CHAPTER VII.

BY WALTER SHIRLAW. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

Within the last few years a new spirit has, to a certain extent, entered into American publishing, and there have cropped up magazines which, apparently, have for their aim the furnishing to their readers of the greatest amount of the cheapest material at the lowest possible price. Syndicate stories and photographicclichésstruggle with bad printing, and possibly appeal to the multitude. However, these cheap and nasty journals will probably struggle among themselves to their own discomfiture, without producing lasting effect,unless the conductors of the better class of magazines choose to lower the tone of their own publications.

The illustrated newspaper has become an enormous factor in America. The "Pall Mall" claims to have been the first illustrated daily, and the "Daily Graphic" is the only complete daily illustrated paper yet in existence in England. "Le Quotidien Illustré" has just been started in Paris. The claim of the "Pall Mall" is without foundation, as the London "Daily Graphic" but follows in the footsteps of the New York "Daily Graphic," which took its name from the London weekly; its illustrations were almost altogether reproduced by lithography. The New York "Graphic" was never a great success. Many American daily newspapers print more drawings in a week than the London "Daily Graphic." The chances are that in a very few years the daily will have completely superseded many of the weeklies, and quite a number of the monthly magazines too. It is simply a question of improving the printing press, and this improvement will be made. Anyone who has watched the progress of illustrated journalism during the last ten years can have no doubts upon the subject; and I am almost certain that the very near future will see the advent of daily illustrated magazines of convenient size, which will take the place of the monthly reviews and the ponderous and cumbersome machine we now call a newspaper.

BY HOWARD PYLE. FROM HOLMES’S “ONE HOSS SHAY” (GAY AND BIRD).

BY HOWARD PYLE. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

BY HOWARD PYLE. FROM HOLMES’S “ONE HOSS SHAY” (GAY AND BIRD).

If, as is universally admitted, America has produced the best example of an illustrated magazinethat the world has to show, it is not very difficult to find out the reason. Editors have secured the services of some of the best native artists, and are ready to use the work of foreigners. Also many ofthe best engravers work for these periodicals, and in machine printing Theodore de Vinne has set up a standard for the whole world. If these men have become master craftsmen, it is because they firststudied their art profoundly, and then learned the practical requirements and technical conditions under which drawings can best be reproduced for the printed page, as well as the best methods of printing that page.

BY ALFRED BRENNAN. PEN DRAWING FROM “THE CONTINENT.”

BY A. B. FROST. FROM “STUFF AND NONSENSE” (SCRIBNER’S).

In his own way Mr. Abbey stands completely apart from all other artists. His beautiful drawing, conscientious attention to detail and costume, interesting composition and perfect grace give him rank as a master. His edition of Herrick hasbecome a classic, while in his "Old Songs," and "Quiet Life," done in collaboration with Mr. Parsons, he has so successfully delineated the eighteenth century that he has made it a mine for less able men who have neither his power as draughtsman, nor his appreciation that illustration is as serious as any other branch of art, not to be entered upon lightly and without training. He has transformed "She Stoops to Conquer" from a play into a series of pictures; and his illustrations to Shakespeare will, without doubt, become historic; they are models of accurate learning and careful research, and yet, at the same time, the most perfect expression of beauty and refinement. The decorative or decadent craze has also reached America, and its most amusing representative, so far, is W. H. Bradley; but G. W. Edwards, L. S. Ispen, and others, decorated books long before mysticism became the rage.

Mr. Reinhart and Mr. Smedley have treated the more modern side of life with an intelligence which is almost equal to Abbey's. Mr. Reinhart's most remarkable work is to be found in "Spanish Vistas" by Mr. George Parsons Lathrop, and in his sketches in "American Watering Places." Mr. Smedley's drawings may be seen any month in "Harper's Magazine."

BY E. A. ABBEY. FROM “HARPER’S MAGAZINE” (COPYRIGHT 1894, BY HARPER AND BROTHERS).

BY E. A. ABBEY. FROM AUSTIN DOBSON’S POEMS (KEGAN PAUL).

Mr. Howard Pyle has brought all the resources of the past to aid him in the present, and is probably the most intelligent and able student of the fifteenth century living to-day. Yet Mr. Pyle is, when illustrating a modern subject, as entirely modern. He has treated with equal success the Englandof Robin Hood, the Germany of the fifteenth century, colonial days in America, children's stories, and the ordinary everyday events which an illustrator is called upon to record. He is deservedly almost as well known as a writer. His principal books are "Otto of the Silver Hand," the "Story of Robin Hood," and "Pepper and Salt."

PEN DRAWING BY C. D. GIBSON. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

PEN DRAWING BY OLIVER HERFORD. FROM “FABLES” (GAY AND BIRD).

Mr. C. D. Gibson exhibits the follies and gracesof society; it was he who contributed so brilliantly to the success of "Life," the American "Punch." Messrs. Frost, Kemble, Redwood, Remington, show the life of the West and the South; while, as a comic draughtsman, Frost stands at the head of Americans. These men's work will one day be regarded as historical documents. Mr. Remington has given the rapidly vanishing Indian and cowboy, especially in the "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman." Mr. Frost's drawings of the farmer in the Middle States will later be as valuable records as Menzel's "Uniforms of Frederick the Great." Mr. Kemble is not alone in his delineation of darkey life and character. In fact, he has rather worked in a field which was marked out for him by W. L. Shepherd and Gilbert Gaul. W. Hamilton Gibson has treated many beautiful and pleasing aspects of nature, both as writer and illustrator. Blum, Brennan and Lungren transported the Fortuny, Rico, Vierge movement to America, but have now worked out schemes for themselves. Blum has produced more complete work than the others, however, and his illustrations to Sir Edwin Arnold's "Japonica," and his own articles on Japan, have given him a deservedly prominent position. Elihu Vedder, most notably in his edition of Omar Khayyam, Kenyon Cox, and Will Low, who have illustrated Keats and Rossetti, are responsible for much of the decoration and decorative design in the country, and there are many other extremely clever, brilliant and most artistic men whose work can be found almost every month in the magazines. Mr. Childe Hassam has brought Parisianmethods to bear upon the illustration of New York life; and Mr. Reginald Birch's studies of childhood, though frequently German in handling, are altogether delightful in results, his drawings having no doubt added much to the popularity of "Little Lord Fauntleroy;" in the same sort of work P. Newell and Oliver Herford are distinguished. Mrs. Mary Halleck Foote is one of the few who continue to draw upon the wood, and very beautifully she does this; while Mrs. Alice Barber Stephens, and Miss Katharine Pyle prove that there is no earthly reason why women should not be illustrators. Mr. Otto Bacher, Mr. W. H. Drake and Mr. Charles Graham turn the most uninteresting photograph, if they are not doing original work, into a pleasing design; while that phenomenally clever Frenchman, A. Castaigne, who, I believe, now considers himself to be naturalized, gets more movement and dramatic feeling into his drawing than almost anyone else, though he is closely approached in some ways by T. de Thulstrup.

BY F. HOPKINSON SMITH. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

PEN DRAWING BY ROBERT BLUM. FROM “SCRIBNER’S MAGAZINE.”

BY CHILDE HASSAM. FROM A PEN DRAWING MADE FOR THE “NEW YORK COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.”

In some ways Mr. Harry Fenn, Mr. J. D. Woodward, and Mr. Thomas Moran were among the pioneers of American landscape illustration. Mr. Hopkinson Smith, whose work also is frequently seen in the magazines, says that "Harry Fenn's illustrations in 'Picturesque America' entitle him to be called the Nestor of his guild, not only for the delicacy, truth, and refinement of his drawings, but also because of the enormous success attending its publication—the first illustrated publication on so large a scale ever attempted—pavingthe way for the illustrated magazine and paper of to-day." In this venture of Appleton's, Mr. Woodward and Mr. Moran had a large share. Among some of the younger men should be noted Mr. Irving Wiles, whose work is as direct and brilliant as, and much more true than, Rossi's; Mr. Metcalf, whose illustrations to Mr. Stevenson's "Wrecker" are most notable; Mr. A. C. Redwood who, with Mr. Rufus Zogbaum, has madethe American soldier his special study. F. S. Church is many-sided both in the mediums he employs and the subjects he selects. J. A. Mitchell has produced in "Life" a society comic paper which is much more human than "Punch." "Puck" and "Judge" are the leading illustrated political weeklies; their conductors are D. Kepler and B. Gillom.

PEN DRAWING BY FREDERIC REMINGTON. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

PEN DRAWING BY R. BIRCH. FROM “LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY” (WARNE).

“READY FOR THE RIDE.”WOOD-ENGRAVING BY T. COLE, AFTER W. M. CHASE.FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

BY ROBERT BLUM. FROM “SCRIBNER’S MAGAZINE.”

The list of engravers is quite as important. Almost all of those who belong to the American Society of Engravers on Wood are original artists and very well deserving of mention, though their work itself has given them a position which I cannot better. The best known is Timothy Cole, whose engravings from the Old Masters have won him world-wide recognition. He is followed by W. B. Closson, who has to some extent attempted the same sort of work. Messrs. Frank French, Kingsley, and the late Frederick Jüngling have, with surprising success, engraved directly from nature; while for portraits, G. Kruell and T. Johnson are deservedly well known. In fine reproductive work Henry Wolf, H. Davidson, Gamm, Miss C. A. Powell, J. Tinkey, F. S. King, J. P. Davis have shown that wood-engraving is an art which can be used in the hands of a clever man or woman in a hundred ways undreamt of twenty years ago. This list makes no pretension of being complete, for new magazines, new men and new methods are springing up all over the country every few weeks, and a mere list of the illustrators and engravers would make a catalogue as large as this volume.

There was a period of great activity in American etching a few years ago. Among the most notable results were Cassell's Portfolios of the work of American etchers, edited by Mr. S. R. Koehler. But the art seems now to be languishing. Mr. Frank Duveneck, Mr. Otto Bacher, Mr. Stephen Parrish, Mr. Charles Platt, Mrs. Mary Nimmo Moran did some of the best original work, while, as reproductive men, Peter and Thomas Moran, Stephen Ferris, and J. D. Smillie were most notable. However, this brief spontaneous movement toward individual expression unfortunately seems rather to have spent itself; and America, like so many other countries, is waiting for something new to turn up.

BY S. PARRISH. FROM A DRAWING IN “THE CONTINENT.”

BY GILBERT GAUL. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”

BY SELWYN IMAGE. FROM “THE FITZROY PICTURES” SERIES (BELL).

BY HEYWOOD SUMNER. FROM “THE FITZROY PICTURES” SERIES (BELL).

I have tried to show the methods of modern illustration, and to give a sketch of its present conditions. It would be absurd to prophesy its future, though I believe it will have a very brilliant one. Much of the work that is being turned out to-day is beneath contempt; much of it is done by young men who are absolutely uneducated, and an illustrator requires education as much as an author; much of it is done by people who are too careless, or too stupid, to read or to understand the MSS. which they illustrate. Thus, in looking through late numbers of a magazine, I learn that all the policemen in New York wear patent leather shoes; while from another I find that when people are very poor in France, they rocktheir babies in log cabin cradles, cook their meals on American stoves and sit upon Chippendale chairs.

BY A. J. GASKIN. FROM “OLD FAIRY TALES” (METHUEN AND CO.).

But it is a pleasure to turn from budding geniuses of this sort and photographic hacks; from the gentlemen who copy the imperfections of the woodcut of the Middle Ages; from the people who enlarge the borders of their magazines with decorations that neither belong to our own time, nor are good examples of any other; from those who have succeeded in making a certain portion of the world believe that clumsy eccentricity is a cloak for all the sins in the artistic calendar, to illustrators who are calmly and quietlypursuing their profession, and producing work which may even drag other portions of the magazine or book, to which they contribute, to an unmerited immortality.

BY LAURENCE HOUSMAN. FROM “A FARM IN FAIRYLAND” (KEGAN PAUL).

I do not pretend to foretell what the ultimate form of the book of the future, or of the magazine either, may be. But I do believe that illustration is as important as any other branch of art, will live as long as there is any love for art, long after the claims of the working classes have been forgotten, and the statues of the statesmen, who are the newspaper heroes of to-day, have crumbled into dust, unless preserved because a sculptor of distinction produced them.

Illustration is an important, vital, living branch of the fine arts, and it will flourish for ever.

BY COTMAN. FROM AN ETCHING IN “ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES OF NORMANDY.”

[1]The Spanish photographer to whom was given the commission by Messrs. Bell to photograph the Goya drawings in the Museum of the Prado, never carried it out. For nearly a year they have been promisedmanyana, but the to-morrow has not yet dawned.

[2]The "Pall Mall Magazine" has just commenced to index artists and engravers completely.

[3]This is a combination of illumination and printing, the illustrations being original drawings by Dürer. The text is printed; but two or three copies exist.

[4]See "Literary Remains of Albert Dürer," and F. Didot's "Gravure sur Bois."

[5]Some of Ratdolt's are among the exceptions.

[6]The printing is, however, always bad.

[7]So far as I know, the original of that system of abomination.

[8]My own copy, apparently a first edition, is dated 1836.

[9]Charles Whittingham, the founder of the Chiswick Press, who died in 1840, has the credit of being the first printer in England to use overlays, and as an early example might be mentioned, "The Gardens and Menageries of the Zoological Society delineated," published by Tilt in 1830, containing drawings by William Harvey, engraved by Branston and Wright, assisted by other artists.

[10]Rather English and French, Andrew, Best, Leloir.

[11]I am mistaken in this, as many of Pinwell and North's drawings, made on paper in 1865-66 for Dalziel, were photographed on wood.

[12]First edition 1889.

[13]There are two or three seventeenth-century drawings on the wood at South Kensington, and some, I believe, in the British Museum.

[14]On paper.

[15]At least, he was the first man to do important artistic wood-engraving.

[16]In France the credit for the invention is given to Dr. Donné, who, about 1840, discovered that certain acids could be used to bite in the whites or the blacks of a daguerreotype. See also French chapter.

[17]This method, I believe, is no longer used.

[18]Adrian Marie and Emile Bayard died lately.

[19]See note p. 78.

[20]I did not mean I hoped it would die. It has now ceased to appear.

[21]S. Read was the first artist correspondent; he worked during the Crimean War.

[22]I do not mean to say that the American idea of having artists for art editors is unique. Everyone knows the good editorial work that has been done, and is still being done by Mr. Bale, Mr. W. L. Thomas, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Mason Jackson, Mr. L. Raven-Hill, to mention no others.

Back to Index Next