only too glad to have them brought to my notice. But there are two very good illustrated papers, "Illustracion Espanola y Americana" and "Illustracion Artistica." To both, Fortuny, Rico, Vierge, and Casanova—especially Rico—have contributed important drawings. These journals are now almost entirely using wood-engravings, some of which are very good indeed. They are mainly, however, reproductions of the typical Spanish historical, or story-telling, machine which is turned out with such facility by a large number of Spaniards. But the bulk of the work is made up ofclichésfrom American papers and magazines, in which matter I find that even I have proved a useful mine.
Dutch books are not remarkable. Here and there a good drawing may be found in a magazine called "Elsevir." Though in Holland there is anartist, H. J. Icke, who, in his studies from the old masters in pen and ink, evinces a power and brilliancy only equalled by reproductive etchers like Mr. Hole, Mr. Macbeth, or Mr. Short. The same is true of Belgium. Austria and Hungary have little to show, their illustrators, like Myrbach, Marold, and Vogel, coming to Paris, or sending their work to Munich, for the publishers mainly ignore their own artists, and either send abroad for their designs, or borrow and adapt from other men's work with a recklessness which is charming. And yet, the only international black-and-white exhibition was held in Vienna a few years ago; while one of the best photo-engraving firms in the world, Messrs. Anderer and Göschl, are located there. Russia and Scandinavia are equallyunfortunate in the matter of illustrated books, all of the artists of these countries being in Paris, London, or New York, and their work only finds its way back to their native countries asclichés. Men like Chelminski, Edelfelt, Répine, Pranishnikoff really owe all their reputation, not to their native land, but to the country of their adoption.
PEN DRAWING. BY HANS TEGNER. FROM “HOLBERG’S COMEDIES” (BOJESENS).
BY ADOLPH MENZEL. PROCESS BLOCK FROM ORIGINAL DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.
BY GOYA. FROM “CAPRICES.”
There is, however, one little country that deserves more than a word of mention, and this is Denmark. For it can boast an illustrator of individuality and character, Hans Tegner. His drawings for the jubilee edition of "Holberg's Comedies," published in Copenhagen in 1884 to 1888, must be ranked as masterpieces of graphic art. Though evidently based on the style of Menzel and Meissonier, they are quite individual; especially in the rendering of interiors crowded with people he has surpassed any living illustrator. This book is also interesting from the fact that while it was being produced the change was made fromfacsimilewood-engraving to process, and though the engraving of Hendricksen and Bork is excellent, the process blocks in some ways are even more interesting. The decorations to these volumes, head and tail-pieces, are as atrociously bad as Tegner's illustrations in the text are good. There are also a number of lesser artists, Danes and Norwegians, who have done good work, but to name them would merely be to make a catalogue, as their work is never seen here.
During the last three-quarters of a century German illustration has been absolutely dominatedby Menzel. Not only has he been the leading spirit in his own country, whether he was influenced originally by Meissonier or not, but he has himself influenced the entire world of illustrators, his drawings having been received with rapture and applause by artists wherever they have been shown. And, most interesting of all, he is a man who has been perfectly able, throughout his long life, to adapt himself to the various radical changes and developments which have been brought about in reproduction and printing. Commencing with lithography, he produced the amazing series of drawings of the uniforms of Frederick the Great. Next, taking up drawing on wood, he introduced exquisitefacsimilework into his own country, educating his own engravers, Unzelmann, Bentworth and the Vogels, in his edition of the "Works of Frederick the Great." Later on he drew much more largely and boldly for the "Cruche Cassée," which was freely interpreted on wood. And now he has so arranged his beautiful drawings in pencil and chalk that they come perfectly by process. He is a man who recognizes fully that we have not got to the end of art, but that unless we are ever pushing onward, and striving for improvements, we may very easily get to the end of ourselves. Helooks backward for nothing but design; he looks forward to the perfection of everything.
BY GOYA. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING (A PORTRAIT OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON) IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
BY FORTUNY. FROM A PEN DRAWING.
BY JOSEPH SATTLER. FROM “THE DANCE OF DEATH” (GREVEL).
Following Menzel, and encouraged by "Fliegende Blätter," which started in the early forties, came Wilhelm Dietz, whose studies of armies on the march, and of peasants at work or at play, are inimitable. He, too, has been followed by Robert Haug and Hermann Luders. Dietz was the mainstay for years of "Fliegende Blätter," the only weekly comic paper of which it can be said, that during the half century of its existence it has been not only at the head of its contemporaries, but has on the artistic side left far behind any pretended rival.
Germany has for the last half century, too, possessed a remarkable school of interpretative wood-engravers: men who have been able to take a large picture, which they have either drawn on the wood themselves or had drawn for them, and produce out of it an excellent rendering, which would print perfectly in black and white, under the rapid requirements of a steam-press. The work of these engravers can be seen any week in the "Illustrirte Zeitung," "Uber Land und Meer," and the other weeklies. Wood-engraving has been treated as a serious profession for years in Germany, as a Professorship of the art was held in the Berlin Academy before the beginning of this century by J. F. G. Unger, who died in 1804. Even in Vienna, a Professorship has been established for many years. The trouble with German wood-engravers, however, has been that most of the work, though signed by the name of one man, isproduced really by another. From one of these engraving shops, that of Braun and Schneider, issued a year after its establishment "Fliegende Blätter," in 1844. Save for Menzel, most of the work in the middle of the century was of that heavy, pompous, ponderous sort which we call German, and, though good in its way, is now well forgotten. The best-known of all these shops was that of Richard Brend'amour, who since 1856 has been established in Dusseldorf, though he has branches—an artist with branches!—in Berlin, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Munich, and Brunswick. Still, as he seems to have been able to get an extremely good set of apprentices and workmen, who were the real artists, a great amount of very interesting work has been turned out, andclichésfrom his excellent blocks have been used all over the world.
One sort of decorative design, developed by a German, or, I presume, a Pole, Paul Konewka, though his work, was, I believe, first published in Copenhagen, is the silhouette; Konewka has had imitators everywhere, but none of them have surpassed him. His edition of "Faust" is one of the best-known examples. Retche's outline drawings for Shakespeare are also good.
BY DE NITTIS. PEN DRAWING FROM “PARIS ILLUSTRÉ.”
BY W. BUSCH. FROM “BALDUIN BAHLAMM” (MUNICH, BASSERMANN).
FROM ETCHING BY GOYA. FROM “CAPRICES.”
Following the classical tradition of Overbeck and Kaulbach, but changing it rather into mysticism and decadence through the influence of Böcklin, and probably the pre-Raphaelites in England, has been developed a school of mystical decorators who are unequalled, unappreciated and curiously unknown outside of their own country. The chief of these men is Max Klinger. Likehis master, Böcklin, and like Schwabe in France, he brings both his mysticism and his drawing up to date, and makes no attempt to bolster up faulty design and incomplete technique by primitiveness, or quaintness, or archaism. For his illustrations Klinger usually makes an elaborate series of pen drawings, and then etches from these. The only example which I know of in England available for study is a copy of the Apuleius which is in South Kensington, and this is not by any means one of his most successful books, as the etchings are hard and tight, and the inharmonious decorations which surround the small prints in the text are crude and unsatisfactory. To know Klinger's work one must visit the Print Rooms in the Museums of Berlin and Dresden. Another group have devoted themselves to lithography. H. Thoma in this has been probably the most successful, but in the exhibition held this year in Vienna he was closely followed by Otto Greiner, W. Steinhausen, and Max Dasio. Their work may be seen in "Neue Lithographem," by Max Lehers, published in Vienna. Whether there are two or three men of the name of Franz Stuck who draw, or whether it is the same Franz Stuck who produces the mystic arrangements and the burlesques of them, the decorative vignettes and the absurd caricatures in "Fliegende Blätter," I do not know. I only do know that it is all very well worth study, and very amusing and interesting.
Busch and Oberländer, Meggendorfer, and Hengler, are names so well known that their mere mention raises a laugh, and that, if anything, isthe mission of those artists: while Harburger's and Aller's marvellous studies of character, and René Reinecke's exquisite renderings in wash of fashionable life, marvellously engraved by Stroebel, can be seen every week printed in the pages of "Fliegende Blätter" and other papers. The works of Hackländer, published in Stuttgart, have been illustrated mainly by process by that clever band of artists of whom Schlittgen, Albrecht, Marold, Vogel, and others are so much in evidence. The German monthly magazines, like "Daheim," "Kunst für Alle," "Felz und Meer," "Die Graphischen Kunste," etc., are very notable, especially "Kunst für Alle," which seems to me to be about the best-conducted art magazine in the world. Altogether the arts of illustration and reproduction, and the business of publishing, in Germany are apparently in a most healthy condition. It could scarcely be otherwise, however, when we consider that one of the greatest illustrators in the world is still alive and at work there, as well as the most curious mystics, the most amusing comic draughtsmen, and the most conscientious and clever realists.
DEATH THE FRIEND.LINE DRAWING BY RETHEL. REDUCED FROM A WOOD-ENGRAVING BY H. BURKNER.
BY H. SCHLITTGEN. FROM “EIN ERSTER UND EIN LETZTER BALL” (STUTTGART, KRABBE).
BY MAROLD. FROM “ZWISCHEN ZWEI REGEN” (STUTTGART, KRABBE).
BY FRANZ STÜCK. FROM BIERBAUM’S “FRANZ STÜCK,” MUNICH(ALBERT AND CO.).
BY GARCIA Y RAMOS. GIPSY DANCE.Process block, from pen and wash drawing.
Process block, from pen and wash drawing.
Note.—A recent visit to Spain shows me to be quite mistaken in this matter. A very fine book has lately been published in Barcelona by a Seville artist, F. Garcia y Ramos, "La Tierra di Maria Santissima," and though Señor Garcia y Ramos is greatly indebted to Fortuny, Rico and Vierge, he has made a very notable series of designs; he has also contributed several drawings to a comparatively new Spanish paper,—"Blanco y Negro"—which has printed very good work by a group of young men in Madrid, the most distinguished of whom is Señor Huertas. Another artist on the staff is Jiminez Lucena; he is realistically decorative. The most popular man in Spain, after the artists of "La Lidia" (the organ of the Bull Ring), is Angel Pons, who, however, is but an echo of Caran d'Ache. "La Lidia" is illustrated entirely by lithography and in colour; the designs, often full of go and life, are the work of D. Perea. I find, too, that the French work of 1830 was seen and known in Spain, that some books were produced in the style of "Paul and Virginia," with drawings by Spaniards, though I imagine they were all engraved either in Paris, or by French engravers who went to Spain. The work, however, is but a reminiscence of the French, and simply curious as showing the power of the Romanticists, but more especially of Meissonier as an illustrator. The most interesting of these books is "Spanish Scenes," illustrated by Lameyer, engraved by G. Fernandez, rather in the manner of Gavarni. But there is one Spaniard who as an illustrator is unknown, at least to artists—for he only produced one set of designs for publication—but who is universally known in almost every other branch of art, F. Goya. The only widely published and generallycirculated publications, the bank-notes of Spain, are the work of this artist, and they reflect little credit on him. His etchings are to be found in all great galleries; but, interesting as they are, they give no idea of the amazing drawings in chalk, wash, and ink, in which mediums they were produced. Even in Madrid the originals are but little known; the greater number are in the Library of the Prado, the National Museum, inaccessible to the ordinary visitor: but a small selection, undescribed, and not even in the catalogue, are placed upon a revolving screen in the Room of Drawings; but as this is almost always closed, most people leave Madrid without even being aware of the existence of the greatest treasures possessed by the museum after the Velasquez. On this screen are the designs for the bull-fights, admirably described by T. Gautier, in his "Voyage en Espagne," from the literary artist's point of view, but from the artistic stand-point, they are quite the most uninteresting of all, and do not in the slightest express the great passion Goya is said to have always shown for the noblest sport in the world.It is rather to the exquisite designs in red chalk for the "Scenes of Invasion," that one sees him at his best. Here he is the direct descendant of Callot, only there is a power in his work that Callot never possessed. It is, I am now certain, from these designs that Vierge obtained many of his ideas—although they are worked out in an entirely different fashion. The drawings for the "Caprices" are in pen and wash, and are as much finer than the aquatints made from them, as the aquatints are superior to the caricatures of any of his contemporaries. As Goya passed, an exile, the latter part of his life in France, his work must have been known to the men of 1830. He died in 1828, just as the few lithographs he has left show that he was aware of the work of Delacroix in that newly invented art.Still, Goya cannot be called an illustrator, for none of his work was published as illustration; yet, at the same time, it is so well adapted to that end that it is perfectly incomprehensible that these drawings have not only never been published, but I am informed they have never even been photographed. The two that are in this book are from the "Caprices," those of the "Invasion" are too delicate to stand the necessary reduction. The portrait of Wellington in red chalk is in the British Museum.
Note.—A recent visit to Spain shows me to be quite mistaken in this matter. A very fine book has lately been published in Barcelona by a Seville artist, F. Garcia y Ramos, "La Tierra di Maria Santissima," and though Señor Garcia y Ramos is greatly indebted to Fortuny, Rico and Vierge, he has made a very notable series of designs; he has also contributed several drawings to a comparatively new Spanish paper,—"Blanco y Negro"—which has printed very good work by a group of young men in Madrid, the most distinguished of whom is Señor Huertas. Another artist on the staff is Jiminez Lucena; he is realistically decorative. The most popular man in Spain, after the artists of "La Lidia" (the organ of the Bull Ring), is Angel Pons, who, however, is but an echo of Caran d'Ache. "La Lidia" is illustrated entirely by lithography and in colour; the designs, often full of go and life, are the work of D. Perea. I find, too, that the French work of 1830 was seen and known in Spain, that some books were produced in the style of "Paul and Virginia," with drawings by Spaniards, though I imagine they were all engraved either in Paris, or by French engravers who went to Spain. The work, however, is but a reminiscence of the French, and simply curious as showing the power of the Romanticists, but more especially of Meissonier as an illustrator. The most interesting of these books is "Spanish Scenes," illustrated by Lameyer, engraved by G. Fernandez, rather in the manner of Gavarni. But there is one Spaniard who as an illustrator is unknown, at least to artists—for he only produced one set of designs for publication—but who is universally known in almost every other branch of art, F. Goya. The only widely published and generallycirculated publications, the bank-notes of Spain, are the work of this artist, and they reflect little credit on him. His etchings are to be found in all great galleries; but, interesting as they are, they give no idea of the amazing drawings in chalk, wash, and ink, in which mediums they were produced. Even in Madrid the originals are but little known; the greater number are in the Library of the Prado, the National Museum, inaccessible to the ordinary visitor: but a small selection, undescribed, and not even in the catalogue, are placed upon a revolving screen in the Room of Drawings; but as this is almost always closed, most people leave Madrid without even being aware of the existence of the greatest treasures possessed by the museum after the Velasquez. On this screen are the designs for the bull-fights, admirably described by T. Gautier, in his "Voyage en Espagne," from the literary artist's point of view, but from the artistic stand-point, they are quite the most uninteresting of all, and do not in the slightest express the great passion Goya is said to have always shown for the noblest sport in the world.
It is rather to the exquisite designs in red chalk for the "Scenes of Invasion," that one sees him at his best. Here he is the direct descendant of Callot, only there is a power in his work that Callot never possessed. It is, I am now certain, from these designs that Vierge obtained many of his ideas—although they are worked out in an entirely different fashion. The drawings for the "Caprices" are in pen and wash, and are as much finer than the aquatints made from them, as the aquatints are superior to the caricatures of any of his contemporaries. As Goya passed, an exile, the latter part of his life in France, his work must have been known to the men of 1830. He died in 1828, just as the few lithographs he has left show that he was aware of the work of Delacroix in that newly invented art.
Still, Goya cannot be called an illustrator, for none of his work was published as illustration; yet, at the same time, it is so well adapted to that end that it is perfectly incomprehensible that these drawings have not only never been published, but I am informed they have never even been photographed. The two that are in this book are from the "Caprices," those of the "Invasion" are too delicate to stand the necessary reduction. The portrait of Wellington in red chalk is in the British Museum.
BY W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A. PEN DRAWING FROM “THE MAGAZINE OF ART.”
BY J. W. NORTH. FROM A DRAWING ON THE WOOD IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.
It is in England alone, that illustration, like many other things, has been taken seriously. Ponderous volumes have been written about it, as well as clever essays. It seemed at first sight rather unnecessary to repeat what has been said so well by Mr. Austin Dobson, for example, in his chapter on modern illustrated books in Mr. Lang's "Library," especially as he has added a postscript to the edition of 1892 which is supposed to bring his essay up to that date. But there are other ways of looking at the matter, and I have tried not to repeat what Mr. Dobson has said, nor yet to trench upon the preserves of Mr. C. G. Harper and Mr. Hamerton, or Mr. Blackburn.
BY HUGH THOMSON. FROM “OUR VILLAGE” (MACMILLAN).
BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT. FROM “THE ELEGY ON A MAD DOG” (ROUTLEDGE).
BY TURNER. FROM ROGERS’ “ITALY,” 1830.
It appears to me, that before discussing the Englishillustrators of to-day, it might be well to take a glance at the state of English illustration. English illustration has during the last twenty years suffered tremendously from over-writingand indiscriminate praise and blame. I suppose that among artists and people of any artistic appreciation, it is generally admitted by this time that the greatest bulk of the works of "Phiz," Cruikshank, Doyle, and even many of Leech's designs are simply rubbish, and that the reputation of these men was made by critics whose names and works are absolutely forgotten, or else, by Thackeray, Dickens, and Tom Taylor, whose books they illustrated, and who had absolutely no intelligent knowledge of art, their one idea being to log-roll their friends and illustrators. It is true, however, that some of Doyle's designs, like those in "Brown, Jones, and Robinson," were extremely amusing, though too often his rendering of character was brutal, as, for example, in the "Dinner at Greenwich" in the "Cornhill" Series. Technically, there is little to study, even in his most successful drawings. Leech's fund of humour was no doubt inexhaustible, but one cannot help feeling to-day that his work cannot for a moment be compared to that of Charles Keene. Some of his best-known designs, the man in a hot bath for instance, praised by Mr. Dobson may be amusing, but the subject is quite as horrible as a Middle Age purgatory. Leech was the successor in this work of Gillray and Rowlandson, and though his designs appealed very strongly to the last generation, they do not equal those of Randolph Caldecott, done in much the same sort of way. Though some of the editions containing the engravings from these men's drawings sell for fabulous prices, on account of their rarity, one may purchase to-day for almost the price of old paper, lovely little engravings after Birket Foster, and the other followers of the Turner school; while drawings after Sir John Gilbert, and later, Whistler, Sandys, Boyd Houghton, Keene, Du Maurier, Small, Shields, and the other men who made "Once a Week," "Good Words," and the "Shilling Magazine," really the most important art journals England has ever seen, can be picked up in many old book-shops for comparatively nothing.Of the best period of English illustration there are but few of the really good books that cannot be purchased for, at the present time, less than their original price. And only the works of one painter who did illustrate to any extent, Rossetti, command an appreciable value. For this, the fortunate possessors of his drawings have to thank Mr. Ruskin, who, himself, is by no means a poor illustrator. Some of his work in "Modern Painters," "Stones of Venice," "Examples of Venetian Architecture," is excellent, while his original drawings at Oxford are worth the most careful study. Many of Rossetti's designs are, it is true, very beautiful, and probably others were; one can see that from, the few which were never engraved. But the bulk of his drawings are certainly not so good as those which several people working in London are producing to-day.
BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT. FROM “BRACEBRIDGE HALL” (MACMILLAN, 1877).
While the magazines I have mentioned were being published, the "Graphic" was started in 1870, taking on its staff most of the foremost artists ofthe day, Fildes, Holl, Gregory, Houghton, Linton, Herkomer, Pinwell, Green, Woods, S. P. Hall; and about the same date Walter Crane made his far too little known designs for children's books—"King Luckieboy's Party," the "Baby's Opera," the "Baby's Bouquet," and the many others—which have been not half enough appreciated. In a measure, the same may be said of Randolph Caldecott's books for children,—the "House that Jack Built," the "Mad Dog," the "John Gilpin," which, though they contain his cleverest drawings, are usually given secondary rank to his "Bracebridge Hall" and "Old Christmas," of far less artistic importance. Miss Kate Greenaway has been more fortunate: her "Under the Window," and the long series that followed, have set the fashion for children, and have enjoyed a popularityof which they are not by any means unworthy. A trifle mannered and affected, perhaps, her illustrations are full of refined drawing, charming colour, and pleasing sentiment. These artists, in conjunction with Mr. Edmund Evans, gave colour-printing for book illustration a standing in England, while every one of their books is stamped with a decided English character. A Frenchman, too, Ernest Griset, living here, made some notable drawings about this time.
BY E. GRISET. FROM HOOD’S “COMIC ANNUAL” (1878).
When I commenced this book I have no hesitation in admitting that my knowledge of the reallygreat period of English Illustration was of the vaguest possible description.
I knew of "Good Words," "Once a Week," and the "Shilling Magazine," "Dalziel's Bible Gallery," and a few other books, but I had never seen and never even heard of the great mass of work produced during those ten years; even now, I am only slowly beginning to learn about and see something of it.
But a day is coming when the books issued between 1860 and 1870, in this country, will be sought for and treasured up, when the few original drawings that are still in existence will be striven for by collectors, as they struggle for Rembrandt's etchings to-day.
The source from which the English illustrators of 1860 got their inspiration was Adolph Menzel's books; pre-Raphaelites and all came under the influence of this great artist. The change from the style of Harvey, Cruikshank, Kenny Meadows, Leech and S. Read, to Rossetti, Sandys, Houghton, Pinwell, Walker, Millais, was almost as great as from the characterless steel engraving of the beginning of the century to the vital work of Bewick. The first English book to appear after Menzel's work became known, was William Allingham's "The Music Master," 1855, illustrated by Arthur Hughes, Rossetti and Millais; the first book of that period which still lives is Moxon's edition of Tennyson published in 1857, containing Rossetti's drawings for "The Palace of Art" and "Sir Galahad"; Millais' "St. Agnes' Eve," and Holman Hunt's "Lady of Shalott." These drawingsand a few others have given to the book a fame, among illustrated volumes, which it has no right or claim to.
BY SIR J. E. MILLAIS, BART. WOOD-ENGRAVING BY DALZIEL.FROM “GOOD WORDS” (ISBISTER AND CO.).
Far more important and more complete is Sir John Gilbert's edition of Shakespeare published by Routledge in three volumes, 1858 to 1860. This edition of Shakespeare has yet, as a whole, to be surpassed.
In 1859 "Once a Week" was started by Bradbury and Evans, and the first volume contained illustrations by H. K. Browne ("Phiz"), G. H. Bennett, W. Harvey, Charles Keene, W. J. Lawless, John Leech, Sir J. E. Millais, Sir John Tenniel, J. Wolf; this is the veritable connecting link between the work of the past as exemplified by Harvey, and of the present by Keene. The next year, 1860, the "Cornhill" appeared, for the first number of which Thackeray, more or less worked over by ghosts, and engravers, did the illustrations to "Lovel the Widower," but Millais was called in for the second or third number, and then George Sala. Frederick Sandys illustrated "The Legend of the Portent," and the volume ends with Millais' splendid design "Was it not a lie?" to "Framley Parsonage." It is curious to note that either Thackeray or the publishers refuse to mention the names of the artists in any way, only that Millais and Sala are allowed to sign their designs with their monograms. Leighton, I imagine, contributed the "Great God Pan" to the second volume, and Dicky Doyle began his "Bird's Eye Views of Society" in the third, but it is not untilone is more than half way through this volume that the initials F. W. appear on what are supposed to be Thackeray's drawings—or, rather, it is not until then that the great author acknowledged his failure as an illustrator; though, in the "Roundabout Papers," he admitted his indebtedness to Walker.
The first drawing signed by Walker faces p. 556, "Nurse and Doctor," and illustrates Thackeray's "Adventures of Philip;" this is in May, 1861. "Good Words" was also started in 1860; in it in 1863 Millais' "Parables" were printed, as well as work by Holman Hunt, Keene and Walker, while A. Boyd Houghton, Frederick Sandys, Pinwell, North, Pettie, Armstead, Graham, and many others began to come to the front in this magazine and "Once a Week." About 1865 nearly as many good illustrated magazines must have been issued as there are to-day; not only were the three I have mentioned continued, but "The Argosy," "The Sunday Magazine," and "The Shilling Magazine," among others, printed fine work by all these artists.