| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII | HTML | PDF ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: Modern Illustration
Author: Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Modern Illustration" ***
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)
THE EX-LIBRIS SERIES. EDITED BY GLEESON WHITE.
MODERN ILLUSTRATION.
[Illustration: BY F. WALKER. PROCESS BLOCK FROM THE DRAWING ON
WOOD IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.]
Modern Illustration
by Joseph Pennell, author of
"Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen," etc.
[Illustration]
London: George Bell & Sons, York Street,
Covent Garden, & New York. Mdcccxcv
CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
PREFATORY CHAPTER xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
I. A GENERAL SURVEY 9
II. THE METHODS OF TO-DAY, THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 33
III. FRENCH ILLUSTRATION 50
IV. ILLUSTRATION IN GERMANY, SPAIN, AND OTHER COUNTRIES 70
V. ENGLISH ILLUSTRATION 81
VI. AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION 113
VII. CONCLUSION 131
*** The Publishers take this opportunity to thank especially the
following owners of copyrights of various drawings for their kind
permission to reproduce them here:--The editors of "The Daily
Chronicle," "Good Words," "Sunday Magazine," "The Studio," "The
Century Magazine," and "Scribner's Magazine"; Messrs. Chapman and
Hall, H. Grevel and Co., Harper and Brothers, C. Kegan Paul and
Co., Thomas Murby, and Ward, Lock and Bowden.
INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
_The full page engravings are indexed with the number of the
page nearest to them._
ARTIST ENGRAVER AND SOURCE PAGE
FRED. WALKER From an original drawing on the wood
in the South Kensington Museum.
Process block by C. Hentschel _Frontispiece_
" " Process block by Hentschel, from a
drawing in wash and pencil 95
BOUTET DE MONVEL Process block from "St. Nicolas," the
French xiii
From "Jeanne d'Arc," by Hentschel 65
W. W. RUSSELL Process block by Hentschel, from a pen
drawing in "The Daily Chronicle" xiv
MAURICE Process block by Hentschel, from a pen
GREIFFENHAGEN drawing in "The Daily Chronicle" xvi
E. J. SULLIVAN Process block by Hentschel, from a pen
drawing in "The Daily Chronicle" xx
J. MCNEIL WHISTLER From Thornbury's "Legendary Ballads"
wood-engraving by J. Swain xxii
A. S. HARTRICK Process block by Hentschel, from a pen
drawing in "The Daily Chronicle" xxv
JOHN CONSTABLE From a pencil drawing, process block unsigned 1
UNKNOWN "St. Christopher," from a woodcut, 1423 6
SIR E. BURNE-JONES, Pen drawing; block by Carl Hentschel.
BT. From "The Daily Chronicle" 6
" " Process block by Art Reproduction Co., from
original drawing for Gatty's "Parables" 44
THOMAS BEWICK Wood-engraving from Walton's "Angler" 9
DAVID WILKIE Process block by Carl Hentschel, from
a pen drawing 9
THE LINNELLS Drawings on wood, and engravings from
National Gallery Handbook 10, 11
THOMAS STOTHARD Process block by Carl Hentschel, from
an unpublished pen and wash drawing 10
" " Wood-engravings by L. Clennell 12, 13
WILLIAM HARVEY Wood-engravings by Thompson, from
Milton's Works, etc. 15, 16
" " Original drawing on wood; process, unsigned 17
" " Wood-engraving after B. R. Haydon,
detail of "Dentatus," process block
from it by Dellagana 49
JOHN THURSTON Wood-engravings, unsigned, from Butler's
"Hudibras," Tasso, etc. 19, 21
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK Engravings by S. and T. Williams and
others unsigned, from "Three
Courses," "Table Book," 22, 23, 25
DANTE GABRIEL Process block, by Clarke, from original
ROSSETTI unpublished pen drawing 27
" " Wood-engraving, by Dalziel, from
"Tennyson's Poems" 27
BIRKET FOSTER Wood-engraving from Longfellow's Works,
etc., by Dalziel, Vizetelly, etc. 26-29
" " Process block from an original drawing
on wood 28
HARRISON WEIR Two wood-engravings from "Poetry
for Schools" by A. Slader 30
" " Original wash drawing on wood, process
block unsigned 31
A. COOPER Engraved by M. Jackson, for Walton's
"Angler" 32
RANDOLPH CALDECOTT Engraved by J. D. Cooper; from "Old
Christmas" 33
" " From the "Elegy on a Mad Dog,"
wood engraving, unsigned 83
" " From "Bracebridge Hall," wood-engraving,
unsigned 86
CHARLES KEENE Original unpublished pen drawings,
blocks by Clarke and Dellagana 34, 36
M. E. EDWARDS Wood-engraving from Gatty's "Parables,"
by Harral 38
G. DU MAURIER Wood-engraving by J. D. Cooper 40
" " Process blocks, from pen drawings for
"Trilby" 102, 103
ARTHUR HUGHES Wood-engraving from Hake's "Parables,"
unsigned 41
WALTER CRANE Process block by Carl Hentschel, from
wood-engraving printed in colours,
"Beauty and the Beast" 46
KATE GREENAWAY Key-block for wood-engraving in
colour, by Edmund Evans 48
E. ISABEY Process block by Dellagana, after
wood-engraving by Slader, from
"Paul and Virginia" 50
"GAVARNI" Process block by Dellagana, after
wood-engraving, unsigned, from
"Parisians by themselves" 51
J. M. L. E. Engravings from the "Contes
MEISSONIER Remois" 52, 57
JEAN GIGOUX Process block, unsigned, from wood-engraving
from "Gil Blas" 53
JULES JACQUEMART Pen drawings, reproduced by C. Gillot,
from "The History of Furniture" 55, 56, 64
A. DE NEUVILLE Wood-engraving by Farlet from "Coups de Fusil" 59
GUSTAVE DORÉ Wood-engraving by Brunier, from "Spain" 58
" " Process block by Dellagana, from a lithograph 60
D. VIERGE Pen drawing, process by Gillot, from
"Pablo de Ségovie" 60
LOUIS MORIN Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
"L'Art et l'Idée" 62, 63
CARLOS SCHWÆBE Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
Zola's "Le Rêve" 62
E. GRASSET Pen drawing, process by Hare, from
"Quatre Fils Aymon" 63
J. F. RAFFAËLLI Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
"Paris Illustré" 64
H. IBELS Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
"L'Art du Rire" 65, 66
STEINLEN Chalk drawings, two process blocks, by
Carl Hentschel, from "Gil Blas" 66
A. WILLETTE Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
"Les Pierrots" 66, 68
CARAN D'ACHE Pen drawing, process, unsigned, "Album
Caran D'Ache" 67
A. ROBIDA Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
"Journal d'un vieux garçon" 67
J. L. FORAIN Pen drawing, process, unsigned, from
"La Comédie Parisienne" 68
P. RENOUARD Wood-engraving, unsigned, from chalk
drawing in "The Graphic" 68
M. LALANNE From pencil drawing, process block by Clarke 70
MARTIN RICO From a pen drawing, process by Dellagana 70
HANS TEGNER Unsigned process, from an original pen drawing 72
" " Pen drawing, from Holberg's "Comedies,"
wood (?) unsigned 73
ADOLPH MENZEL Process block by Hentschel, from
unpublished drawing 73
F. GOYA Process by Dellagana, from etchings in
"Caprices" 74, 78
" From a chalk drawing in the British
Museum, process unsigned 74
M. FORTUNY Process, unsigned, from a pen drawing 74
JOSEPH SATTLER Process, unsigned, from a pen drawing,
"The Dance of Death" 74
G. DE NITTIS Process, unsigned, from wash and brush,
"Paris Illustré" 76
W. BUSCH Process, unsigned, from pen drawing,
"Balduin Bahlamm" 77
A. RETHEL Wood-engraving, by Burkner, "Death
the Friend," process reduction 78
H. SCHLITTGEN Process, unsigned, from pen drawing,
"Ein erster und ein letzter Ball" 78
FRANZ STÜCK Process, unsigned, from painting, "Franz
Stück Album" 79
J. GARCIA Y RAMOS Process, unsigned, from pen and wash drawing 79
W. L. WYLLIE Process, unsigned, pen drawing, "Magazine
of Art" 80
J. W. NORTH From a drawing on wood; block by Dellagana 81
HUGH THOMSON Process, unsigned, pen drawing from
"Our Village" 82
J. M. W. TURNER Process by Dellagana, from Rogers' "Italy" 85
E. GRISET Wood-engraving, unsigned from Hood's
"Comic Annual" 87
SIR J. E. MILLAIS, Wood-engravings, by Dalziel, from
BT. "Good Words" 88, 90
A. BOYD HOUGHTON Wood-engraving, by Dalziel, from
Dalziel's "Arabian Nights" 92
" " Wood-engraving, by Dalziel, from
Dalziel's "Arabian Nights" 92
G. J. PINWELL Process by Hentschel, from drawing
on wood for Goldsmith's Works 93
" " Process by Hentschel, from drawing on
wood for Goldsmith's Works 94
CHARLES GREEN Unknown 94
F. SANDYS Wood-engraving by Swain, from Thornbury's
"Legendary Ballads" 96
F. SHIELDS Wood-engraving, unsigned, from Defoe's
"History of the Plague" 98
J. MAHONEY Process block, from wood-engraving in
"The Sunday Magazine" 100
J. F. SULLIVAN Wood-engraving, unsigned, from Hood's
"Comic Annual" 100
SIR JOHN TENNIEL Engraved on wood by H. Harral,
from Gatty's "Parables" 102
LINLEY SAMBOURNE Engraved by H. Swain, from Kingsley's
"Water Babies" 102
W. G. BAXTER Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Ally Sloper's Cartoons" 103
PHIL MAY Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "The Graphic" 103
W. SMALL Engraving on wood by Lacour, from
"Cassell's Magazine" 104, 105
R. ANNING BELL Process block by Hare, from a pen drawing 105
J. BERNARD Process block, unsigned, from pen
PARTRIDGE drawing in "Proverbs in Porcelain" 106
W. HOLMAN HUNT Engraving on wood by Harral, from
Gatty's "Parables" 106
E. H. NEW Process block, from pen drawing in
"The Quest" 107
WINIFRED SMITH Process block, unsigned, from pen
drawing in "Singing Games" 107
ALFRED PARSONS Wood-engraving by J. D. Cooper, from
"The English Illustrated Magazine" 107
" " Process block by Hentschel, from
"The Daily Chronicle" 109
SIR GEORGE REID Wash drawing, engraving on wood,
unsigned, from "A Scotch Naturalist" 108
W. PAGET Wash drawing, process, by Andre and
Sleigh, from "Cassell's Magazine" 109
L. RAVEN-HILL Process, unsigned, from pen drawings
in "The Butterfly" 110, 111
EDGAR WILSON Process, unsigned, from "The Unicorn" 111
C. E. MALLOWS Process, from a pencil drawing in
"The Builder" 111
R. CATON WOODVILLE Process from a wood-engraving, in
"The Illustrated London News" 112
SIDNEY P. HALL Wood-engraving from pencil drawing
in "The Graphic" 112
AUBREY BEARDSLEY Process block by Clarke, from a pen drawing 113
T. WALTER WILSON Process reduction, from "The Illustrated
London News" 113
F. S. CHURCH Process reduction, from "The Continent" 113
C. S. REINHART Wood-engraving by H. Davidson, from
"The Century Magazine" 114
WALTER SHIRLAW Process block, unsigned, from charcoal
drawing in "The Century Magazine" 116
HOWARD PYLE Process block, unsigned, from pen drawing
for "Wonderful One Hoss Shay" 118, 120
" " Wood-engraving, unsigned, from wash
drawing in "The Century Magazine" 119
ALFRED BRENNAN Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "The Continent" 121
A. B. FROST Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Stuff and Nonsense" 122, 123
E. A. ABBEY Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Harper's Magazine" 124
" " Wood-engraving, unsigned, from Austin
Dobson's Poems 124
C. D. GIBSON Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "The Century Magazine" 125
OLIVER HERFORD Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Fables" 125
ROBERT BLUM Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Scribner's Magazine" 126
" " Process, unsigned, from chalk drawings
in "Scribner's Magazine" 129
CHILDE HASSAM Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "The Commercial Advertiser" 126
HOPKINSON SMITH Process, unsigned, from chalk drawing
in "The Century Magazine" 126
FREDERIC REMINGTON Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "The Century Magazine" 128
R. BIRCH Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Little Lord Fauntleroy" 129
T. COLE Wood-engraving after W. M. Chase,
from "The Century Magazine" 129
S. PARRISH Process, unsigned, from "The Continent" 130
GILBERT GAUL Wood-engraving, unsigned, from "The
Century Magazine" 130
SELWYN IMAGE Process, unsigned, from "The Fitzroy
Pictures" 131
HEYWOOD SUMNER Process, unsigned, from "The Fitzroy
Pictures" 131
A. J. GASKIN Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "Old Fairy Tales" 132
LAURENCE HOUSMAN Process, unsigned, from pen drawing
in "A Farm in Fairyland" 133
T. COTMAN Process reproduction by Dellagana, from
"Architectural Antiquities of Normandy" 134
ERRATA.
Page xv, _for_ "T. W. Russell," _read_ "W. W. Russell."
Page 20,} _for_ "1835,"}
Page 25,} _for_ "1838,"} _read_ "1836."
*** I have seen four different dates given for the book.
Page 25, _for_ "1842," _read_ "1840."
Page 32,}
Page 69,} _for_ "Pannemacker," _read_ "Pannemaker."
Page 52, _for_ "Lavoignal," _read_ "Lavoignat."
Page 112, _for_ "Sydney P. Hall," _read_ "Sidney."
" " _for_ "pen" _read_ "pencil."
[Illustration: BY BOUTET DE MONVEL. FROM "ST. NICOLAS" (DELEGRAVE).]
PREFACE.
This book is the result of a request, made to me by the editor of the
Ex-Libris Series, that I should write for him something about the
Illustration of to-day.
The idea, I must acknowledge, and I am glad to do so, is his, not mine.
To the editor also I am indebted for much help, especially in the matter
of the illustrations which the book contains; in fact, if he has not
selected and chosen them all, he has performed the more difficult and
thankless task of obtaining them. Only one who has gone through the
drudgery of finding drawings or blocks, in magazine, book, museum,
artist's studio, or collector's portfolio, and then of getting the
permission of editor, publisher, curator, artist, or amateur, to use or
reproduce them, knows what this means. I know from past experience, and
I was therefore only too glad to shirk the work when I found Mr. Gleeson
White willing to undertake it. I doubt, however, if he will ever again
attempt such a task. For the appearance of the illustrations in the book
he deserves the credit; for much advice and many suggestions of great
value, as well as to the articles he has written, and the lectures he
has delivered, on this subject, I am greatly indebted.
[Illustration: BY T. W. RUSSELL. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE DAILY
CHRONICLE."]
There are many others also whom I must thank. First of all Mr. Austin
Dobson, who, when he learned I was making a study of the subject, took
the trouble to put me on the track of the French illustrated books of
the early part of this century, giving me a most helpful start. Without
his assistance, and that of M. Beraldi, I might never have even been
able to trace the true birth, development, and growth of modern
illustration, which springs from Goya, the Spaniard, as draughtsman,[1]
and Bewick, the Englishman, as engraver; spreading, spontaneously but
quite independently, to France; thence to Germany, back again to
England, and finally to America, whence it has been diffused again all
over the world. Though in all its component parts--drawing, engraving,
and printing--illustration is more advanced in the United States than
anywhere else; still to-day, despite the excellence of much of the work
done there, remarkable results are being obtained in other countries.
Yet this latter-day excellence is so marked in American work that in
many ways it has overshadowed that of England, France, Germany, and
Spain, from the artists and engravers of which countries we Americans
have derived our inspiration.
[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 promised _manyana_, but the to-morrow has not yet
dawned.
Once again I must thank the authorities at South Kensington and the
British Museum, Mr. E. F. Strange and the assistants; Mr. A. W. Pollard,
who, though the editor of a rival series, helped me as though the book
was to appear in his own collection; Professor Colvin and Mr. Lionel
Cust, the latter of whom, during his stay in the Print Room of the
British Museum, I bothered persistently; his transfer to a more
important post is a great loss to students at the Museum; Dr. Hans
Singer of Dresden, and many others.
Artists, especially those of the older generation, the men who gave
illustration in this country thirty-five years ago a position it does
not hold to-day, have been untiring in their interest in the book, and
most helpful in every way; it has been a delight and a pleasure to meet
Frederick Sandys, Birket Foster, Harrison Weir, Frederick Shields, and
W. H. Hooper, just as it is an undying proof of the artistic blindness
of a generation which has not the intelligence to use the work of its
masters. Mr. Hooper has told me that he does not believe the Bewick
blocks could be printed any better than they originally were; this is an
interesting problem, but one which can never be solved; from my point of
view they were badly printed. He also thinks that Bewick used overlays.
Mr. Hooper is the English master of _facsimile_ wood-engraving; and some
day, when this fact is generally discovered (as Mr. William Morris has
found out, for Mr. Hooper has engraved the greater part, if not all, of
Sir Edward Burne-Jones's and Mr. Morris's designs), there will be a wild
and fruitless discussion among bibliographers as to the engravers of the
wonderful blocks in Morris's books, and of much of the best work of 1860
to 1870, signed with the name of a firm, or a tiny mark in the most
obscure corner.
Mr. Laurence Housman's article on A. Boyd Houghton in "Bibliographica" I
wish I had seen before the English chapter was written, and I wish I had
had the benefit of his researches concerning this master, as well as the
advice of Mr. A. Strahan, which would have been invaluable.
[Illustration: BY MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE DAILY
CHRONICLE."]
Mr. W. J. Hennessy has given much help in the American chapter, and I
must thank Mr. Emery Walker, Mr. Horace Townsend, Mr. H. Orrinsmith, Mr.
C. T. Jacobi, Mr. W. E. Henley, and I cannot remember how many more. Mr.
Edmund Gosse kindly allowed us to reproduce his Rossetti, one of the
strongest pieces of work, I think, that artist ever did in pen and ink.
The other drawings not contributed directly by artists, or not obtained
as electros, etc., are mainly from my own collection, for strange as it
may seem, the collection of original drawings is one of my hobbies;
others may collect bad prints, I prefer good originals. The proprietors
of "The Daily Chronicle" allowed us to reproduce a number of designs
made for that paper, and published in it during February, 1895. That no
drawings are included from many of the artists of "Fliegende Blätter" is
because the proprietors refused to allow them to be reproduced or used;
no doubt the publishers have daily applications of the same sort, but as
a book like this is not intended as a rival to a comic paper, I think
their refusal in this case rather uncalled for. Still, I have not
allowed their decision to influence me, nor yet the refusal of one or
two artists, who evidently prefer the advertisement of the vulgar type
of weekly to being included with their equals or masters. No doubt these
confessions will be greeted with applause, especially in that paper
whose boast it was once to be "written by gentlemen for gentlemen." No
doubt I shall be censured for leaving out the work of every man who ever
happened to make an illustration or even a sketch, especially if it was
privately published. No doubt the omission of Miss Alexander and other
Ruskin-boomed amateurs will be noted, but I have no collection of their
works which I should like to unload on the dear public. And as for the
misplaced energy contained in these drawings, I am sorry that their
authors wasted so much time over them. No doubt for making these
confessions, unknown or anonymous nobodies will shriek out that I have
stolen everything in the book from an authority of whom I never heard.
And, finally, no doubt an ordinarily rational paper like the "Spectator"
will remark of certain of the drawings, "they make us sick."
As to the text, it is in no sense an attempt at a complete history of
modern illustration; such a subject would fill volumes, and take a
lifetime to prepare. It is but a sketch, and a very slight one, of what
I think is the most important work of this century; from which I know I
shall be told I have omitted almost all that I should have included, and
inserted much that should have been omitted.
But I should like to point out that there are no works that I have been
able to consult on modern illustration, that is on drawing, engraving
and printing as practised to-day in Europe and America; there are a few
excellent books notably a "Chapter on English Illustration," by Mr.
Dobson, in Mr. Lang's "The Library," and Mr. Linton's works on
engraving; Mason Jackson's "Pictorial Press;" a few good monographs on
the great illustrators, Champfleury's "Vignettes Romantiques," for
example; many excellent scattered articles, and an ocean of rubbish. But
I am the unfortunate who will be sacrificed for attempting to write the
first book on a subject he loves. There is another most serious, really
insurmountable difficulty, for me or anyone else who attempts to write
of modern illustration: no illustrations are catalogued to any extent;
only the most important illustrators find a place in either the
catalogues of South Kensington Art Library or the British Museum;
therefore a few years, even a few weeks, after an illustrated book is
published, if it has already passed through several editions, it may
require hours to find the edition one wants. And as for a special
illustration, that necessitates almost always turning over thousands of
pages--unless one knows exactly where to find it. I know of but one
magazine--"Once a Week"--in the bound volumes of which the artist's work
is properly indexed, and even here the engraver's name is omitted.[2] In
Harper's most excellently conducted magazine, for some unknown reason
artists and engravers are ignored in the index. Even "The Century"
leaves much to be desired in this way. Again, it is almost impossible to
obtain the date or the name of the work in which many an important
illustration first appeared. Illustrations are used over and over again,
this has always been done; even a publisher at times cannot help one:
for this reason it is very difficult to tell when one is consulting a
first edition of an illustrated book. Sometimes I fancy this
carelessness is not altogether unassociated with the author's or
publisher's desire to palm off old blocks as new. It is by no means
uncommon to omit the name of the artist altogether from the work he has
illustrated; rarely indeed is it that the engraver's name is given;
sometimes no mention that the work is illustrated is even made on the
title page, or only that it contains so many illustrations; usually if
an attempt is made to describe the method by which the designs have been
reproduced, it is wrong; in rare cases, I am glad to say, this is
intentional--photogravures being called etchings, for example--but it is
mainly the result of sheer ignorance on the part of publisher, author,
or at times, the illustrator.
[2] The "Pall Mall Magazine" has just commenced to index artists and
engravers completely.
Hence there are two matters to which I should like to call attention;
that all library catalogues give the name of artist and engraver
whenever these are printed in the book being catalogued; naturally in a
work like this or a magazine, such a course would be impossible, but at
least the number of illustrations might be given. The name of the
illustrator should always appear on the title page when possible; if his
work is worth printing he should have a decent amount of attention drawn
to it. This matter is not so difficult, nor would it entail in new
catalogues so much work as librarians might think, for I may say in the
British Museum and South Kensington I find that Menzel's work is so
catalogued already.
[Illustration: BY E. J. SULLIVAN. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE DAILY
CHRONICLE."]
Secondly, that bibliographers everywhere should turn their attention
more to modern illustrated works, even if from the bibliographer of the
future it removed much of that pleasant uncertainty which enhances, for
some, the work of to-day. There is scarce an illustrated book of the
fifteenth or sixteenth century, in which we are absolutely sure of the
artist and engraver; but the bibliographers of the future will have a
far bigger puzzle to solve, unless we pay some attention to the work of
to-day, when they come to catalogue and describe the books of this
century.
Most illustrators, it is true, now sign their drawings, but I should not
care to attempt a catalogue of my own work.
I have no doubt that I have omitted to mention some really important
books, but they have been omitted because I have never seen them; with
no good catalogue, no guide, many of the artists dead, and the books
dead too, how is one to find them? I have done what I could to make a
start; I only hope some one will carry it on; certainly I am sure some
of my sincere flatterers will imitate me, as they always do.
But to-day the output of illustration is overwhelming; to study the
subject properly one must see all the books, magazines, and papers
published all over the world. No one man has a chance to do this, and,
if he had, the mere looking at such a mass of material would take up all
his time. Yet one must get some idea of what is being done, for in the
most unexpected places the best work often appears; originality is
barred in many, so-called, high-class journals, and has to struggle, in
the cheapest publications, with the printing-press, ink, and paper.
What magazine, for example, has eclipsed "The Daily Chronicle's"
experiment in illustration? Within the same short period no such
distinguished band of contributors ever appeared.
Again, in this book it is repeatedly stated that certain artists are at
work on certain publications; these have since appeared; I can only say
that the book was not made in a day, and the artists, engravers, and
printers to whom I have referred, have worked faster than I have. Even
the "Yellow Book" has come into existence, and been artistically
eclipsed--I hope but for a short while--since I have been working at
this volume. Temporarily, the shrieking brother and sisterhood have hurt
the pockets of a few artists; but illustrators may be consoled by
remembering that from the time of Dürer to the pre-Raphaelites, from
Whistler to Eternity, Art never has been and never will be understanded
of the people; but they no longer dare to burn our productions, they
only write to the newspapers about them. Art can stand that--even though
it, for the moment, is hard on the artist.
It is now no longer necessary for me to insist on the importance of
illustration; it is acknowledged, and, save that academic honours are
denied him in this country, the illustrator ranks with any other
practitioner of the fine or applied arts.
[Illustration: BY J. Mc NEIL WHISTLER. FROM "LEGENDARY BALLADS"
(CHATTO).]
Nor do I propose to contradict the statement that one can see too much
good art; well, the Elgin marbles stood for centuries where only the
blind could avoid them, and I have not heard that the Athenians were
injured in consequence; now they are shut up in boxes, and only visible
at certain times, hence the British taste has been so elevated, that the
ha'penny comic and the photograph have become its ideal. Still, if
people could see every day, as they had the chance of seeing this
year in the "Chronicle," illustrations by Whistler and Burne-Jones, I do
not think they would be harmed, even if they did not happen to have to
travel in a penny 'bus to the British Museum, or take a Cook's ticket
and a shilling Ruskin in order to walk in Florence. My opinion is, the
better the art around us, even in the penny paper, the better shall we
be able to appreciate the work we must travel to see.
As for the people who would vulgarize art and literature, bringing
everything down to their own low level, we have them always with us. And
they and their hangers-on are the ones against whom the present puritans
should level their attacks--not against men whose art they do not
understand, even if they do object to their personality. Still here it
will be always impossible to separate a man from his work; yet good art
will live, and good illustration is good art. The world may or may not
appreciate it, still "there never was an artistic period, there never
was an art-loving nation."
NOTE.
Since this preface was written much has happened, and I hope I have
learned a little. A show of wood-engravings was held in March, 1895, in
Stationers' Hall, which demonstrated clearly that there are many capable
artists in this branch of illustration, though at present they have but
little encouragement to practise their art; in that exhibition one saw
much good work, and I must at least record the names of H. Harral and C.
Roberts among English engravers on wood who have done notable large
blocks--while excellent engraving has been recently accomplished by
Messrs. M. Stainforth, O. Lacour, J. D. Cooper, R. Paterson, A. Worf, F.
Babbage, J. M. Johnstone, and W. Spielmeyer, the latter of whom was good
enough to give me much help in the German chapter of this book. Edmund
Evans, the engraver and colour-printer, loaned me the original drawings
on the wood by Birket Foster, William Harvey, and Harrison Weir, now for
the first time reproduced, while William Archer allowed us to reproduce
the Tegner on page 72.
[Illustration: BY A. S. HARTRICK. FROM A PEN DRAWING IN "THE DAILY
CHRONICLE."]
Among artists too I should have noted the work of G. H. Thomas and
Samuel Palmer, who made some designs for Sacred Allegories, mainly
engraved by W. T. Green, 1856. One of the earliest and best of modern
illustrated books, "Poets of the Nineteenth Century," 1857, and
Wilmott's "Sacred Poetry," 1863, are worth preservation for their
illustrations. The more I see of this illustration of twenty or thirty
years ago, the better and more interesting I find it. Arthur Hughes'
work grows on one; certainly his illustrations to Christina Rossetti's
"Sing Song," are very charming. I have made no mention scarcely of the
splendid work Charles Green, Luke Fildes, and Fred. Barnard did for
Charles Dickens. My only excuse is that till yesterday I never saw it.
Griset's grotesques, too, I have but just come across--but while one
is looking up the work of a few years ago, that of the present is
unseen. I have said nothing of many interesting illustrators who have
come to the front almost within a few months, illustrators are being
made almost daily, one cannot keep track of them, good as their work is
much of it is like journalism, bound to perish, only the best will live;
but when one is right in the midst of it, difficult indeed is the task
of picking out the good from the almost good, the clever from the
distinguished.
LONDON,
_September 30th, 1895._
[Illustration: BY CONSTABLE. PROCESS BLOCK FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN
POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.]
MODERN ILLUSTRATION.
INTRODUCTION.
Illustration is not only the oldest, but the only form of artistic
expression which graphic artists have ever been able to employ. For that
matter, every expression of the artist, whether conveyed by means of
monochrome or colour, even the work of the plastic artist, is but an
illustration.
For an illustration is the recording, by means of some artistic medium,
either of something seen by the artist which he wishes to convey
to--that is, illustrate for--others; or else the direct interpretation
by some artistic means of a written description, or the chronicling of
an historical event; or, it is a composition which has been suggested to
him by some occurrence in nature; or, again, his impression of some
phase of nature or life. Therefore all art is illustration, though it
rather seems to follow that all illustration is not art.
In the past, the great illustrators were employed by the great patrons
of art in the church and at court. The church, by means of graphic or
plastic illustration, warned or encouraged her followers, terrifying
them by endless purgatories and _infernos_, more gruesome and ghastly
than the British idea of the Salon picture; turning their thoughts
towards heaven mainly by cloying sweetness, which the typical member of
the Royal Academy finds much difficulty in approaching. Though such
illustration, in a certain sense, was made for the people, it was not
given into their possession as modern illustration is to-day; it was
meant not for their pleasure, but for their instruction.
The old illustrator in his work was simply nothing if not a moralist,
though he himself may have been a most amusing person, while his
treatment of even the most sacred subjects was frequently the broadest
and most suggestive. Still, he was commissioned solely to "point a moral
and adorn a tale." As for the court painters, their work was never seen
by the people at all, any more than it is now, often luckily. But what
were the portraits of Velasquez, the groups of Rembrandt, the feasts of
Veronese, the processions of Carpaccio? The work of all court and
portrait painters is but the recording, that is, the illustration, of
human vanity; and the work of all subject painters is but the recording,
that is, the illustration, of great and important events; while
landscape painting, a modern invention, is only more or less glorified
topography.
With the writing and illustrating of manuscripts, however, there had
been developed a school of minor artists and craftsmen: illuminators and
scribes who--mainly taking for their subjects either a portion of some
painting by a master, but usually the mere mechanical part of the early
painters' backgrounds, the mechanical gold punch design of the
primitives, the elaborate, but mannered and conventional, foregrounds of
Botticelli, and the entire compositions, more or less altered, of Fra
Angelico and Pinturicchio--by "lifting" these things judiciously,
evolved the art of illumination. It must be borne in mind that this
illumination, in its detail and accessories often very beautiful and
conventionally decorative, in its main subject almost always as
realistic as possible, was the work, with two or three most notable
exceptions, of second- and third-rate clever technicians, but in no
sense great creative artists at all. Only a few well-known painters were
ever employed to illuminate important manuscripts.
After the introduction of printing, the same state of affairs continued.
Although the most beautiful books which came from the early German press
appeared during the lifetime of Dürer, his contributions as an
illustrator are curiously limited, considering the amount of
black-and-white work which he produced. He illustrated not more than
three or four books, and of these only the Missal of the Emperor
Maximilian was worked out completely.[3] The great Italians never did
anything of any importance, if we except Botticelli's designs for Dante
which were never completed. Velasquez has left nothing behind him; nor
has Rembrandt. A few of Rubens' sketches for title-pages exist in
Antwerp, and Dürer's monograms and various decorative designs have
proved a veritable mine for the minor artists, or greatest thieves--I
mean the decorators--who are with us still. With the exception of Hans
Holbein, there never was in the past a great artist who devoted himself
to illustration. The glorification of these minor craftsmen into great
illustrators is unjust, incorrect, and absurd, when one seriously
considers it. Dürer's designs were really published and sold as
portfolios of engravings, or separately, although there was a little
text with them, but not as illustrated books. So, too, were those of
Rubens; while Rembrandt's etchings were altogether published separately.
It was the same with the work of the early Italians. Holbein is almost
the only exception proving the rule that great artists in the past
were not illustrators of books. Still, one can never be absolutely
certain on this point, since on some of the finest books, like the
"Hypnerotomachia," a great artist was employed whose name has never been
recorded.
[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.
Although it is impossible now to give with absolute certainty the true
reasons why the best-known artists did not illustrate the important
publications of their own day, there seem to be three very good ones.
First, because it is almost certain that the wood-cutter, when he was
known at all, and this implied his being reasonably successful, was the
head of a large shop in which the artist and the actual engraver were
mere necessary evils; the proprietor, I do not doubt, taking not only
all the credit, as we know, but most likely the bulk of the cash as
well. Secondly, we have Dürer's own testimony that his wood-cutters were
incompetent, and careless, and the much belauded line of Dürer which one
is bidden to admire in the wood-block to-day, he himself, it is almost
certain, did not cut.[4] But he sketched freely on paper, his design was
then copied by another person on the block, and the third man cut it.
That Dürer did work on the wood, correcting his designs and criticising
his wood-cutters, there can be little doubt, simply from the improvement
in this method of reproduction which began with him. But the reason that
a great artist like Dürer did not contribute illustrations to books most
probably is because he was not decently paid for them, and because his
designs were all cut to pieces. Finally, not only was almost all the
engraving, except work done under the direct supervision, or influence,
of Dürer, absolutely characterless so far as the quality of the line
went, but there is not a single early printed book to be found in which
the illustrations are decently printed. There is scarcely a solid black
in any of them.[5]
[4] See "Literary Remains of Albert Dürer," and F. Didot's
"Gravure sur Bois."
[5] Some of Ratdolt's are among the exceptions.
When one considers these facts, which have been carefully ignored by a
small set of artists, and, of course, are absolutely unknown to the
ordinary critic and authority on the early printed book, two things
become evident. First, that the great artists of the past did not
illustrate; and, second, that the reason they did not was because they
could be neither decently engraved nor printed.
[Illustration: ST. CHRISTOPHER, 1423.]
[Illustration: BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES, BART. REDUCED FROM A LARGE
PROCESS BLOCK IN "THE DAILY CHRONICLE."]
With the introduction of steel and copper-plate engraving and etching,
the paintings and sculptures of great artists were not infrequently used
as the subjects of book illustrations, but they were seldom made
expressly for the books they illustrate. And as the steel or copper
engraving must be printed separately, and as the best proofs of these
engravings were almost always sold as separate works of art, it hardly
seems to me that engravings on metal or on stone, like lithographs,
properly come under the head of illustration for printed books.
The use of what we call now _clichés_ and stock blocks was almost
universal, even from the very invention of printing, when the
illustrations to the block-books were cut up for this purpose; and not
only this: the same map was made to do duty for as many countries as
were required, and one and the same portrait or town served for as many
characters and places as happened to figure in the book. While, under
the heading of appropriateness of decoration and fitness, it may be
remarked that most of the old printers only had one set of initials, and
if they did possess two sets of borders, they usually chopped them up,
and, by judicious mixing, obtained a variety apparently pleasing to
their patrons.
It is not until the eighteenth century that one finds artists of note
illustrating books, always with the exception of Holbein. Even then the
illustrations were usually steel or copper-plate engravings made very
freely from other men's drawings, although the artists were beginning to
be commissioned to produce designs themselves. One might devote much
space to the work of Piranesi, Canaletto, Watteau, Greuze, Hogarth,
Chodowiecki, and the illustrators of La Fontaine. But this does not
come really within my subject, since the making of modern illustration,
that is, the employment of great artists to produce great works of art
to appear with letterpress in printed books, dates entirely from this
century, and is due altogether to the genius of four men: Meissonier in
France, Menzel in Germany, Goya in Spain, and Bewick in England. It is
to these four that modern illustration is solely and entirely due;
though a word--and a strong one--of praise should be given to the
patrons and publishers who employed and encouraged them.
[Illustration: BY SIR DAVID WILKIE. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN THE
POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.]
[Illustration: WOOD-ENGRAVING BY THOMAS BEWICK. FROM WALTON'S "COMPLETE
ANGLER" (BOHN).]
CHAPTER I.
A GENERAL SURVEY.
Nowhere were the conditions of illustration more deplorable than in
England when Bewick, and Stothard, and Blake appeared upon the scene.
There was a decided revolution when Gay's "Fables," the "General History
of Quadrupeds," "British Land and Water Birds," all illustrated by
Bewick's wood-engravings, were issued. Bewick, as has been said before,
and cannot be repeated too often, was an artist who happened to engrave
his designs on wood, instead of drawing them on paper or painting them
on canvas; he was not a mere wood-engraver, interpreting other men's
work which he only half understood or appreciated; and this is a
distinction to be borne in mind. Bewick, virtually, did for himself what
the new mechanical processes almost succeed in doing for contemporary
illustrators. For him were none of the difficulties and miseries of the
draughtsman who made his designs on the block, saw them ruthlessly
ruined by an incompetent, or unscrupulous engraver, and then had but the
print, which could not prove the reproduction to be the wretched
caricature of the original that it really was. This was the chief reason
for Bewick's success. He invented wood-engraving; he showed what good
work ought to be; in a word, he revolutionized the art of illustration
in England.[6]
[6] The printing is, however, always bad.
Whatever may have brought about this sudden activity and revival of
excellence, Bewick's books were far from being its sole outcome. "The
Songs of Innocence and Experience," the "Inventions to the Book of Job,"
Blair's "Grave," Mary Wollstonecraft's stories, with Blake's
illustrations, belong to the same period, though this was but a chance.
The illustrations were mostly done on metal, and Blake had his own
peculiar methods. He belongs to no special time or group.
[Illustration: "CHRIST AND PETER." BY CARACCI. Wood-engraving by the
Linnells.]
[Illustration: "THE HOLY FAMILY." BY PERUGINO. Wood-engraving by the
Linnells.]
Book after book with Stothard's illustrations, the "Pilgrim's
Progress," Richardson's novels, tales now forgotten, above all, Rogers'
"Poems," with the engravings by Clennell, helped to prove the
possibilities of good illustration, and emphasize, by force of contrast,
the inappropriateness of work done by some of the most popular
Academicians of the day for Boydell's "Shakespeare," immortalized by
Thackeray as that "black and ghastly gallery of murky Opies, glum
Northcotes, straddling Fuselis."
[Illustration: BY STOTHARD. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION
OF THE AUTHOR.]
[Illustration: FROM A PAINTING BY WILSON. Wood-engraving by the
Linnells.]
[Illustration: FROM A PAINTING BY RUBENS. Wood-engraving by the
Linnells.]
[Illustration: BY STOTHARD. FROM ROGERS' "POEMS" (CADELL). Engraved on
wood by Clennell.]
[Illustration: BY STOTHARD. FROM ROGERS' "POEMS" (CADELL). Engraved on
wood by Clennell.]
But the most important outcome of Bewick's work was the appearance of an
excellent school of wood-engravers in England: Clennell, Branston,
Harvey and Nesbit, the Thompsons, the Williamses, and Orrinsmith. These
engravers tried, in the beginning, to produce exactly the same sort of
work that is being done by the so-called school of American
wood-engravers to-day. One has only to look at Stothard's illustrations
to Rogers' "Poems," engraved by Clennell, to see an example of
_facsimile_ engraving after pen drawing. But, as a general thing, these
men all endeavoured to imitate the qualities of steel engraving or
etching. First, because steel or metal engraving was the prevailing form
of illustration, enjoying, for a while, tremendous popularity in the
long series of "Keepsakes," "Forget-Me-Nots," and "Albums;" and,
secondly, because they were forced mainly to copy old metal engravings,
since scarcely any artist, always excepting Stothard and a few others,
knew how to draw on the wood. So great was the rage for popularizing
engravings on metal, that John Thompson projected an edition of Hogarth
on wood, about two inches by three, showing that, instead of being able
to produce new work done specially for the wood, engravers were
continually thrown back upon the copying of steel or copper-plates, or
the work of their predecessors. Another notable instance, though
published much later, is that of the first illustrated catalogue of the
National Gallery by the Linnells.[7]
[7] So far as I know, the original of that system of abomination.
In France, however, there were plenty of artists, willing to draw on the
wood, who could not get their designs engraved, at the very time that in
England there were plenty of engravers who could find no artists to draw
for them.
[Illustration: FROM TITIAN, "ARIADNE AND BACCHUS." Wood-engraving by the
Linnells.]
In 1816 Charles Thompson went to Paris, partly for pleasure and partly
in search of work. He was at once successful. He arrived at the right
moment: already a Society for the Encouragement of National Industry in
France had offered a prize of two thousand francs for wood-engravings
done in that country, so impressed had Frenchmen been with the
excellence of the work produced in England.
[Illustration: BY HARVEY. FROM "MILTON'S POETICAL WORKS" (BOHN).
Engraved on wood by Thompson.]
[Illustration: BY HARVEY. FROM "MILTON'S POETICAL WORKS" (BOHN).
Engraved on wood by Thompson.]
A little later on, Lavoignat and other engravers came over and worked in
London with the Williamses. The result was, that, within ten years of
their return, a school of wood-engravers, nearly as good as the English,
arose in France, together with a number of draughtsmen, greatly superior
to those of England. Among the engravers who should be mentioned are
Best, Brévière, Leveille, Lavoignat, Piaud, Pisan, and Poirret. They
worked after Gigoux, the Johannots, Isabey, Paul Huet, Jacque,
Meissonier, Charlet, Daubigny, Daumier, Gavarni, Monnier, and Raffet.
[Illustration: FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING ON THE WOOD BY HARVEY.]
In both countries this new illustration began to make its mark about
1835. Although, in its own way, Bewick's engraving was unsurpassed,
still a refinement, a freedom, was introduced by the French artists, and
a faithfulness of _facsimile_ by their engravers, many of whom, as I
have said, were English, quite unknown at that time in work published
in England. So great was the reputation of these illustrators, artists
and engravers both, that two Germans, Braun and Roehle, came to Paris to
work with Brévière. This international exchange of engravers has kept
up, in a measure, till the present time; M. Lepère, for instance,
studied in England with Smeeton, while it is well known that the
director of the "Graphic" was working in Paris almost up to 1870.
[Illustration: BY HARVEY. FROM MILTON'S POETICAL WORKS (BOHN).
Wood-engraving, unsigned.]
In 1830 I think one may safely say that the first really important
modern illustrated book, in which wood was substituted for metal
engraving, appeared in France. This was the "Histoire du Roi de Bohème,"
by Johannot. Though published twenty years later than Rogers' "Poems,"
with Stothard's illustrations, as an example of engraving it was
scarcely any better. But the designs--little head and tail-pieces--were
so good that they were used over and over again by "L'Artiste," the
organ of the Romanticists, in which they were accepted as the perfection
of illustration.
At this date there is to be noted in England, among the best work done,
the beautiful alphabet by Stothard, published by Pickering.
[Illustration: BY THURSTON. FROM BUTLER'S "HUDIBRAS" (BOHN).
Wood-engraving, unsigned.]
[Illustration: BY THURSTON. FROM BUTLER'S "HUDIBRAS" (BOHN).
Wood-engraving, unsigned.]
If, up to 1830, England and France were in equal rank, so far as
illustration went, for the next ten or fifteen years France utterly
eclipsed her earlier rival. In 1833 appeared the "Gil Blas"[8] of
Gigoux, containing hundreds of drawings, which all Frenchmen, I believe,
consider to be the illustrated book of the period. To Gigoux, Daniel
Vierge owes more probably than he would care to acknowledge; while
Gigoux himself is founded on Goya. In 1838, however, was issued a book
which, in drawing, engraving, and printing, completely outdistanced
anything that had heretofore appeared in England or in France: Curmer's
edition of "Paul et Virginie," dedicated by a grateful publisher, "Aux
artistes qui ont élevé ce monument typographique à la mémoire de J. H.
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre." These artists include the names of nearly
everyone who was then, or soon became famous in French art. The book
contains marines by Isabey, beautiful landscapes by Paul Huet, animals
and figures by Jacque, and, above all, drawings by Meissonier, who
contributed over a hundred to this story and to the "Chaumière
Indienne," published under the same cover. All the best French and
English engravers collaborated. Even the printing was excellent, for the
use of overlays, made by Aristide Derniame, had begun to be fully
understood.[9] The printers' name deserves to be remembered: Everal et
Cie.
[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.
After this, for some ten years, there was a perfect deluge of finely
illustrated books. The "Vicar of Wakefield," with Jacque's drawings,
Molière, "Don Quixote," "Le Diable Boiteux." Magazines, too, were
brought out; the "Magazin Pittoresque," which had started in 1833,
published in 1848 Meissonier's "Deux Joueurs," engraved by Lavoignat; in
many ways this remains, even to-day, one of the best pieces of
_facsimile_ wood-engraving ever made. At that time it was simply
unapproached anywhere. In "L'Artiste" and "Gazette des Entants," 1840,
will be found many remarkable lithographs by Gavarni; but most of
Daumier's works must be looked for in the cheaper prints, notably in "La
Caricature," where also may be found, from 1830, in lithography the
work of Delacroix, Monnier, Lami, and others.
[Illustration: BY THURSTON. FROM TASSO (BOHN). Engraved on wood by
Corbould.]
[Illustration: FROM CRUIKSHANK'S "THREE COURSES." Engraved on wood by S.
Williams.]
[Illustration: FROM CRUIKSHANK'S "THREE COURSES."]
[Illustration: FROM CRUIKSHANK'S "THREE COURSES." Wood-engravings, not
signed.]
In England, too, very good work was being done, though it was not so
absolutely artistic as the French. Among the men who were working were
Thurston, Stothard, Harvey, Landseer, Wilkie, Calcott, and Mulready. The
"Penny Magazine" was started in 1832 by Charles Knight. Gray's "Elegy"
appeared in 1836, the "Arabian Nights" in 1838, and, about the same time
the "Solace of Song," both containing much of Harvey's best work; while
later came those drawings by Cruikshank, which mainly owe their claim to
notice to the marvellous interpretations of them made by the Thompsons
and the Williamses. In England, however, the engravers were seeking more
and more to imitate steel, the artist's simplest washes being turned
into the most elaborate cross-hatching, which made each block look as if
it were a mass of pen-and-ink or pencil detail, when no such work was
ever put on it by the draughtsman. The artist was ignored by the
engraver, until finally the latter became absolutely supreme, that is to
say, his shop became supreme, while the artist who, when he had the
chance, could give on a piece of wood an inch or two square, most
beautiful, even great, effects of landscape, was subordinated wholly to
his interpreter. For an accurate account of this inartistic triumph I
would recommend the works of Mr. W. J. Linton.
In France the art of illustration continued to improve. It culminated in
1858 in the "Contes Rémois," with Meissonier for draughtsman and
Lavoignat and Leveille for engravers. These illustrations are absolutely
equal to Menzel's best work, and are by far the finest ever produced in
France.
[Illustration: FROM CRUIKSHANK'S "TABLE BOOK." Engraved on wood by T.
Williams.]
I had always supposed Menzel to occupy a position quite as original as
Bewick's. But I find that he was really a follower of Meissonier. His
"Life of Frederick the Great" was not published until 1842, while the
"Paul et Virginie" had appeared in 1835. Besides, the first of his
drawings for the "Frederick" Menzel confided to French engravers,[10]
especially to the men who had reproduced Tony Johannot. But this
artist's illustrations, though in point of size the most important, in
point of excellence are the worst in the French book, being not unlike
characterless steel engravings. It is therefore not surprising that
Menzel was dissatisfied with the results, and that he proceeded at once
to train a number of Germans to produce engravings of his work in
_facsimile_. The best of these men were Bentworth, Unzelmann, the
Vogels, Kreitzschmar, who engraved the drawings for the "Works of
Frederick the Great," and the "Heroes of War and Peace," those monuments
to Menzel's art and German illustration. Indeed, it seems to me that,
until the introduction of photography, there is little to be said of
German illustration that does not relate entirely to Menzel and Dietz,
and some of the artists on "Fliegende Blätter," which was founded in
1844.
[10] Rather English and French, Andrew, Best, Leloir.
But in England it is just before the invention of photographing on wood
that some of the most marvellous drawings were produced; really the most
marvellous that have ever been done in the country. It is true that Sir
John Gilbert had been making his striking and powerful designs, Mr.
Birket Foster his exquisite drawings, while much good _facsimile_ work
was done after Mr. Harrison Weir; the Abbotsford edition of Scott was
appearing, and the "Liber Studiorum;" true, also, that the
"Illustrated London News," started in 1842, had done much to raise the
general standard; "Punch," also, was commenced in 1842; much, too, had
been accomplished in lithography. Still, it is with the appearance of
Frederick Sandys, Rossetti, Walker, Pinwell, A. Boyd Houghton, Small,
Du Maurier, Keene, Crane, Leighton, Millais, and Tenniel, with the
publication of the "Cornhill," "Once a Week," "Good Words," the
"Shilling Magazine," and such books as Moxon's "Tennyson," that the best
period of English illustration begins. Mr. Ruskin's own drawings for his
books must not be forgotten.
[Illustration: BY BIRKET FOSTER. FROM "LONGFELLOW'S POEMS" (BELL).
Engraved on wood by Vizetelly.]
[Illustration: BY SIR JOHN GILBERT. FROM MARRYAT'S "MISSION" (BOHN).
Engraved on wood by Dalziel.]
[Illustration: BY DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. FROM "TENNYSON'S POEMS."
Moxon, 1857. Engraved on wood by Dalziel.]
[Illustration: BY DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. PROCESS BLOCK FROM A DRAWING
IN THE POSSESSION OF EDMUND GOSSE, ESQ.]
[Illustration: BY BIRKET FOSTER. FROM "LONGFELLOW'S POEMS" (BELL).
Engraved on wood by H. Vizetelly.]
[Illustration: BY BIRKET FOSTER. FROM "BELL'S SCHOOL READER."
Wood-engraving unsigned.]
Among the English engravers, outside of the large shops of Dalziel and
Swain, there are only two names that stand out conspicuously: W. J.
Linton and W. H. Hooper. The excellent work of the latter,
unfortunately, has been overshadowed by that of Mr. Linton, who,
however, cannot be considered his equal as an engraver.
[Illustration: BY BIRKET FOSTER. PROCESS BLOCK FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING
ON THE WOOD BLOCK, NEVER ENGRAVED.]
[Illustration: BY BIRKET FOSTER. FROM "GOLDSMITH'S POEMS" (BELL).
Engraved on wood by Dalziel.]
In America F. O. C. Darley was certainly the first illustrator, while
the French tradition was carried on for years in "Harper's Magazine" by
C. E. Doepler, who produced some very excellent little blocks.
Harper's "Illuminated Bible," with more than fourteen hundred drawings
by J. G. Chapman, engraved by J. A. Adams, was begun in 1837, and
finished in 1843. But the greatest number of the better American
drawings were either borrowed from English sources, or, as in the case
of the American Tract Society, English artists, like Sir John Gilbert,
were commissioned to make them. After the Civil War, the first man to
appear prominently was Winslow Homer. Contemporary with him, and later,
were John La Farge, Thomas and Peter Moran, Alfred Fredericks, W. L.
Shepherd, and the older of the men working to-day. Among the
caricaturists, Thomas Nast was preeminent.
[Illustration: BY HARRISON WEIR. FROM POETRY FOR SCHOOLS (BELL).]
[Illustration: BY HARRISON WEIR. FROM POETRY FOR SCHOOLS (BELL).
Engraved on wood by A. Slader.]
[Illustration: BY HARRISON WEIR. FROM A WASH DRAWING ON THE WOOD.]
There is one American book, however, which deserves special mention.
This is Harris's "Insects Injurious to Vegetation," the drawings for
which were the work of Sourel and Burckhardt. It is one of the most
artistic books of the sort ever published in America or elsewhere. Then,
too, amid a flood of other things, appeared, in 1872, "Picturesque
America," and later "Picturesque Europe," which then reached really the
high-water mark of American publishing enterprise in the United States,
just as surely as Doré at the same time in France and England was the
most exploited of all illustrators. The greater number of drawings for
these books were made by Harry Fenn and J. D. Woodward. The profession
of illustration at this period must have been almost equal to that of
gold-mining. Everything the artist chose to produce was accepted. It
would be more accurate to say everything he half produced, for the
school of Turner being then superseded by that of Doré, wood-engravers,
like Pannemacker, for instance, had been specially trained by the artist
to carry out the ideas which he merely suggested on the block.
But a change was coming; the incessant output of illustration killed not
only the artists themselves, but the process. In its stead arose a
better, truer method, a more artistic method, which we are even now,
only developing. This later American illustration may be said to have
had its beginning in the year 1876.
[Illustration: BY A. COOPER. FROM WALTON'S "ANGLER" (BOHN). Engraved on
wood by M. Jackson.]
[Illustration: BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT. FROM "OLD CHRISTMAS" (MACMILLAN,
1875).]
CHAPTER II.
THE METHODS OF TO-DAY; THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
Modern illustration belongs essentially to our own times, to our own
generation. To the last quarter of the eighteenth century several
writers on the subject have traced its beginning. But in a measure only
is this theory justified by fact. All dates are difficult and elusive.
It is not easy to point to the exact year when the old came to an end
and the new began. Even in cases when a certain date, 1830 for example,
seems to mark a positive barrier, it does so only because, with constant
use, it has become the symbol of a certain change.
But the cause of this modern development is not hard to discover. It was
the application of photography to the illustration of books and papers
which established the art on a new basis. As the invention of printing
gave the first great impetus to illustration, so surely has it received
its second and more important from the invention of photography. The
gulf between primitive illuminated manuscripts and Holbein's "Dance of
Death" is not wider than that which separates the antiquated "Keepsakes"
and "Forget-Me-Nots" from the "Century Magazine" and the "Graphic." The
conditions have entirely altered.
Greater ease of reproduction, greater speed, greater economy of labour
have been secured, as well as greater freedom for the artist, and
greater justice in the reproduction of his design. As a consequence,
illustration has increased in popularity, the comparative cheapness of
production placing it within reach of the people who have ever taken
pleasure in the art, since the days when all writing was but
picture-making; it has gained artistically, since the fidelity of the
_facsimile_ now obtained has induced many an artist of genius, or
distinction, to devote himself wholly to black and white. If, on the one
hand, this popularity threatens its degradation (foolish editors and
grasping publishers flooding the world with cheap and nasty illustrated
books and periodicals), on the other, the artistic gain promises to be
its salvation, for not in the days of Dürer himself was so large a
proportion of genuinely good work published.
[Illustration: BY CHARLES KEENE. FROM A PEN DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF
THE AUTHOR.]
The first attempt to photograph a drawing on the block for the purpose
of engraving, is said to have been made in England, in 1851 or 1852, by
Mr. Langton, an engraver in Manchester, assisted by a photographer whose
name unfortunately has not been preserved. It may be granted that this
was the first attempt. But artistically it was of small importance,
as nothing, so far as I know, directly came of it. That the process was
well enough known in 1865 is proved by the following extracts from the
"Art Student" of that year: "The picture is obtained in the usual way,
and the film of collodion afterwards removed by using a pledget of
cotton moistened in ether. A block so prepared works as well under the
graver as an ordinary drawing." But I do not believe that even this
process of photographing on the block was very practically used.[11] To
take one case in point, the "Amor Mundi" by Sandys, published in the
"Shilling Magazine" for April, 1865, which I reproduced by photogravure
in "Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen:"[12] the plate was made from a
negative taken from this design after it had been drawn on the block.
Mr. Swain has told me that he photographed the drawing, because he was
so delighted with the original (which he was about to cut to pieces)
that he wanted to preserve an exact copy. Now, had the art of
photographing drawings on wood been generally known, Mr. Swain would
have photographed the drawing on to another block, reversing the
negative, and kept the original. Instead, he simply photographed the
original before it was engraved. The same thing is said to have been
done with some of Rossetti's illustrations for Tennyson; while Messrs.
Dalziel kept back their "Bible Gallery" for many years, until drawings
could be decently photographed on the wood. But the practical
application of photography to the transferring of drawings to wood
blocks, although probably known about as long ago as 1850, in a few
offices is scarcely practised to-day. I think, however, one may safely
say that about the year 1876 this practice became fairly general; one
may therefore, for the sake of convenience, take the year 1876 as the
date of the beginning of modern illustration.
[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.
As this change is probably the most important in the whole history of
the art, I think it may be well to explain shortly how drawings were
produced before the introduction of photography, and how they are made
now.
[Illustration: BY CHARLES KEENE. FROM A PEN DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF
THE AUTHOR.]
Before the time of Dürer and Holbein, the artist was of small
importance; indeed, so too was the engraver, though we hear much about
him. The artist made his drawing either on a piece of paper or on the
block. Judging from some of the work in the Plantin Museum (the sole
place where we can obtain any actual data[13]), the design was made in
rather a free manner; the argument against this conclusion, of course,
is that comparatively few originals exist. There is, however, in the
British Museum a drawing of an Apollo by Dürer[14] on which are the
marks of a hard lead pencil, or metal point leaving a mark, used to
trace it, while the word "Apollo" in the mirror is written backwards.
On the other hand, in the old Herbals are cuts of the artist making his
drawing from nature, the draughtsman putting it on the block, and the
wood-cutter cutting it. When we come to engraving on metal, we find
that, though the wood-cutter need not have been an artist, he only
having to follow lines given him, or to make certain mechanical ones to
suit himself, the metal engraver was obliged to be an artist, because he
had to be able to copy the picture or design entrusted to him. But
mechanical aids were found for him too, with the result that the later
engravings on metals, as well as the old woodcuts, became the
productions of shops, in which certain parts were done by certain men,
and the real artist, whether he were draughtsman or engraver, had a
small share in the actual reproduction. The next stage was the entire
disappearance of the wood-cutter, when finally all books were
illustrated by means of steel and copper. With Bewick who, with a
graver, engraved his own designs on the end of the block, instead of
cutting them with a knife on the side of a plank, as everyone had
previously done,[15] there was introduced a new phase--the possibility
of drawing with a pen, or pencil, or brush, or wash, upon the whitened
surface of box-wood, a good medium, a design which should be absolutely
facsimiled by the engraver. The engravers of Bewick's time and until
about 1835 or 1840, being true artists and craftsmen, knew that their
business was to engrave the artist's design as accurately and carefully
as they could, since what the latter wanted was the absolute _facsimile_
of his work and none of their suggestions. But by the fifties, the
artist either had become wholly indifferent to the way in which his work
was engraved, or else he was absolutely under the thumb of the
engravers. His entire style, all his individuality, was sacrificed for
the benefit of the engraving shop, from which blocks after him were
turned out. The head of the firm whose signature they bore may never
have done a stroke of work on them. Even a man strong as Charles Keene
was completely broken up by this system, though he may not have realized
it. Artists were told that they must draw in such a way that the
engravers could engrave them with the least time, trouble, and expense.
Two attempts were made to escape from the wood-engraver who was again
endeavouring to reduce everything to a _facsimile_ of steel: by the use
of steel plates themselves, as in the case of the later editions of
Rogers' "Italy;" and also, by the practice of aquatint and lithography,
in France by such men as Gavarni and Daumier, and in England by Prout,
Roberts, Harding, Nash, and Cotman. But lithography in this country, as
a method of illustrating books and papers, never can be said to have
become very popular, though in France for years its employment was
general.
[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.
The art of wood-engraving was dying in the clutch of the engraver, when
an artless process came to its aid. For, at this crisis it was
discovered that a drawing made in any medium, upon any material, of any
size (so long as proportion was regarded), might be photographed upon
the sensitized wood-block in reverse. The importance of the discovery
will be appreciated when it is remembered that, before this, the poor
artist, if he were drawing the portrait of a place directly on the
block, was compelled to draw it the exact size it was to be engraved, to
reverse it himself, and to have his actual drawing destroyed by
engraving through it. Once photography was used, the drawing could be
made of any size, it was mechanically reversed, the original was
preserved, and the artist was free. Gone, however, according to the
engraver, was the engraver's art. It is true that the wood-chopper
disappeared: the man who could not draw a line himself, and yet would
pretend that his mechanical lines, made with a graver or ruling machine,
were more valuable than the artist's, and who had no hesitancy in
changing the entire composition of a subject if he did not like it. But
his disappearance was a great gain. In his place there arose the latest
school of wood-engravers. Many of the new were perhaps no better than
the old men, for not knowing how to draw, not being artists, they
directed their energies often to the meaningless elaboration of
unimportant detail. But at least this work could always be corrected,
now that the original drawing was preserved and could be compared with
the print from the engraved block.
[Illustration: BY M. E. EDWARDS. FROM GATTY'S "PARABLES" (BELL, 1867).]
[Illustration: BY G. DU MAURIER. FROM A WOOD-ENGRAVING. "THE ENGLISH
ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY ARTHUR HUGHES. WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM GORDON HAKE'S
"PARABLES" (CHAPMAN AND HALL).]
In England, from 1860 to 1870 some very remarkable drawings were made
and engraved upon the block. During the years just before the
introduction of photography, Walker, Pinwell, Keene, Sandys, Shields,
and Du Maurier were illustrating. To a certain extent, they seem to
have insisted upon their work being followed. Between 1870 and 1880,
when the actual change was made from drawing on wood to drawing on
paper, even a larger number of men were at work. The "Graphic" and the
"Century" were founded, and enormous were the improvements in France and
Germany. But between 1880 and 1890 came the greatest development of all.
For these years saw the perfecting and successful practice of mechanical
reproduction: that is, the photographing of drawings in line upon a
metal plate or gelatine film, the biting of them in relief on this
plate, or the mechanical growth of a plate on the gelatine, resulting in
the production of a metal block which could be printed along with type.
This method of replacing the wood-engraver by a chemical agent has,
however, been the aim of every photographer since the time of Niepce,
who made the first experiments, while the process was patented by Gillot
on the 21st of March, 1850.[16] These ten years are also noted for the
invention of what is now generally known as the half-tone process: that
is the reproduction by mechanical means of drawings in wash, or in
colour, worked out in Europe by the Meisenbach process, in America by
the Ives method. In many ways wood-engraving as a trade or business has
been, it may be only temporarily, seriously damaged. However, in the
very short period since mechanical reproduction has been
introduced, those wood-engravers who really are artists have been doing
better work, because they can now engrave, in their own fashion, the
blocks they want to. The art of wood-engraving has progressed if the
trade has languished.
[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.
The most modern of these developments are worthy of special notice both
in Europe and America. But before pointing out the changes and results
that have come from them, it may be well to say something about process.
Upon this subject there are two widely differing factions. It is not at
all curious that the artists, the men who practise the art of
illustration, should be found almost unanimously on one side, while the
critics, whose business it is to preach about an art of which they know
nothing in practice, are ranged upon the other. There are a few critics
of intelligence, who understand the requirements and limitations of both
process and wood-engraving, just as there are hack and superior
illustrators who neither know nor care anything about any form of
reproduction.
Many advantages are claimed for wood-engraving. The print from an
engraving on wood gives, it is said, a softer, richer, fuller impression
than the print from the mechanically engraved process block. But not in
one case out of a hundred thousand is the wood block itself printed
from: the illustration which delights the critics has, in reality, been
printed from a cast of the block made of exactly the same metal as the
cast from the process block, and the softness, the velvety quality, is
therefore due to the imagination of the critic who is unable to tell the
difference. Indeed, to distinguish between a mechanically produced block
and one engraved on wood, provided the subject of the drawing is
reasonably simple, is so difficult, that when neither of the blocks is
signed, no living expert on the subject would venture an off-hand
opinion. Between good _facsimile_ engraving and good process there is
really no difference at all, excepting in a few particulars. For in the
mechanically engraved process block, to use the ordinary term, the lines
made by the artist on paper, are photographed directly on to the metal
plate; these lines are protected by ink which is rolled upon them with
an ordinary ink roller, the sticky ink adhering to the lines of the
photograph, and nowhere else. This inked photograph is then placed in a
bath of acid, and the exposed portions are eaten away; the zinc or other
metal block is set up with a wooden back, type high, and is ready to
print from. The process is so ridiculously simple that it can be done in
a very few hours.
Process blocks for line work, and nearly always half-tone blocks, have
to be finished by a clever engraver especially employed for the purpose.
It is very hard for him, as it leaves him no chance for original work,
but in course of time it is hoped that the process will be so perfected
that the services of the engraver can be dispensed with. There are other
methods, such as that of using swelled gelatine, to produce the same
results, but the biting of zinc that I have described is the most
popular.
[Illustration: BY G. R. SEYMOUR. WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM "THE MAGAZINE OF
ART" (CASSELL).]
In the case of the wood-engraving, the drawing is photographed in the
same way on the wood block, but the engraver proceeds slowly, tediously,
and laboriously with his tools to cut away the wood and leave the lines
in relief. This requires an amount of devotion to painstaking drudgery
which is appalling. As many days will be given to the production of a
good wood-engraving, as hours are needed to produce a good process
block. The results obtained by a first-class wood-engraver on the one
hand, on the other by the first-class mechanical reproduction which is
always watched by a first-class man, may be so close as to be
indistinguishable. But there is no artistic gain in employing the
wood-engraver, while great artistic loss is involved, since the latter,
who can scarce enjoy doing this sort of thing, is compelled to waste his
time in competing with a chemical and mechanical combination which does
the work just as well; besides, there is as much difference in the cost
as in the methods themselves, a process block being worth about as many
shillings as the wood-engraving is pounds. As the results are equal, I
see no reason why the publisher should be called upon to pay this large
sum of money, unless he wishes to, simply for what is absolutely a fad.
I admit, however, that _facsimile_ engravings by the early Englishmen
and Frenchmen, and some of the Americans and Danes of the present day,
are worth quite as much money as is asked for them. But I am just as
certain that mechanical engravers will go on improving their mechanical
process until _facsimile_ wood-engravers are left in the rear. Ordinary
good process work, which can be printed with type, is, at the present
moment, equal to any _facsimile_ wood-engraving. The more elaborate
methods, such as the photogravure of Amand Durand, are infinitely
better, and only to be compared to etching.
[Illustration: BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR
GATTY'S "PARABLES" (BELL, 1867).]
To contrast the mechanical reproductions of black and white wash, or
colour drawings with wood-engravings after them is, however, another
matter. Many drawings, owing to the medium in which they are done, will
not as yet reproduce well mechanically. Indeed, to have one's drawings
rendered satisfactorily, by the half-tone process, requires such an
enormous experience and knowledge of the improvements continuously being
made in the many different methods used by the different process men,
that the artist, if he kept posted in all the developments and
modifications, would have very little time left to produce works of art
of his own. On the other hand, the artist may admire the work of a
sympathetic wood-engraver whom he is delighted to trust with his
drawings: it is always a pleasure to see the translation of a good
drawing by a good wood-engraver. From the point of view of engraving,
nothing is more hopelessly monotonous than process; for the aim of the
process-man, as of some of the best wood-engravers, is to render the
drawing in wash, or in colour, so well, that there should be no
suggestion of the methods by which the results are obtained: to give the
drawing itself, and this is exactly, in the majority of cases, what the
artist wants. Naturally, he prefers an absolute reproduction of his
drawing, to somebody else's interpretation of it. He is not eager to
have another person interpret his ideas for the public; he would rather
the public should see what he has done himself with his own hands. This
reasonable desire process now begins to realize. By the half-tone
process, a photograph is made of a drawing with either a microscopically
ruled glass plate or screen in front of it, which breaks up the flat
tones into infinitesimal dots, or squares, or lozenges; or else, there
is impressed into the inked photo, in some one of a dozen ways, a dotted
plate which will give the same effect.[17] These dots, squares, or
lozenges lend a grain to the flat washes, translating them into
rectilinear relief, yielding a printing surface,--accomplishing, in a
word, the same end as the wood-engraver's translation of flat washes
into lines and dots. The great objection hitherto to half-tone process
has been, especially in large reproductions, that the squares or
lozenges produce a mechanical look which is entirely absent from a good
wood-engraving, the very essence of engraving being variety and,
therefore, interest in the lines drawn with the graver. The crucial
point, however, is this: even the greatest wood-engraver, in reproducing
a drawing made in tone, is forced to translate this tone by lines or
dots; in fact, instead of the wash, to give lines which do not exist in
the original drawing. Though he may be so clever as to succeed in
reproducing the actual values of the original, which he rarely does, he
has still entirely altered the original appearance of the work. The
object of the half-tone process is to give, not only these actual
values, so often missed by the engraver, but also the brush-marks and
the washy or painty look of the original, a result much further beyond
the powers of any wood-engraver, than beyond the possibilities of
process at the present day. It is said that process reproduction is but
a mechanical makeshift, and this is a term of reproach against it. But
it must be evident that wood-engraving, especially for the reproduction
of wash, and, in a less degree, of line drawings, is a far more
mechanical makeshift. There is no possible way in wood of representing
the wash, while in reproducing line on the block, at least two cuts are
required with the graver to get what the mechanical process gives at
once. Moreover, as soon as the line drawing becomes at all complicated,
it is impossible for the engraver to follow it on the wood block.
[17] This method, I believe, is no longer used.
Therefore, it seems to me that the strictures which have been applied to
process are far more applicable to wood-engraving. Now that
wood-engraving has become a medium for the reproduction of any and every
sort of design, it has stepped quite outside its proper province. Almost
anything can be done with a block of wood and a graver, but it must be
evident to people of average intelligence that a very great gulf
separates those things which possibly can be done, from those which
rationally should be attempted. Still, to-day any subject that can be
engraved on wood may be printed; and if one likes to try experiments,
why should he be stopped? The wood-engraver of to-day has been
compelled to suppress and efface himself. When he proposes to reproduce
another man's designs, if he is really a great wood-engraver, he
recognizes that his sole function is to render the original, faithfully
giving as much of the artist's handiwork as possible, and as little of
his own. That this must be to many a most galling and annoying position
is evident. But to rebel against it is absurd, and for the engraver to
tamper with an artist's original design is as unwarrantable as for an
editor to change an author's manuscript after the final proof has left
the writer's hands.
[Illustration: BY WALTER CRANE. PROCESS BLOCK FROM A WOOD-ENGRAVING BY
EDMUND EVANS, IN COLOURS IN "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" (ROUTLEDGE).]
There have been two, or perhaps three, great periods of producing works
of art on the block. First, that of the old woodcuts, which were
undoubtedly great, though what the draughtsmen thought of them we shall
never really know. Secondly, the period of Bewick, who engraved his own
designs, and therefore was his own master, doing what he wanted. And
thirdly, to-day, the greatest revival of all. Mr. Timothy Cole, in his
interpretations of the old masters (though some of the painters whom he
has reproduced might object to certain things in his reproductions, they
could but admit that never before have such beautiful pictures been made
out of their own), has suggested one field for the artist who is a
wood-engraver; the creation of masterpieces in his own medium of the
painted masterpieces of other, or of his own time. Again, we have a man
like Mr. Elbridge Kingsley working directly from nature, and producing
the most amazing and interesting results; or M. Lepère, who is engraving
his own designs exactly as Bewick did, or else giving us those
marvellous originals in colour, only equalled by the Japanese who, for
ages, have been masters among wood-cutters; or Mr. Kreull, who is doing
marvellous portraits on the block.
With so broad a scope at its service in the hands of artists,
wood-engraving is not in the slightest danger. With the added
possibilities of making new experiments, such as printing from lowered
blocks, reviving chiaroscuro, and an infinitude of other processes open
to the artistic wood-engraver, there is no probability of its becoming a
lost art. I have nothing but the highest praise for the work of men like
Cole, Kingsley, Gamm, French Jüngling, Baude, Kreull, Florian,
Hendriksen, Bork, Hooper, and Biscombe Gardner. This modern _facsimile_
wood-engraving is magnificent in its way, and is quite as legitimate and
decorative as any of the old work, only process is bound to supersede
the greater part of it. Wood-engraving has survived the mediæval
mechanical limitations which were imposed upon it by the primitiveness
of the printing-press, but which have been made into its chief merits.
It has survived the ghastly period immediately succeeding Bewick, when
the sole end of the engravers on wood was to imitate the engraver on
steel or on copper. It has survived the stage of the shop run by a
clever business-man who merged the individuality of all his artists and
engravers into that of his own firm. It has survived the backing of Mr.
Linton, which at one time threatened to kill it entirely. And the strain
put upon it by magazine-editors and book-publishers has been relieved
by the intervention of mechanical process.
[Illustration: BY KATE GREENAWAY. KEY BLOCK WOOD-ENGRAVED BY EDMUND
EVANS FOR COLOUR PRINTING. FROM "MOTHER GOOSE" (ROUTLEDGE).]
I believe that it will continue and flourish as an original art, side by
side with process, until it runs against another of the snags or
quicksands which every half century seem to imperil it. Still, at the
present moment, its artistic outlook is very bright,--so also is that of
process.
[Illustration: DETAIL OF "THE DENTATUS" ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY HARVEY,
AFTER HAYDON.]
[Illustration: BY E. ISABEY. FROM "PAUL AND VIRGINIA." Engraved
by Slader.]
CHAPTER III.
FRENCH ILLUSTRATION.
The nearer we approach our own time, the more difficult it becomes to
write of illustration. For, although it is the duty of an editor, and
even of an artist, to note all that is going on around him, at the
present time this is almost impossible, so great is the output from the
press, so varying are the fortunes of many artists. The man who, one
day, promises to revolutionize all illustration, the next, disappears,
or, worse still, becomes absolutely common-place. And process supersedes
process with a rapidity that is perfectly bewildering.
But it seems best to begin with modern illustration in France, where the
greatest activity has, until lately, existed. In the decade from 1875 to
1885, nowhere in the world were such big men working, or having their
work so well reproduced. Fortuny and Rico, settled in Paris, were
exhibiting their marvellous drawings. If Meissonier had ceased to
illustrate, Doré, Detaille, De Neuville, and Jacquemart were at the
height of their powers. The first great book illustrated by process
appeared in the midst of this period: Vierge's "Pablo de Ségovie,"
published in 1882; while the last years saw the appearance of the
Guillaume series which, it was believed, would prove to be the final
triumph of process. At the same time Baude, Leveille, Lepère, and
Florian were busy producing their masterpieces of wood-engraving.
Publishing houses were issuing the most artistic journals, probably, the
world has ever seen: "La Vie Moderne," "L'Art," "La Gazette des
Beaux-arts," "Paris Illustré," "La Revue Illustrée," "Le Monde
Illustré," "L'Illustration," and "Le Courrier Français."
[Illustration: BY GAVARNI. FROM "PARISIANS BY THEMSELVES."
Reduced from the wood-engraving.]
But from 1885 onward, there has been a change, and this change is not
difficult to account for. There are too many illustrators and too few
publishers--I mean publishers worthy of the name--and, most important,
too few real artists.
[Illustration: BY MEISSONIER. FROM THE "CONTES REMOIS."
Engraved on wood by Lavoignal.]
When, in 1879, the new process of "Gillotage," as all process is
described in France, was reasonably perfected--Jacquemart's "Histoire de
Mobilier," being one of the first important books to be reproduced
mechanically--every artist wished to try it. The consequence was that
the catalogues of the Salon, the weekly papers and monthly magazines,
were made bright and gay and charming with autographic artistic work;
while wood-engravers, feeling that their art was in danger, were put
upon their mettle and engraved a multitude of amazing blocks. Now that
illustration has arrived, and by its aid many of the biggest men in
France have arrived too, there has come a period of commonplaceness and
content. The Frenchman, who is even more insular in his views of art
than the Englishman,--unless his art is brought to him, when he proves
himself catholic enough,--knows that bad work is being turned out in his
own country, but believes that the same thing must be happening the
world over, though he has heard vaguely of the American magazine, the
German paper, and the English book. But since 1885, it may be said that
every French periodical has fallen away in quality, if it has not ceased
to appear altogether. The fine and expensive volumes, which in 1835 were
published in France, have been succeeded by the three-franc-fifty
Guillaume form, which, since the immortal "Tartarin," has degenerated
steadily both in number and excellence of illustrations. Looking back on
the original series, it does not seem so very fine, but eight years ago
it was an enormous advance on anything that had been done. Even then,
however, there was a rumour that this excellence was obtained at the
expense of the artist, and that most of the clever work of Myrbach and
of Rossi was more in the nature of an advertisement than anything else.
It is perfectly well known that even Vierge had to await the generosity
of an English publisher to recompense him for "Pablo de Ségovie." It
will also be found that certain of the large French publishing houses
and leading magazines have become limited companies, or "Sociétés
Anonymes;" while men, who may be clever enough in business affairs, have
been set to direct artistic matters of which they are entirely ignorant.
If the standard of illustration is daily falling in France, this fall is
owing mainly to the incompetence of editors and the rapacity of
publishers. To-day, if one wishes to see the best work of French
draughtsmen and engravers, one looks abroad for it, to America first and
then to England and Germany, where French artists are forced to publish
their drawings in order to obtain adequate pay or decent printing. It is
pitiful, but the example is very contagious.
[Illustration: JEAN GIGOUX. FROM "GIL BLAS" (FRENCH).
Wood-engraving, unsigned.]
Another cause too has operated against the production of fine books and
fine magazines. This is the "Supplément littéraire et artistique" given
away each week with papers like "Gil Blas," "L'Echo de Paris," "La
Lanterne," "Le Petit Journal," and occasionally "Le Figaro." It is
especially in "Gil Blas" that the best French work is now to be found,
usually printed in colour. But most of the others--there are notable
exceptions--either publish the veriest drivel and dirt, both from the
literary and artistic standpoint, or else the drawings of mere boys and
girls just out of the art schools, who give their designs to the
publishers for little more than the sake of having their names in the
papers. Under these circumstances, which actually exist, it is becoming
well-nigh impossible for a draughtsman to live in France. Printing, too,
has degenerated, until French printing now ranks with the worst.
[Illustration: BY JACQUEMART. PEN DRAWING. FROM THE "HISTORY OF
FURNITURE."]
On the other hand, a few firms, like Goupils, are producing excellent
colour work in the most expensive fashion, and good cheap prints as
well. The printing of Guillaume for Dentu's "Le Bambou"--most of the
illustrations are on wood--is to be commended, as it shows off the work
of artists and engravers to perfection. While one notes clever
paper-cover designs on many new books.
[Illustration: BY JACQUEMART. PEN DRAWING. FROM THE "HISTORY OF
FURNITURE."]
That bad or mediocre work is supreme in France at the present time is
proven by the fact that two of the most artistic journals have ceased to
appear; Goupil's "Les Lettres et les Arts," and Octave Uzanne's "L'Art
et L'Idée." Neither of these magazines was very expensive to
produce,--that is in comparison with many others. But it is a
self-evident fact, to anyone who has studied illustration, that the art
passes every few years through periods of great depression; in France,
art of all sorts is at the present moment in the most disorganized and
unsettled state, and illustration is in as bad a way as any other
branch. Nor is it for lack of illustrators, but because some of the
publishers and editors of the country--and France is not solitary and
alone in this matter--are a set of money-grubbing, ignorant fools, who
have been able temporarily to impress their contemptible view of art, or
rather their miserable failure to understand it from any other
standpoint than that of their money-bags, upon a sufficient number of
gullible people to make a fairly good living for themselves out of the
public ignorance. And as for the rest of the world, why what of it? It
is true Steinlein rivals Gavarni, and Marold, engraved by Florian,
equals in certain ways Meissonier, engraved by Orrinsmith;--but in the
majority of cases politics sit on art, and the photograph glares from
the pages of the _édition de luxe_.
[Illustration: BY MEISSONIER. FROM THE WOOD-ENGRAVING IN THE "CONTES
REMOIS" BY LAVOIGNAL.]
To-day an attempt is also being made to revive wood-engraving in France,
and almost all over the world, except in England--where nothing would be
known of any revival, or improvement, until long years after the whole
matter had been settled and pigeon-holed everywhere else--and in
America, where every endeavour now is made to perfect process. But the
reason for this revival in France, Germany, and the other countries of
the Continent is not the advancement of the art of wood-engraving, or
the benefit of the wood-engraver; it comes from the willingness of good
wood-engravers to work very cheaply, simply to secure the chance of
working at all, and also from the increase of the electrotype business.
Although an enormous trade has been developed in the production of
electrotypes from large wood-engravings for publication in different
papers, I am informed that editors who wish to make use, at so much an
inch, of the brains of other people, will not publish electros from
process blocks, for some reason known to none but themselves, only
buying _clichés_ from wood blocks. However, it is quite possible that
this revival of wood-engraving may encourage original work, and a new
period of fine original engraving may be its result, little as those who
are bringing this result about are interested in it.
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 explain why 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 account for 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.
[Illustration: BY GUSTAVE DORÉ. WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM "SPAIN" (CASSELL AND
CO., LIMITED).]
[Illustration: BY A. DE NEUVILLE. FROM "COUPS DE FUSIL" (CHARPENTIER).
Wood-engraving by Farlet.]
[Illustration: BY GUSTAVE DORÉ. Process block, from a Lithograph.]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY D. VIERGE. FROM "PABLO DE SÉGOVIE" (FISHER
UNWIN).]
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 Parisian types 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.
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 and Edouard 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.
[Illustration: BY LOUIS MORIN. PEN DRAWING. FROM "L'ART ET L'IDÉE."]
[Illustration: BY CARLOS SCHWABE. PEN DRAWING. FROM ZOLA'S "LE RÊVE."]
[Illustration: BY EUGENE GRASSET. PEN DRAWING FROM "LES QUATRE FILS
D'AYMON" (PARIS).]
[Illustration: BY EUGENE GRASSET. PEN DRAWING FROM "LES QUATRE FILS
D'AYMON" (PARIS).]
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 on fans 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.
[Illustration: BY LOUIS MORIN. PEN DRAWING. FROM "L'ART ET L'IDÉE."]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY JACQUEMART.]
[Illustration: BY RAFFAËLLI. PEN DRAWING. FROM "PARIS ILLUSTRÉ."]
[Illustration: BY BOUTET DE MONVEL. PEN DRAWING FROM "JEANNE D'ARC"
(PARIS, PLON).]
[Illustration: 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; Boutet de 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 or less 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 various other "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 all others will too, is a positive proof
that decoration cannot be separated from illustration, and also that all
true artists are decorators.
[18] Adrian Marie and Emile Bayard died lately.
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.
[Illustration: BY H. IBELS. FROM "L'ART DU RIRE ET CARICATURE."]
[Illustration: BY STEINLEN. PROCESS BLOCK FROM COLOURED PRINT IN "GIL
BLAS."]
[Illustration: BY STEINLEN. REPRODUCED FROM A COLOURED PRINT IN "GIL
BLAS."]
[Illustration: BY A. WILLETTE. PEN DRAWING. FROM "LES PIERROTS"
(VANIER).]
[Illustration: BY CARAN D'ACHE. FROM "ALBUM" (PARIS, PLON).]
[Illustration: BY ROBIDA. PEN DRAWING. FROM "JOURNAL D'UN TRÈS VIEUX
GARÇON."]
[Illustration: BY A. WILLETTE. FROM "LES PIERROTS" (VANIER).]
[Illustration: BY FORAIN. FROM "LA COMÉDIE PARISIENNE" (CHARPENTIER).]
[Illustration: BY P. RENOUARD. CHALK DRAWING. FROM "THE GRAPHIC."]
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.
[Illustration: BY LALANNE. FROM A PENCIL DRAWING. (FRENCH.)]
CHAPTER IV.
ILLUSTRATION IN GERMANY, SPAIN, AND OTHER COUNTRIES.
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.
[Illustration: BY MARTIN RICO. FROM A PEN DRAWING.]
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 surpass the
"C'era una Volta" of Luigi Capuana, illustrated by Montalti, published
in 1885, a most extraordinary example of the skilful use of _papier
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 of _clichés_
from American papers and magazines, in which matter I find that even I
have proved a useful mine.
[19] See note p. 78.
Dutch books are not remarkable. Here and there a good drawing may be
found in a magazine called "Elsevir." Though in Holland there is an
artist, 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
equally unfortunate 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 as
_clichés_. Men like Chelminski, Edelfelt, Répine, Pranishnikoff really
owe all their reputation, not to their native land, but to the country
of their adoption.
[Illustration: FROM AN ORIGINAL PEN DRAWING BY H. TEGNER.]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING. BY HANS TEGNER. FROM "HOLBERG'S COMEDIES"
(BOJESENS).]
[Illustration: BY ADOLPH MENZEL. PROCESS BLOCK FROM ORIGINAL DRAWING IN
THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.]
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 from
_facsimile_ wood-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.
[Illustration: BY GOYA. FROM "CAPRICES."]
During the last three-quarters of a century German illustration has been
absolutely dominated by 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 exquisite
_facsimile_ work 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. He looks backward for nothing but design; he looks forward
to the perfection of everything.
[Illustration: BY GOYA. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING (A PORTRAIT OF THE DUKE
OF WELLINGTON) IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.]
[Illustration: BY FORTUNY. FROM A PEN DRAWING.]
[Illustration: 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, is produced
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, and _clichés_ from 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.
[Illustration: BY DE NITTIS. PEN DRAWING FROM "PARIS ILLUSTRÉ."]
[Illustration: BY W. BUSCH. FROM "BALDUIN BAHLAMM" (MUNICH,
BASSERMANN).]
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. Like his 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, is the
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.
[Illustration: FROM ETCHING BY GOYA. FROM "CAPRICES."]
[Illustration: DEATH THE FRIEND. LINE DRAWING BY RETHEL.
REDUCED FROM A WOOD-ENGRAVING BY H. BURKNER.]
[Illustration: BY H. SCHLITTGEN. FROM "EIN ERSTER UND EIN LETZTER BALL"
(STUTTGART, KRABBE).]
[Illustration: BY MAROLD. FROM "ZWISCHEN ZWEI REGEN" (STUTTGART,
KRABBE).]
[Illustration: BY FRANZ STÜCK. FROM BIERBAUM'S "FRANZ STÜCK," MUNICH
(ALBERT AND CO.).]
[Illustration: BY GARCIA Y RAMOS. GIPSY DANCE. 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 generally circulated
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.
[Illustration: BY W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE MAGAZINE OF
ART."]
[Illustration: BY J. W. NORTH. FROM A DRAWING ON THE WOOD IN THE
POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.]
CHAPTER V.
ENGLISH ILLUSTRATION.
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.
[Illustration: BY HUGH THOMSON. FROM "OUR VILLAGE" (MACMILLAN).]
[Illustration: BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT. FROM "THE ELEGY ON A MAD DOG"
(ROUTLEDGE).]
It appears to me, that before discussing the English illustrators 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-writing and 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.
[Illustration: BY TURNER. FROM ROGERS' "ITALY," 1830.]
[Illustration: 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 of
the 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 popularity of 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.
[Illustration: 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 really great 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 drawings and a few others have given to the book a
fame, among illustrated volumes, which it has no right or claim to.
[Illustration: 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 until one 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.
[Illustration: BY SIR J. E. MILLAIS, BART. WOOD-ENGRAVING BY DALZIEL.
FROM "GOOD WORDS" (ISBISTER AND CO.).]
The illustration was done in a curious, but very interesting sort of
way. The entire illustration began to be undertaken by two firms,
Messrs. Dalziel and Swain--and I believe in the case of "Good Words" the
same system is still carried on by Mr. Edward Whymper. These firms
commissioned the drawings from the artists, and then engraved them. The
method seems to have been so successful that the engravers, notably the
Dalziels, began not only to employ artists to draw for them, and to
engrave their designs, but they became printers as well, and produced
that set of books which are now the admiration and despair of the
intelligent and artistic collector. When they were printed, they were
sold to a publisher, who merely put his imprint on them. To this day
they are known as Dalziel's Illustrated Editions. The first important
book of this series that I have seen is Birket Foster's "Pictures of
English Landscape," 1863 (Routledge), printed by Dalziel; with "Pictures
in Words," by Tom Taylor, though this was preceded by a horrid tinted
affair by the same artist, called "Odes and Sonnets." The binding is
vile; the paper is spotting and losing colour, but the drawings must
have been exquisite, and here and there the ink is spreading and giving
a lovely tone, like an etching, to the prints on the page.
In 1864 Messrs. Dalziel, who had already engraved for "Good Words" in
the previous year Millais' "Parables of Our Lord," published them
through Routledge. This book, in an atrocious binding described as
elaborate, and it truly is, bound up so badly that it has broken all to
pieces printed with some text in red and black, contains much of the
finest work Millais ever did. Nothing could exceed in dramatic power, in
effect of light and shade, "The Enemy sowing Tares," to mention one
block among so many that are good. But the whole book is excellent, and
excessively rare in its first edition.
But 1865 is the most notable year of all; in this "Dalziel's Illustrated
Arabian Nights' Entertainments" came out; originally published in
parts, I believe, and later in two volumes, text and pictures within
horrid borders. In this book A. Boyd Houghton first showed what a really
great man he was. He clearly proves himself the English master of
technique, as well as of imagination, although in this volume, issued by
Ward and Lock, he has as fellow illustrators Sir J. E. Millais, J. D.
Watson, Sir John Tenniel, G. J. Pinwell, and Thomas Dalziel--the latter
of whom is a very big man, and for this, and some of the subsequent
books, he made most remarkable drawings. But Houghton towers above them
all, and Mr. Laurence Housman in an able article on him in
"Bibliographica" well says:
"Among artists and those who care at all deeply for the great things of
art, he cannot be forgotten: for them his work is too much an influence
and a problem. And though officially the Academy shuts its mouth at
him ... certain of its leading lights have been heard unofficially to
declare that he was the greatest artist" who has appeared in England in
black and white. In '65, also, his "Home Thoughts and Home Scenes" was
published, much less imaginative than his later work, but containing
more beauty; and after this, for ten years, he worked prodigiously, and
yet excellently. His edition of "Don Quixote" (F. Warne and Co.), must
be sought for in the most out-of-the-way places; easier to find are his
"Kuloff's Fables," '69 (Strahan), and best known of all, the drawings in
the early numbers of the "Graphic,"--the American series--which were
not all published, I think, before he died. If some of these are
grotesque, even almost caricature, they are amazingly powerful--and
being the largest engraved works left, show him fortunately at his best.
His original drawings scarce exist at all. I happen to have one of the
most beautiful, "Tom the Piper's Son," from Novello's "National Nursery
Rhymes," 1871. I have not pretended to give a list of Houghton's
drawings, it would be nearly impossible; but those books and magazines I
have mentioned contain many of the most important. In '65 Pinwell did a
"Goldsmith" for Ward and Lock, which revealed his surprising powers.
[Illustration: BY A. BOYD HOUGHTON. FROM DALZIEL'S "ARABIAN NIGHTS"
(WARD, LOCK AND CO., 1865).]
[Illustration: BY A. BOYD HOUGHTON. FROM DALZIEL'S "ARABIAN NIGHTS"
(WARD, LOCK AND CO.), 1865.]
[Illustration: BY G. J. PINWELL. FOR "GOLDSMITH'S WORKS" (WARD, LOCK AND
CO.). PROCESS BLOCK FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING ON THE WOOD IN SOUTH
KENSINGTON MUSEUM.]
Cassells may have been the originators of this sort of illustrated book,
or only the followers of a style which became immensely popular. They
issued many works by Doré about the same time or later, and a
"Gulliver," by T. Morten, among others, but as this volume is not dated,
I am unable to say when it appeared--still to this day they keep up the
system of publishing illustrated books in parts at a low rate. But soon
expensive gift books, illustrated by Houghton, Pinwell, North, and
Walker, began to appear, perfectly new unpublished works: in 1866 "A
Round of Days" was issued by Routledge; Walker, North, Pinwell, and T.
Dalziel, come off best in this gorgeous morocco covered volume,
especially the last, who contributes a notable nocturne, the beauty of
night, discovered by Whistler, being appreciated by artists, even while
Ruskin was busy reviling or ignoring these illustrators. Houghton's
edition of "Don Quixote" also belongs to this year. How these men
accomplished all this masterly work in such a short time, I do not
pretend to understand.
In 1867, "Wayside Posies," and "Jean Ingelow's Poems" were published by
Routledge and Longmans. These two books reach the high-water mark of
English illustration, North and Pinwell surpass themselves, the one in
landscape and the other in figures. T. Dalziel also did some amazing
studies of mist, rain, and night, which I imagine were absolutely
unnoticed by the critics. The drawings, however, must have been popular,
for Smith and Elder reprinted the Walkers and Millais', among others,
from the "Cornhill" in a "Gallery" (this also included Leightons and, I
think, one Sandys), and Strahan the Millais drawings in another
portfolio. The "Cornhill Gallery," printed, it is said, from the
original blocks, came out in 1864, possibly as an atonement for the
shabby way in which the artists were treated in the magazine originally.
In 1868, "The North Coast," by Robert Buchanan, was issued by Routledge;
it has much good work by Houghton hidden away in it. In the next year
the "Graphic" started, and these books virtually ceased to appear--why,
I know not. There were some spasmodic efforts, most notable of which
were Whymper's magnificent "Scrambles amongst the Alps," 1871,
containing T. Mahoney's best drawings and Whymper's best engraving; and
"Historical and Legendary Ballads," Chatto and Windus, 1876; in this
book, made up from the early numbers of the magazines, one will find
Whistler's and Sandys' rare drawings; it is almost the only volume which
contains these men's work, although the drawings were not done
originally for it, as the editor would like one to believe.
[Illustration: BY G. J. PINWELL. FOR "GOLDSMITH'S WORKS" (WARD, LOCK AND
CO.). PROCESS BLOCK FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING ON THE WOOD IN SOUTH
KENSINGTON MUSEUM.]
[Illustration: BY CHARLES GREEN.]
[Illustration: BY FRED. WALKER. PROCESS BLOCK FROM AN ORIGINAL STUDY IN
THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.]
Whistler, it is true, illustrated a "Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin
Porcelain," published by Ellis and White, 1878, a very interesting work,
mainly in colours. But Sandys' drawings must be looked for in the
magazines alone. I know of no book that he ever illustrated, a few
volumes contain one or two, that is all; his drawings are separate
distinct works of art, every print from them worthy of the portfolio of
the collector. Dalziels issued at least two books later on, magnificent
India proofs of "English Rustic Pictures," printed from the original
blocks by Pinwell and Walker, done for the books I have mentioned, this
volume is undated; and their Bible Gallery in 1881 (the drawings were
made long before), to which all the best-known artists contributed,
though the result was not altogether an artistic success; but most
notable drawings by Ford Madox-Brown, Leighton, Sandys, Poynter,
Burne-Jones, S. Solomon, Houghton, and T. Dalziel, are included in it.
This is the last great book illustrated by a band of artists and
engravers working together in this country; whether the results are
satisfactory or not, the fact remains that the engravers were most
enthusiastic, and encouraged the artists as no one has done since in the
making of books; and the artists were the most distinguished that have
ever appeared in England. Possibly, I should also have referred to the
"British Workman," which was probably the first penny paper to publish
good work of a large size. And I may have treated Mr. Arthur Hughes in a
rather summary fashion. But I know his original drawings far better than
the books in which they were printed; the only book which I really am
acquainted with is "Tom Brown's School Days;" yet I know that he has
made a very large number of illustrations, especially for Norman
MacLeod's books among others. After twenty-five years illustration is
again reviving in England, and one looks forward hopefully to the future
of this branch of art.
Ten years later than the "Graphic" came the introduction of process, and
process was employed in England mainly for one reason only: cheapness.
Bad cheap process--which by the way is very little worse than cheap
wood-engraving--has been responsible in this country for more vile work
than in all the rest of the world put together. The development of
process has brought with it not only truth of reproduction, which is its
aim, but evils which its inventors did not anticipate.
[Illustration: BY F. SANDYS. FROM THORNBURY'S "LEGENDARY BALLADS"
(CHATTO AND WINDOS).]
Too many process-engravers encourage the most commonplace, because it is
the easiest, work. They know perfectly well that mechanical engraving
will reproduce almost any drawings at the present moment, but then, good
reproduction demands time and trouble and artistic intelligence. But it
is no wonder that process-engravers are indifferent, when we remember
the lamentable ignorance displayed by some editors, whose knowledge of
art--in fact, of all art work--is simply _nil_. They may have piles of
taste, but all of it is bad. They know exactly what the public wants,
for they themselves are the public they consider. The slightest attempt
at the artistic rendering of a drawing, or the appearance of a new man
with a new style, is enough to put them in a rage, because they cannot
understand the one or the other. And the selection of "cuts which
embellish"--I believe is the expression--their pages, is left to the
process man, the photographer, and the _cliché_ agent, who of course
pick out the easiest they can supply. Their other duty is to edit their
contributors, that is, if screwing and jewing an artist, and taking all
life and soul for work out of him, can be described as editing. Lately
has sprung up a species of illustrator who licks the boots of these
editors and grovels before the process man. He turns out as much work as
he can in the shortest space of time, knowing that he must make as many
drawings as possible before some miserable creature, more contemptible
than himself, comes along with an offer to do the work at half the price
which he is paid.
I am happy to say that this state of affairs is by no means universal in
England; but I regret that there seems to be a tendency in some quarters
to prefer bad work because it is usually cheap. On the other hand, there
are many notable exceptions: intelligent publishers, editors, artists,
and process-engravers, who strive to do good work and expect to pay, or
be paid, for it. But this state of things has produced three classes of
artists. First, the men who loudly declare they care nothing about their
work, and who may therefore be dismissed with that contempt which they
court. Second, those who rush absolutely to the other extreme, saying
that all modern work is bad, and that there is nothing to do but to
follow in the track of the fifteenth-century craftsman, not knowing, or
more probably not wanting to know, that these same illustrators and
engravers of the fifteenth century were, according to their time, as
modern and up-to-date and _fin-de-siècle_ as possible. Finally, there is
a saving remnant, increasing as fast as good workmen do increase--and
that is very slowly--who are going on, endeavouring to perfect
themselves to the best of their ability, believing rightly that it is
the business of engravers and printers to follow the artist, and not the
artist's duty to become a slave to a mere mechanic, no matter how
intelligent. The second of these classes has always existed in almost
every profession in England; the class, in short, which is convinced
that society and the world generally needs reforming, and that it is
their little fad which is going to bring about this reformation.
[Illustration: BY FREDERICK SHIELDS. FROM DEFOE'S "HISTORY OF THE
PLAGUE" (LONGMANS, 1863).]
Now I do not hold for a moment that the man who is generally accepted as
the leader of the pre-Raphaelite movement, Rossetti, had any desire to
reform anybody, or improve anything. A certain form of art interested
him, and he succeeded in reviving it for himself, though he put himself
and his century into his drawings. It is the same with Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, and Mr. William Morris, and Mr. Walter Crane. But the
praise which has been duly bestowed upon them has been unjustly lavished
upon a set of people--or else, they, as they never weary of doing, have
exploited themselves--who have neither the power to design nor the
intelligence to appreciate a drawing when it is made, nor any technical
understanding of how it was made. They will tell you, both by their work
and in print, that there is nothing worth bothering about save the
drawings of the Little Masters, and, to prove their appreciation of
these drawings, they proceed at once not to copy the drawings, but the
primitive woodcuts which were made out of them, not by the Masters at
all. They will proceed to imitate painfully with pen and ink a woodcut,
have it reproduced by a cheap process man, who, of course, is delighted
to have work which gives him no trouble, entrust it to a printer buried
in cellars into which the light of improvement has never made its way,
that he may print it upon handmade paper, which the old men never would
have used had they had anything better; and thus they succeed in
perpetuating all the old faults and defects, adding to them absurdity of
design which triumphs in the provinces, is the delight of Boston and the
Western States of America, and the beloved of the Vicarage. Or, again,
the young person, reeking with the School of Science and Art at South
Kensington, will have none of process, and, painfully (for he usually
cuts his finger), and simply (otherwise he should waste his time),
endeavours, with halting execution but with perfect belief in his
powers, to cut his design upon the wood-block, not knowing that the
master woodcutter, whom he essays to worship, spent almost as many years
in learning his trade, as this person has spent minutes in knocking off
a little illustration as a change from designing a stained-glass window,
or writing a sonnet. This is the sort of work that exhausts first
editions, is remembered for a few months, and produces leaders in the
advanced organs of opinion. It is unfortunately true that the leaders
have little influence, and that, later on, the first editions may be
bought as old paper.
Ignorance of printing and of the improvements in that art is really in
this country too awful to contemplate. The average critic will blame a
competent artist for the imperfections of a process and the ignorance of
a printer. It never occurs to this critic that he knows nothing
practically about the subject. No attempt is made to surmount mechanical
difficulties; no attempt is made to study improvements; one is simply
told to work down to the lowest level and to copy the fads of an
obsolete past.
Quaintness and eccentricity, too, have their followers, and though both
are dangerous games to play, still they imply, if good, such an amount
of research, study, and invention, whether original or not, that from
them good work may often come. Still I no longer dare to prophesy. I
know not what a man will do or will not. There is possibility in every
one.
[Illustration: BY J. MAHONEY. FROM THE "SUNDAY MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY J. F. SULLIVAN. FROM HOOD'S "COMIC ANNUAL."]
As for the other men who calmly go on doing their work in their own way,
showing the process-engraver what is wanted, instructing the printer on
the subject of effects and colour, and dealing satisfactorily with
intelligent publishers and editors, or even, as some do, ignoring all
these factors, which they should not, their work is around us and
delights us.
[Illustration: BY LINLEY SAMBOURNE. FROM KINGSLEY'S "WATER BABIES"
(MACMILLAN).]
Of the older men, though Whistler has long ceased to illustrate, Du
Maurier, Sidney Hall and William Small are still with us, producing
characteristic designs. Charles Green carries on the excellent method
which he developed in his illustrations to Dickens. Though J. Mahoney is
dead, the present re-issue of Whymper's "Scrambles amongst the Alps"
testifies marvellously to his powers. The late A. Boyd Houghton's
abilities, too, are beginning to be appreciated, and his designs for the
"Arabian Nights" are now being sought for as they never were during his
lifetime. The success of Messrs. Macmillan's re-issue of the "Tennyson"
of 1857 is gratifying proof that a large number of people do care for
good work, and that the endeavour to swamp us with poor drawings,
tedious photographs, and worn-out _clichés_ will probably have its just
reward. F. Sandys, one of the greatest of all, though still living,
scarcely produces anything; F. Shields' designs for Defoe's "Plague"
were Rembrandt-like in power; while H. Herkomer, in his illustrations to
Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," has, within the last few years,
done some of his most striking work. Linley Sambourne, whose name was
made years ago, pursues the even tenor of his ways, his reputation
having been well secured by his illustrations to the "Water Babies,"
and his countless "Punch" contributions. From the quantity of work
produced by Harry Furniss it is quite evident that he is one of the most
popular men in England. The fund of imagination which he devotes to
perpetuating the unimportant actions of trivial members of Parliament is
truly amazing. J. F. Sullivan has made caricature of the British workman
his speciality, and he has recorded many of the antics of that
personality with a truth that the labour organs might imitate to
advantage. Sir John Tenniel is the legitimate successor of the old
political cartoonist, but, luckily for him, his reputation rests, not
upon his portrayal of the events of the moment, but upon his marvellous
"Alice in Wonderland" and his classic illustrations to the "Legendary
Ballads." Political caricature rarely, however, has an exponent like
Tenniel, and though the work of J. Proctor, G. R. Halkett, and F. C.
Gould is good in its way, owing to the conditions under which much of it
has to be produced, and the absolute artlessness of the
subject, their aim naturally is to drive home a political point, and not
to produce a work of art. The most genuine caricaturist who has ever
lived in England was W. G. Baxter, the inventor of "Ally Sloper." Baxter
died a few years ago. Happily, the three men who, in a great measure,
are responsible for modern English illustration are working to-day:
Birket Foster, Sir John Gilbert, and Harrison Weir, but, save the
latter, they now produce scarcely any designs. Few of the brilliant band
who succeeded them, however, are at work save Du Maurier and W. Small.
One has to deplore the recent death of Charles Keene, the greatest of
all English draughtsmen.
[Illustration: BY (SIR) JOHN TENNIEL. ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY H. HARRAL.
FROM GATTY'S "PARABLES" (BELL, 1867).]
[Illustration: BY W. G. BAXTER. FROM "ALLY SLOPER'S" CARTOONS.]
[Illustration: BY PHIL MAY. A PEN DRAWING FROM "THE GRAPHIC."]
[Illustration: BY G. DU MAURIER. FROM "TRILBY" (OSGOOD, McILVAINE AND
CO.).]
[Illustration: BY G. DU MAURIER. FROM "TRILBY" (OSGOOD, McILVAINE AND
CO.).]
One therefore turns with interest to some of the younger men--men who
have made and are making illustration their profession. Among them, one
looks first to that erratic genius, Phil May, who has produced work
which not only will live, but which successfully runs the gamut of all
wit and humour. Nothing in its way has been done in England to approach
his designs for the "Parson and the Painter." They appeared first in the
pages of the "St. Stephen's Review," where they were scarcely seen by
artists. But on their reappearance in book form, though even more badly
printed than at first, what remained of them was good enough to make
May's reputation. Between him and everyone else, there is a great gulf
fixed, but the greatest is between May and his imitators.
[Illustration: BY W. SMALL. FROM "CASSELL'S MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY W. SMALL. FROM "CASSELL'S MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY R. ANNING BELL. FROM AN ORIGINAL PEN DRAWING.]
Most of the younger men of individuality have studied abroad and, like
Americans, have returned home more or less affected by continental
ideas. It would be quite impossible for me to place any estimate on
their work, or even attempt to describe it. But certainly it is to some
of the new weekly and daily journals and less known monthlies that one
must look for their illustrations. It seems to me that E. J. Sullivan,
A. S. Hartrick, T. S. Crowther, H. R. Millar, F. Pegram, L. Raven-Hill,
W. W. Russell are doing much to brighten the pages of the papers to
which they contribute. Raven-Hill, Maurice Greiffenhagen, Edgar Wilson
and Oscar Eckhardt have made a most interesting experiment in "The
Butterfly," which I hope will have the success it deserves.[20] R.
Anning Bell, Aubrey Beardsley, Reginald Savage, Charles Ricketts, C. H.
Shannon and L. Pissarro have the courage of their convictions and the
ability often to carry out their ideas. Beardsley, in his edition of the
"Morte d'Arthur," "Salome," and his "Yellow Book" pictures, among other
things, has acquired a reputation in a very short space of time. R.
Anning Bell has become known by his very delightful book-plates, while
Ricketts, Shannon and Pissarro, are not only their own artists and
engravers, but editors and publishers as well. "The Dial" is their
organ, and it has contained very many beautiful drawings by them, though
they have contributed covers and title-pages to various books and
magazines, and have brought out an edition of "Daphnis and Chloe" which
must serve to perpetuate the imperfections of the Middle-Age
wood-cutter. Wal Paget, W. H. Hatherell, and G. L. Seymour, in very
different ways, head a long list of illustrators who can decorate a
story with distinction, or depict an event almost at a moment's notice.
In facility, I suppose there is no one to equal Herbert Railton, unless
it be Hugh Thomson. They have together illustrated "Coaching Days and
Coaching Ways." Railton must have drawn almost all the cathedrals and
historic houses in the country; and Thomson is in a fair way to
resurrect many forgotten and unforgotten authors of the last century. J.
D. Batten's illustrations to Celtic, English, and Indian fairy tales
are extremely interesting, while Launcelot Speed and H. J. Ford have for
several years been making designs for Mr. Lang's series of fairy books.
Laurence Housman has this year scored a decided success with his
illustrations for Miss Rossetti's "Goblin Market." To Bernard Partridge
has fallen of late the task of upholding "Punch" from its artistic end;
this has apparently proved too much even for him, since I note that for
the first time in its existence that paper is employing outsiders and
even foreigners. To what is England, or rather "Punch," coming? His
drawings for Mr. Anstey's sketches have been deservedly well received,
while lately he, too, has fallen a victim to the eighteenth century in
his striking illustrations for Mr. Austin Dobson's "Beau Brocade." Mr.
E. T. Reed, of the same journal, during the last year has developed not
only a most delightful vein of humour, but an original style of
handling--his burlesques of the decadents are better than the originals
almost. Reginald Cleaver can probably produce a drawing for a cheap
process with more success than anyone, and yet, at the same time, his
work is full of character. It is pleasant to turn to men like Sir George
Reid and Alfred Parsons, with whom exquisite design and skilled
technique, and not cheapness, is the aim in their illustrative work.
Parsons has, with Abbey, in "Old Songs," "A Quiet Life," etc., and alone
in Wordsworth's "Sonnets," and also in the "Warwickshire Avon," produced
the books which reach the high-water mark of English illustration,
although they were first published in America. On the other hand Sir
George Reid's designs for "Johnny Gibb," "The River Tweed and the River
Clyde," and several other publications of David Douglas of Edinburgh,
have been brought out altogether in this country.
[20] I did not mean I hoped it would die. It has now ceased to
appear.
I should like to discuss the schools that have been developed by the
Arts and Crafts Society in some of the provincial centres. But as none
of the students approach for a moment such an exquisite draughtsman as
Sandys, to say nothing of the work of the older men whom they attempt to
imitate, it seems rather premature to talk about them.
[Illustration: BY J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE. FROM AUSTIN DOBSON'S "PROVERBS
IN PORCELAIN" (KEGAN PAUL AND CO.).]
[Illustration: BY HOLMAN HUNT. FROM GATTY'S "PARABLES" (BELL, 1867).]
[Illustration: BY E. H. NEW. FROM A PEN DRAWING FOR "THE QUEST," NO. 3.]
[Illustration: BY WINIFRED SMITH. FROM "CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES"
(NUTT).]
[Illustration: BY ALFRED PARSONS. FROM THE "ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED
MAGAZINE."]
Still, A. J. Gaskin, limiting himself in a way that seems quite
unnecessary, has illustrated Andersen's "Fairy Tales" very well, if one
adopts his standpoint. E. H. New has made portraits that are decorative;
and, under Gaskin's direction, a little book of "Carols" has been
illustrated by his pupils; while, in the same style, C. M. Gere and L.
F. Muckley are doing notable work, and they are about to start a
magazine "The Quest." The "Hobby Horse," the organ of the Century Guild,
has contained many good designs by Herbert Horne and Selwyn Image. On
much the same lines, too, Heywood Sumner, Henry Ryland, Reginald
Hallward, Christopher Whall and others have been very successful. Nor
can one ignore the initials and borders of William Morris, made for his
own publications.
There are dozens of artists, whose names, like their works, are
household words, Forrestier, Montbard, W. L. Wyllie, Barnard, Nash,
Overend, Wollen, Staniland, Caton Woodville, Durand, Stacey, Rainey,
Barnes, and Walter Wilson, who have a power of rendering events of the
day in a fashion unequalled elsewhere, and whose excellent designs are
seen continuously in the pages of the "Graphic," the "Illustrated London
News," and "Black and White." There is also another set who amaze us by
their power of compelling editors to publish weekly, and even daily,
stacks of their drawings, when those of better men go a-begging.
[Illustration: BY ALFRED PARSONS. REDUCED FROM A LARGE DRAWING IN "THE
DAILY CHRONICLE." 1895.]
[Illustration: BY SIR GEORGE REID. FROM "THE LIFE OF A SCOTCH
NATURALIST" (MURRAY).]
[Illustration: BY W. PAGET. FROM "CASSELL'S MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY L. RAVEN-HILL. FROM "THE BUTTERFLY."]
[Illustration: BY L. RAVEN-HILL. FROM "THE BUTTERFLY."]
[Illustration: BY EDGAR WILSON. PROCESS BLOCK FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING
FOR "THE UNICORN."]
[Illustration: BY C. E. MALLOWS. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING, PUBLISHED IN
"THE BUILDER."]
Though wood-engraving is purely an English art, and though some of the
greatest wood-engravers even in modern times have been Englishmen, the
art no longer flourishes here as it should. The strongest of modern
engravers, Cole and Linton, are both Englishmen, but their reputations
are due chiefly to America. W. Biscombe Gardner is almost the only man
who has continued to produce good interpretative work, engraving his own
designs, while W. H. Hooper easily leads in _facsimile_ work. This
decline of wood-engraving has been especially felt by such important
firms as Dalziel and Swain. An International Society of Wood-engravers
has lately been started, and one hopes its members will succeed in the
task they have set themselves: that of encouraging original
wood-engraving. In colour-printing England has always held a leading
place, the work of Edmund Evans and the Leighton Brothers being
universally appreciated. A very strong endeavour is being made by
Messrs. Way to revive original lithography. As this art is now beginning
to be again practised by eminent artists, there is every probability
that their efforts will be successful. "Vanity Fair" has always been
illustrated by chromo-lithography, and in it appeared the work of the
late Carlo Perugini, while "Spy" and others still carry out his methods.
The architectural papers also use, mainly, photo-lithography for
reproducing the drawings which they print. In England the fashion of
making pictorial perspective drawings for architects has been very
extensively practised; it is only an outgrowth of the work of Prout and
Harding, but it has been enormously developed since their day; at
present, several architectural papers are published which solely
contain drawings of this sort, drawings mainly the outcome of the
T-square, and the inner consciousness of the architectural perspective
man, who has never seen the house, nor the landscape, nor street
elevation in which his subject may be ultimately built; nevertheless
some of these drawings are most interesting. The work of the late W.
Burgess, A.R.A., of A. B. Pite, in mediæval design; of G. C. Horsley, A.
B. Mitchell, T. Raffles Davison, Rowland Paul, and, above all, of C. E.
Mallows. Mr. Mallows is an artist; to him a drawing is as important as
the building it represents; he does everything he can from nature, and
his drawings of old work, notably difficult studies in perspective, like
the cloisters of Gloucester, have never been equalled by any of the
Prout-Harding-Cotman set. He feels that architecture and the delineation
of it are a part of the fine arts--and he makes others feel it too. And
to do this is simply to be an artist. This fashion of architectural
drawing has spread to America and Germany, but it has no support in
France. Much has also been accomplished in etching, and England
possesses to-day in William Hole, Robert Macbeth, William Strang, Frank
Short, D. Y. Cameron, C. J. Watson, C. O. Murray, a number of etchers
whose fame is justly great.
Whether the idea of the "special artist on the spot" originated in
England or not, I cannot say; certainly he was employed, and his work
acknowledged in the early numbers of the "Illustrated London News." But,
at any rate, many Englishmen have devoted themselves almost entirely to
this form of pictorial reporting and correspondence. The man who has had
probably the most extensive experience is William Simpson, of the
"Illustrated London News,"[21] but F. Villiers, Melton Prior, and Sidney
Hall have assisted at almost all the scenes of national joy or
grief--have followed the fortunes of war, or the progress of royalty, or
any other important event in every quarter of the world. These artists'
methods of work were most interesting. They trained themselves to sketch
under the most dangerous, fatiguing, and difficult conditions--making
rather shorthand notes than sketches, which were quite intelligible to a
clever band of artists attached to their various journals. These
artists, on receiving the sketches, produced finished drawings in a few
hours, or, at longest, a few days. Now, however, matters have changed
somewhat. The editors (not the public) have learned to appreciate
sketches, and men who can either produce a complete work of art on the
spot, or work from their own sketches, are more generally engaged in
this way. I do not mean to say that the war correspondents I have named
could not do this work, only that often they did not, owing to
exigencies of time and other difficulties. Mr. Hall's work at present is
finished on the spot. His drawings at the Parnell trial were most
notable. But I think in the next artistic generation the correspondent
will have to work harder--if he produces less.
[21] S. Read was the first artist correspondent; he worked during
the Crimean War.
[Illustration: BY R. CATON WOODVILLE. REDUCED FROM "THE ILLUSTRATED
LONDON NEWS."]
[Illustration: BY SYDNEY P. HALL. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE GRAPHIC."]
[Illustration: BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY. FROM A DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF
THE AUTHOR.]
[Illustration: BY WALTER WILSON. REDUCED FROM "THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON
NEWS."]
[Illustration: BY F. S. CHURCH. FROM AN ETCHING IN "THE CONTINENT."]
CHAPTER VI.
AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION.
In many ways the illustrative work of America is more interesting than
that of any other country. The rapidity of its growth, the encouragement
that has been given it by publishers, and the surprisingly important
artistic results obtained have won it recognition all over the world.
Twenty-five years ago, at the time that the best work was really being
done in England, scarcely anything was being produced in America. It is
true that some of the magazines had been started, and that some of the
men, who are best known as illustrators to-day, were at work. But it was
not until 1876, the year of the Centennial, the first international
exhibition held in America, that American artists, engravers, printers,
and publishers were enabled to form an idea of what was being done in
Europe. At the same time a brilliant band of young men, who had been
studying abroad, returned to New York, and it is mainly owing to their
return, and the encouragement which intelligent and far-seeing
publishers gave to them, and also to the artists and engravers who were
already in America anxious to work, that what is now known as the
American school of wood-engraving, together with American illustration
and printing, was developed.
The way in which this school has been built up is so interesting that it
may be well to refer to it somewhat in detail. From the time that Mr. A.
W. Drake, and, later, Mr. W. Lewis Fraser were appointed art editors of
the "Century," then "Scribner's," they made it their business, as art
editors, to assist and aid and encourage young artists. And earlier,
too, Mr. Charles Parsons who managed the art department of Harper
Brothers, gave such kind, sensible, and practical advice to many young
artists that not only will his name never be forgotten as one who helped
greatly to develop American art, but many an American illustrator now
looks back to Mr. Parsons as the man who really started him on his
career.
[Illustration: BY C. S. REINHART. WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM "THE CENTURY
MAGAZINE."]
Mr. Drake's plan was this. If an artist brought a drawing to him in
which there were any signs of individuality, intelligence, or striving
after untried effects, his endeavour was to use that drawing, at any
rate as an experiment, and to encourage the artist to go on and make
others; not to say to the artist, "the public won't stand this, and our
_clientèle_ won't know what you mean." But then Mr. Drake was a trained
artist and engraver.[22] Nor did Mr. Drake and Mr. Fraser put down their
opinions as those of the public. They did not pretend to be infallible,
nor did the literary editors; with the consequence, that the American
magazines have gained for themselves the largest circulation among
respectable publications. In engraving, too, the engraver was asked to
reproduce a drawing, not in the conventional manner, but as faithfully
as he could, not only rendering the subject of the drawing, but
suggesting its quality, the look of the medium in which it was produced.
From this sprang the so-called American school of _facsimile_
wood-engraving, which, until the advent of process, was the favourite
cockshy of the literary critic who essayed to write upon the subject of
art. Now, however, that he believes American engraving is about to
disappear in process--though of course there is not the slightest danger
of anything of the sort happening--he is uttering premature wails over
its disappearance, which is really not coming to pass at all.
[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.
In printing, too, experiments were made from the very beginning with
inks and paper and press-work. And though stiff glazed paper has been
the outcome of these experiments, it is used simply because upon no
other sort of paper can such good results be obtained. If some of the
people who raise such a wail about this paper would only produce
something better, I am sure they would be well rewarded for their pains,
because all the great magazines would at once adopt it.
Another reason for the success and advancement of American illustrators
is because the publishers of the great magazines, like "The Century,"
"Harper's," "Scribner's," have had the sense to see that if you want to
get good work out of a man you have to pay him for it and encourage him
to do it, then reproduce, and print it in a proper fashion. Naturally,
the artists have taken a personal pride in the success of the magazines
with which they have been connected; in certain cases, greater probably
than the proprietors themselves ever realized. They have worked with
engravers; they have mastered the mysteries of process and of printing;
various engravers and printers have also worked with the artist, and in
many cases there has been a truer system of genuine craftsmanship than
existed in the everlastingly belauded guilds of the Middle Ages.
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 photographic _clichés_ struggle 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.
[Illustration: BY WALTER SHIRLAW. FROM "THE CENTURY MAGAZINE."]
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.
[Illustration: 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 magazine that 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 of the 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 first studied 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.
[Illustration: BY HOWARD PYLE. FROM "THE CENTURY MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY HOWARD PYLE. FROM HOLMES'S "ONE HOSS SHAY" (GAY AND
BIRD).]
[Illustration: BY ALFRED BRENNAN. PEN DRAWING FROM "THE CONTINENT."]
[Illustration: BY A. B. FROST. FROM "STUFF AND NONSENSE" (SCRIBNER'S).]
[Illustration: 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 has become 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."
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 England of 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."
[Illustration: BY E. A. ABBEY. FROM "HARPER'S MAGAZINE"
(COPYRIGHT 1894, BY HARPER AND BROTHERS).]
[Illustration: BY E. A. ABBEY. FROM AUSTIN DOBSON'S POEMS (KEGAN PAUL).]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY C. D. GIBSON. FROM "THE CENTURY
MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY OLIVER HERFORD. FROM "FABLES" (GAY AND
BIRD).]
Mr. C. D. Gibson exhibits the follies and graces of 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 Parisian methods 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.
[Illustration: BY F. HOPKINSON SMITH. FROM "THE CENTURY MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY ROBERT BLUM. FROM "SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: 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--paving the 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 made the 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.
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY FREDERIC REMINGTON. FROM "THE CENTURY
MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY R. BIRCH. FROM "LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY"
(WARNE).]
[Illustration: "READY FOR THE RIDE." WOOD-ENGRAVING BY T. COLE,
AFTER W. M. CHASE. FROM "THE CENTURY MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: BY S. PARRISH. FROM A DRAWING IN "THE CONTINENT."]
[Illustration: BY GILBERT GAUL. FROM "THE CENTURY MAGAZINE."]
[Illustration: BY SELWYN IMAGE. FROM "THE FITZROY PICTURES" SERIES
(BELL).]
[Illustration: BY HEYWOOD SUMNER. FROM "THE FITZROY PICTURES" SERIES
(BELL).]
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSION.
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 rock their babies in log cabin cradles, cook their meals
on American stoves and sit upon Chippendale chairs.
[Illustration: 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 quietly pursuing their profession, and producing
work which may even drag other portions of the magazine or book, to
which they contribute, to an unmerited immortality.
[Illustration: 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: BY COTMAN. FROM AN ETCHING IN "ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES
OF NORMANDY."]
Illustration is an important, vital, living branch of the fine arts, and
it will flourish for ever.
INDEX.
Abbey, E. A., "Herrick," 123;
"Old Songs" and "Quiet Life," 106, 124;
"She Stoops to Conquer," 124;
"Shakespeare," 124.
"Abbotsford" Waverley Novels, 26.
Ache, Caran d', 66;
"Courses dans l'Antiquité," "Carnet de Chéques," "Albums,"
etc., 67, 79.
Adams, J. A., 29.
Albrecht, E., 78.
Alexander, Miss, xvii.
Allers, C. W., 78.
Allingham, W., "The Music Master," 88.
_Ally Sloper's Half Holiday_, 103.
American illustration, xv, 30-32, 113, 130.
American Tract Society, 29.
Amicis, E. de, 70.
Andersen's "Fairy Tales," 108.
Andrew, 25.
Angelico, Fra, 3.
Angerer and Göschl, 72.
Anning Bell, R., 105.
Aquatint, 38.
"Arabian Nights" (Lane), 24;
(Dalziel), 91, 101.
Architectural drawing, 111.
_Argosy, The_, 90.
"Armée Française, L'," 60.
Armstead, H. H., 90.
Arnold, Sir Edwin, "Japonica," and "Japan," 126.
_Art, L'_, 51.
_Art, L', et l'Idée_, 56.
_Art Student_, 35.
Artist-correspondents and their work, 112.
_Artiste, L'_, 18, 22, 60.
Auriol, Georges, 63, 68.
Avril, Paul, "La Dame aux Camélias," 62.
Babbage, F., xxiv.
Bacher, Otto, 127, 130.
Bale, Edwin, 115.
_Bambou, Le_, 56.
Barnard, Fred., xxiv, 108.
Barnes, R., 108.
Batten, J. D., illustrations to Fairy Tales, 105-106.
Baude, C., 48, 51, 69.
Baxter, W. G., "Ally Sloper," 103.
Bayard, Emile, 65.
Beardsley, Aubrey, 105;
_Yellow Book_, "Morte d'Arthur," and "Salome," 105.
Bennett, G. H., 89.
Bentworth, 25, 74.
Beraldi, M., xiv.
Best, 16, 25.
Bewick, Thos., xiv, xvi, 8;
Walton's "Angler," 9;
Gay's "Fables," 9;
"General History of Quadrupeds," 9;
"British Land and Water Birds," 9;
as engraver-artist, 9, 10;
outcome of his work, 12, 17, 47, 88.
Bibliographers' duties with regard to illustrations, xx.
_Bibliographica_, xvi, 92.
Birch, Reginald, 127.
Blackburn, H., 81.
_Black and White_, 108.
Black and White Exhibition, Vienna, 72.
Blair's "The Grave," 9.
Blake, W., 9;
"Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience," 10;
"Book of Job," 10;
Blair's "The Grave," 9;
Mary Wollstonecraft's "Stories," 10.
_Blanco y Negro_, 79.
Blum, R., "Japonica," "Japan," 126.
Böcklin, A., 76, 77.
Bork, 48, 73.
Botticelli, 3;
designs for Dante, 3.
Boydell's "Shakespeare," 12.
"Bracebridge Hall," 86.
Bradbury and Evans, 89.
Bradley, W. H., 124.
Branston, C., 12, 21.
Braun, 18.
Braun and Schneider, 76.
Brend'amour, Richard, 76.
Brennan, A., 126.
Brévière, 16, 18.
British Museum, xv, xix, xx, 36.
_British Workman_, 96.
Brown, Ford Madox, 95.
"Brown, Jones, and Robinson," 84.
Browne, H. K. ("Phiz"), 89.
Bruant's "Dans la Rue," 68.
Buchanan's "The North Coast," 94.
Burckhardt, "Insects Injurious to Vegetation," 31.
Burges, W., 111.
Burne-Jones, Sir E., xvi;
In _Daily Chronicle_, xxiii, 95, 98.
Busch, W., 77.
Butler's "Hudibras," 19, 20.
_Butterfly, The_, 105.
Calcott, W., 24.
Caldecott, Randolph, illustration from "Old Christmas," 33, 84, 86;
Books for Children, 86.
Callot, 80.
Cameron, D. Y., 111.
Canaletto, 7.
"Caprices" (Goya), 80.
Capuana, Luigi, 71.
Caracci's "Christ and Peter," 10.
_Caricature, La_, 22.
Caricature, Political, 102, 103;
_Ally Sloper's Half Holiday_, 103.
"Carnet de Chéques," 67.
"Carols" (Gaskin, A. J.), 108.
Carpaccio, 2.
Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," 102.
Casanova y Estorach, A., 71.
Castaigne, A., 127.
"Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain," 95.
_Century Magazine_, xix, 34, 40, 114, 116.
"Cera una Volta," 71.
Cervante's "Don Quixote," 21.
Champfleury's "Vignettes Romantiques," xviii.
Chapman, J. G., drawings for the "Illuminated Bible," 29.
Charlet, 17, 60.
"Chaumière Indienne," 20.
Chelminski, 73.
Chéret, 68.
Chiaroscuro, engraving in, 48.
Chiswick Press, 21.
Chodowiecki, 7.
Christopher, St., 6, 34, 36.
Church, F. S., 129.
Cleaver, Reginald, 106.
Clennell, Luke, 11, 12.
Clichés, early use of, 7.
Closson, W. B., 129.
Cole, Timothy, 47, 48, 108, 129.
Colvin, Prof. S., xv.
Conquet, 63.
"Contes Remois," 24.
Cooper, A. W., illustration to Walton's "Angler," 32.
Cooper, J. D., xxiv.
Corbould, A., 21.
_Cornhill, The_, 28, 84, 89;
"Gallery," 94.
Cotman, F. G., 38, 111.
"Coups de Fusil," 60.
Courboin, E., 66.
_Courrier Français, Le_, 51.
"Courses dans l'Antiquité," 67.
Cox, Kenyon, 126.
Crane, Walter, 28;
"King Luckyboy's Party," "The Baby's Opera," "Baby's
Bouquet," 86, 99.
Crowther, T. S., 104.
Cruikshank, George, "Three Courses and a Dessert," 22-24, 83, 88.
Curmer, L., "Paul et Virginie," 20.
Cust, Lionel, xv.
_Daheim_, 78.
_Daily Chronicle_, xvii, xxi, xxiii.
_Daily Graphic_, 117.
Dalziel Brothers, 28, 35;
"Bible Gallery," 35, 95, 88, 90, 91;
"Arabian Nights' Entertainments," 91-93;
"Wayside Posies" and Ingelow's "Poems," 94;
"English Rustic Pictures," 95, 109.
Dalziel, E., 93.
"Daphnis and Chloe," 105.
Darley, F. O. C., 28.
Dasio, Max, 77.
Daubigny, 17.
Daumier, 17;
_La Caricature_, 22, 38, 60.
Davidson, H., 129.
Davis, J. P., 129.
Davison, T. R., 111.
Defoe's "Plague," 101.
Delacroix, 23, 80.
De Neuville, A., 51, 60;
"Coups de Fusil," 60;
Guizot's "History of France," 60;
"En Campagne," 60.
"Dentatus, The," 49.
Dentu's _Le Bambou_, 56;
"Tartarin de Tarascon," 61.
Derniame, Aristide, 20.
Detaille, E., 51;
"L'Armée Française," 60.
_Dial, The_, 105.
Dickens, C., 83.
Didot, F., "Gravure sur Bois," 5.
Dietz, W., 25, 75.
"Dinner at Greenwich," 84.
Dobson, Austin, xiv, xviii, 81, 84;
"Beau Brocade," 106.
Doepler, C. E., 29.
Donné, Dr., 40.
Doré, G., 31, 32, 51, 58;
characterization of his work, 58-60, 63, 93.
Doyle, R., 83;
"Brown, Jones, and Robinson," 84, 89.
Drake, A. W., 114, 115, 127.
Du Maurier, G., 28, 39, 84, 101, 103.
Durand, 108.
Durand, Amand, photogravure process of, 44.
Dürer, A., xxii, 3;
illustrations to "Maximilian's Missal," 3;
decorative designs, 4;
his criticism on his wood-engravers, 5;
an Apollo drawing, 36.
Duveneck, Frank, 130.
Dys, Habert, 65.
_Echo de Paris, L'_, 54.
Eckhardt, Oscar, 104.
Edelfelt, A., 73.
Edwards, G. W., 124.
Elgin Marbles, xxii.
_Elsevir_, 71.
"En Campagne," 60.
"English Rustic Pictures," 95.
"Enterrement de Province," 69.
_Estampe Originale, L'_, 69.
Etching, 111;
American, 130;
Cassell's "Portfolios," 130.
Evans, Edmund, xxiv, 87, 109.
Everal et Cie., 21.
"Examples of Venetian Architecture," 85.
_Ex-Libris Series_, Editor, xiii, xiv.
Fau, F., 61.
_Felz und Meer_, 78.
Fenn, Harry, "Picturesque Europe and America," 31, 127.
Fernandez, G., 79.
Ferris, Stephen, 130.
Figaro, Le, 54.
Fildes, Luke, xxiv, 86.
_Fliegende Blätter_, xvii, 25, 75-78.
Florian, 48, 51, 57, 69.
"Fontaine, La," 8.
Foote, Mrs. Mary H., 127.
Forain, J. L., 66;
Album, 68.
Ford, H. J., 106.
_Forget-me-Not_, 13, 34.
Forrestier, A., 108.
Fortuny, M., 50, 71, 79, 126.
Foster, Birket, xv, xxiv, 26-29, 84;
"Pictures of English Landscape," 91;
"Odes and Sonnets," 91, 103.
"François le Champi," 62.
Fraser, Lewis, 114, 115.
Fredericks, Alfred, 30.
"Frederick the Great's Works," 74.
French, Frank, 129.
Frost, A. B., 126.
Furniss, Harry, 102.
Galice, L., 61.
Gamm, 48, 129.
Gardner, W. Biscombe, 48, 109.
Gaskin, A. J., 108.
Gaul, Gilbert, 126.
Gautier, T., 80.
Gavarni, 17;
_Gazette des Enfants_, lithographs in, 22, 38, 57, 60, 79.
_Gazette des Enfants_, 22.
_Gazette des Beaux-Arts, La_, 51.
Gere, C. M., _The Quest_, 108.
Giacomelli, 65.
Gibson, C. D., 125, 126.
Gibson, W. Hamilton, 126.
Gigoux, Jean, 17;
_Gil Blas_, 19.
Gilbert, Sir John, 26;
Work for American Tract Society, 29, 84;
edition of Shakespeare, 89, 103.
_Gil Blas_, 54.
Gillom, B., 129.
Gillot, C., engraver, 40.
Gillotage, the process, 51.
Gillray, 84.
Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," 21, 61, 93;
"She Stoops to Conquer," 124.
_Good Words_, 28, 84, 88, 90, 91.
Gosse, Edmund, xvi.
Gould, F. C., 102.
Goupil, 55;
_Les Lettres et les Arts_, 56.
Gourget, A. F., 61.
Goya, F., xiv, 8, 20, 79, 80;
"Caprices," 80;
"Invasion," 80;
Bull-fights, 80.
Graham, Charles, 90, 127.
_Graphic_, 18, 34, 40, 65, 85, 92, 94, 96, 108.
_Graphischen Kunste Die_, 78.
Grasset, E., 63, 68.
Gray's, "Elegy," 24.
Green, Charles, xxiv, 86, 101.
Green, W. T., xxiv.
Greenaway, Kate, 86;
Children's Books, 87.
Gregory, E. J., 86.
Greiffenhagen, Maurice, 104.
Greiner, Otto, 77.
Greuze, 7.
Griset, Ernest, "Grotesques," xxiv, 87.
"Gulliver's Travels," 93.
Guillaume, process and publisher, 56, 66.
"Guillaume" Series, 51, 62.
Guizot's "History of France," 60.
Hackländer, F., 78.
Haennen, T. von, 65.
"Half-tone" process, 40.
Halkett, G. R., 102.
Hall, S. P., 86, 101, 112.
Hallward, Reginald, 108.
Hamerton, P. G., 81.
Harburger, 77.
Harding, J. D., 38, 110, 111.
Hardy, Thos., "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," 101.
Harper, C. G., 81.
Harper's "Illuminated Bible," 29.
_Harper's Magazine_, xix, 29, 116.
Harral, H., xxiii.
Harris's "Insects Injurious to Vegetation," 30, 31.
Hartrick, A. S., 104.
Harvey, William, xxiv, 12;
Milton's "Poetical Works," 15, 16, 17, 18;
"Gardens, etc., of Zoological Society," 21, 24;
"Elegy" (Gray), 24;
"Arabian Nights," 24;
"Solace of Song," 24;
"Dentatus," 49, 88, 89.
Hassam, F. Childe, 126, 127.
Hatherell, W. H., 105.
Haug, Robert, 75.
Haydon's "Dentatus," 49.
Hendriksen, 48, 73.
Hengler, 77.
Henley, W. E., xvi.
Hennessy, W. J., xvi.
"Herbals," The, 37.
Herford, Oliver, 127.
Herkomer, Prof. H., 86;
Hardy's "Tess," 101.
"Histoire de Mobilier," 51.
"Histoire du Roi de Bohème," 18.
"Historical and Legendary Ballads," 94, 95, 102.
_Hobby Horse, The_, 108.
Hogarth, W., 7.
Holbein, Hans, 4, 7;
"Dance of Death," 34, 36.
Hole, W., 72, 111.
Holl, F., 86.
Homer, Winslow, 29.
Hooper, W. H., xvi, 28, 48, 109.
Horne, Herbert, 108.
Horsley, G. C., 111.
Houghton, A. Boyd, xvi, 27, 84, 86, 88, 90;
"Arabian Nights," 92;
Housman on his work, 92;
"Home Thoughts and Home Scenes," 92;
"Don Quixote," 92;
"Kuloff's Fables," 92;
_Graphic_ drawings, 92;
"National Nursery Rhymes," 93;
"The North Coast," 94, 95, 101.
Housman, Laurence, xvi, 92;
"Goblin Market," 106.
Huertas, 79.
Huet, Paul, 17, 20.
Hughes, Arthur,
illustrations to Christina Rossetti's "Sing Song," xxiv, 88, 96;
"Tom Brown's School-days," 96.
Hugo's, V., works, "Edition Nationale," 64.
Hunt, Holman, "Lady of Shalott," 88, 90.
"Hypnerotomachia," 4.
Ibels, 66.
Icke, H. J., 72.
Illumination, 3.
_Illustracion Artistica_, 71.
_Illustracion Española y Americana_, 71.
_Illustrated London News_, 27, 108.
_Illustration, L'_, 51, 65.
Illustration, definition of, 1;
compared to art, 1, 2;
the old illustrator, 2;
the court painters, 2;
the subject and landscape painters, 2;
illumination of MSS., 3;
French illustration, 24;
modern development in, 33;
application of photography to, 34;
increase in its popularity, 34;
production of before the introduction of photography, 36;
French, 50-57;
decline of French work, 52;
decay due to publishers, 54;
Spanish, 71;
Dutch, 71, 72;
Belgian, Austrian, and Hungarian, 72;
Russian and Scandinavian, 73;
Danish, 73, 74;
German, 74, 75;
English, 82, 84;
revival in England, 96;
editors' bad judgments on, 97;
their bad influence, 97;
their ignorance, 90, 99;
evils of modern reproductions, 99;
ignorance of printers, 100;
modern copies of obsolete fads, 100;
colour printing, 109;
American, 113, 130;
reasons for American advance in, 116;
daily papers, 117;
future of modern, 131-134.
_Illustrazion Italiana, L'_, 71.
_Illustrirte Zeitung_, 75.
Image, Selwyn, 108.
Indexing of artists' works, xix, xx.
Ingelow, Jean, "Poems," 94.
"International Society of Wood Engravers," 109.
Isabey, E., 17, 20.
Ispen, L. S., 124.
Ives' method of engraving, 40.
Jackson, Mason, "The Pictorial Press," xviii, 32, 115.
Jacobi, C. T., xvi.
Jacque, C., 17, 20;
"Vicar of Wakefield," 21.
Jacquemart, Jules, 51.
Jeanniot, P. G., 60.
Job, 66.
Johannot, Tony, 25.
Johannots, the Brothers, 17, 18.
Johnson, T., 129.
Johnstone, J. M., xxiv.
_Judge_, 129.
Jüngling, Frederick, 48, 129.
Kaulbach, 76.
Keene, C., 28, 38, 39, 84, 89, 90, 104.
_Keepsake_, 13, 34.
Kepler, F., 129.
King, F. S., 129.
Kingsley's "Water Babies," 102.
Kingsley, Elbridge, 47, 48, 129.
Klinger, Max, 76;
his method, 77;
his "Apuleius," 77.
Knight, Charles, 24.
Koehler, S. R., 130.
Konewka, Paul, 76;
"Faust," 76.
Kreull, G., 48, 129.
Kreitzschmar, 25.
_Kunst für Alle_, 78.
Lacour, O., xxiv.
La Farge, John, 29.
Lalauze, A., 64.
Lameyer, 79.
Lami, E., 23.
Landseer, Sir E., 24.
Lang, A., "The Library," xviii, 81;
"Fairy Books," 106.
Langton, first use of photography for book illustration, 34.
_Lanterne, La_, 54.
Lathrop's "Spanish Vistas," 124.
Laurens, Jean Paul, 61.
Lautrec, H. T., 68.
_La Vie Moderne_, 51.
Lavoignat, 15, 17, 21, 24.
Lawless, M. J., 89.
Leech, John, 83, 84, 88, 89.
"Legend of the Portent," 89.
Legrand, L., 66.
Lehers, Max, 77.
Leighton, Brothers, 109.
Leighton, Sir F., 28, 89;
_Cornhill_ "Gallery," 94, 95.
Leloir, M., 25, 61.
Lemaire, Mme., 62.
Lepère, A., 18, 47, 51, 69.
Le Sage's "Diable Boiteux," 21.
_Les Lettres et les Arts_, 56.
Leveille, 16, 24, 51.
Lhermitte, L., "La Vie Rustique," 61.
"Liber Studiorum," 27.
_Lidia, La_, 79.
_Life_, 126, 129.
Linnells, The, 10, 11;
"The National Gallery," 14.
Linton's "Engraving," xviii;
on engraver and artist, 24, 28, 48, 86, 109.
Lithography, 38;
work by Prout, Harding, Roberts, Nash, 38;
revival in, 109;
_Vanity Fair_ and chromo-lithography, 109;
photo-lithography, 109.
Low, Will. H., 126.
Lucena, Jiminez, 79.
Luders, Hermann, 75.
Lunel, F., 61.
Lungren, F., 126.
Lynch, Albert, "La Dame aux Camélias," 62.
Macbeth, R. W., 72, 111.
"Madame Chrysanthème," 62.
_Magazin Pittoresque_, 21.
Mahoney, T., "Scrambles amongst the Alps," 94, 101.
Mallows, C. E., 111.
Marchetti, 64.
Marie, Adrian, 65.
Marold, L., 57, 72, 78.
Mars, 66, 68.
May, Phil, 104;
"The Parson and the Painter," 104.
Meadows, Kenny, 88.
Meggendorfer, 77.
Meisenbach process, 40.
Meissonier, J. L. E., 8, 17, 20;
"Deux Joueurs," 21;
"Contes Remois," 24, 25, 50, 57, 60, 73, 74, 79.
Menzel, Adolph, xx, 8, 24;
comparison with Bewick, 25;
"Life of Frederick the Great," 25;
"Paul et Virginie," 25, 73, 74;
his genius and work, 74, 75, 76, 88, 126.
Merson, Luc Ollivier, 64.
Metal, engraving on, 37.
Metcalfe, W. L., Stevenson's "The Wreckers," 128.
Métivet, L., 65.
Millais, Sir J. E., 28;
"St. Agnes' Eve," 88, 89;
"Parables," 90-92;
_Cornhill_ "Gallery," 94;
Strahan's "Portfolio," 94.
Millar, H. R., 104.
Mitchell, G. C., 111.
Mitchell, J. A., _Life_, 129.
"Modern Painters," 85.
_Monde Illustré, Le_, 51.
Monnier, H., 17, 23.
Montalti, "Cera una Volta," 71.
Montbard, A., 108.
Monvel, Boutet de, 66.
Moran, Mrs. Mary Nimmo, 130.
Moran, Thomas and Peter, 30, 127, 128, 130.
Morin, Louis, 63.
Morris, William, xvi, 108.
Morton, T., "Gulliver's Travels," 93.
Moxon's "Tennyson," 28, 88;
Macmillan's re-issue, 101.
Muckley, L. F., _The Quest_, 108.
Mulready, W., 24.
Murray, C. O., 111.
Myrbach, 54, 62, 72.
Nash, 38.
Nast, Thomas, 30.
Nesbit, 12.
_Neue Lithographem_, 77.
New, E. H., 108.
Newell, P., 127.
Newspapers, illustrated, 116, 117.
_New York Daily Graphic_, 117.
Niepce, 40.
North, J. W., 35, 93;
"Wayside Posies" and Ingelow's "Poems," 94.
Novello's "National Nursery Rhymes," 93.
Oberländer, 77.
"Odes and Sonnets," 91.
"Old Christmas," 86.
"Old Songs," 106.
"Omar Khayyam," 126.
_Once a Week_, xix, 28, 84, 88-90.
Orrinsmith, H., xvi, 12, 57.
Overbeck, 76.
Overend, W. H., 108.
Overlays used by Bewick, xvi, 20, 21.
"Pablo de Ségovie," 51, 54, 61.
Paget, Wal, 105.
"Palace of Art, The," 88.
_Pall Mall Gazette_, 117.
_Pall Mall Magazine_, xix.
Palmer, Samuel, xxiv.
Pannemaker, 32, 69.
Papier Gillot, 71.
_Paris Illustré_, 51.
Parrish, Stephen, 130.
Parsons, Alfred, 106;
"Old Songs," "A Quiet Life," "Wordsworth's Sonnets," and
"The Warwickshire Avon," 106, 124.
Parsons, Charles, 114.
Partridge, J. Bernard, 106.
Paterson, R., xxiv.
Paul, Rowland, 111.
Pegram, F., 104.
"Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen," 35.
_Penny Magazine_, 24.
Perea, D., 79.
Perugini, Carlo, 109.
Perugino's "The Holy Family," 10.
_Petit Journal, Le_, 54.
Pettie, J., 90.
"Phiz" (H. K. Browne), 83.
Photography applied to book illustration, 34;
_Art Student_, 1865, 35;
fairly general in 1870, 36;
photographing of drawings in line upon a metal plate or gelatine
film, 40;
"half-tone" process, 40;
Meisenbach process, 40;
Ives' method, 40.
Piaud, 17.
Pickering's "Alphabet," 19.
"Pictures of English Landscape," 91.
"Pictures in Words," 91.
"Picturesque America," 31, 127.
"Picturesque Europe," 31.
Pille, Henri, 61.
Pinturicchio, 3.
Pinwell, G. J., 27, 35, 39, 86, 88, 90, 92;
"Goldsmith's Works," 93;
"Wayside Posies" and Ingelow's "Poems," 94;
"English Rustic Pictures," 95.
Piranesi, 7.
Pisan, 17.
Pissarro, L., 105.
Pite, A. B., 111.
Plantin Museum, 36.
Platt, Charles A., 130.
"Poets of the Nineteenth Century," xxiv.
Poirret, 17.
Poirson, V. A., 61.
Pollard, A. W., xv.
Pons, Angel, 79.
Powell, Miss C. A., 129.
Poynter, E. J., 95.
Prado, The, 80.
Pranishnikoff, 73.
_Premières Illustrées, Les_, 61.
Pre-Raphaelites, xxii, 76, 88, 98.
Prior, Melton, 112.
"Process," art of, 41;
Meisenbach, 40;
comparison with wood-engraving, 41-43;
method of, 42;
application of photography, 42;
for "line" work, 42;
use of swelled gelatine, 42;
photogravure of Amand Durand, 44;
black-and-white drawings reproduced in, 44;
wash reproductions by, 44;
advantages of, over engraving, 45;
flat washes, 45;
objections to, 45;
object of, 46;
not a "mechanical makeshift," 46;
answers to criticisms on, 46;
bound to supersede wood-engraving, 48;
Gillotage, 51;
Guillaume half-tone process, 62;
bad process work, 96.
Proctor, J., 102.
Prout, S., 38, 110, 111.
_Puck_, 129.
_Punch_, 27, 106, 129.
Pyle, Howard, 124, 125.
Pyle, Miss Katharine, 127.
"Quatre fils d'Aymon," 63.
_Quest, The_, 108.
"Quiet Life," 106.
_Quotidien Illustré_, 117.
Raffaëlli, J. F., 65.
Raffet, 17, 60.
Railton, Herbert, 105.
Rainey, W., 108.
Ramos, F. Garcia y, "La Tierra di Maria Santissima," 79.
Ratdolt, E., 5.
Raven-Hill, L., 104, 115.
Read, S., 88, 112.
Redwood, A. C., 126, 128.
Reed, E. T., 106.
Régamey, Felix, 65.
Reid, Sir George, 106;
"Johnny Gibb," "The River Tweed and the River Clyde," 107.
Reinecke, René, 78.
Reinhart, G. S., "Spanish Vistas," 124.
Rembrandt, 2, 3;
Etchings of, 4, 88.
Remington, F., "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," 126.
Renouard, Paul, 65.
Répine, 73.
Retzche's "Shakespeare," 76.
_Revue Illustré, La_, 51.
Ricketts, Charles, 105;
"Daphnis and Chloe," 105.
Rico, 50, 71, 79, 126.
Riou, 65.
Roberts, C., xxiii.
Roberts, D., 38.
Robida, "Rabelais," 63.
Rochegrosse, G., 61.
Roehle, 18.
Rogers' "Italy," 38;
"Poems," 11, 12, 18.
Rops, Félicien, 63.
Rossetti, C., "Goblin Market," 106.
Rossetti, D. G., xvii, 27, 35, 85;
"The Palace of Art," "Sir Galahad," 88, 98;
his influence and motives, 98.
Rossi, 54, 62, 128.
Rowlandson, 84.
Rubens, sketches for title-pages, 4, 11.
Ruskin, J., 28, 85, 93.
Russell, W. W., 104.
Ryland, Henry, 108.
Sala, G. A., 89.
Sambourne, Linley, 101;
"Water Babies," 102;
_Punch_ work, 102.
Sandys, Frederick, xv, 27;
"Amor Mundi," 35, 39, 84, 88-90;
_Cornhill_ "Gallery," 94;
"Legendary Ballads," 95, 101, 108.
Savage, Reginald, 105.
Schlittgen, H., 78.
Schwæbe, C., 63, 77.
"Scrambles amongst the Alps," 94, 101.
_Scribner's Magazine_, 116.
Séon, 64.
Seymour, G. L., 105.
Shannon, C. H., 105;
"Daphnis and Chloe," 105.
Shepherd, W. L., 30, 126.
Shields, Frederick, xvi, 39, 84;
Defoe's "Plague," 101.
_Shilling Magazine_, 28, 35, 84, 88, 90.
Short, Frank, 72, 111.
Simpson, William, 112.
Singer, Dr. Hans, xv.
Small, W., 27, 101, 103.
Smedley, W. T., "Sketches of American Watering-places," 124.
Smeeton, 18.
Smillie, J. D., 130.
Smith, F. Hopkinson, 127.
"Sociétés Anonymes," 54.
"Solace of Song," 24.
Solomon, S., 95.
Sourel, "Insects Injurious to Vegetation," 31.
South Kensington Museum, xv, xix, xx, 36.
"Spanish Scenes," 79.
_Spectator_, xviii.
Speed, Lancelot, 106.
Spielmeyer, W., xxiv.
"Spy," 109.
_St. Stephen's Review_, 104.
Stacey, W. S., 108.
Stainforth, M., xxiv.
Staniland, C. J., 108.
Stationers' Hall, Exhibition of Wood-Engravings, March, 1895, xxiii.
Steinhausen, W., 77.
Steinlen, 57, 66;
Bruant's "Dans la Rue," 68.
Stephens, Mrs. Alice B., 127.
Sterne's "Sentimental Journey," 61.
Stevenson's "The Wreckers," 128.
"Stones of Venice," 85.
Stothard, T., 9, 10;
"The Pilgrim's Progress," 11;
Richardson's "Novels," 11;
Rogers' "Poems," 11-13, 18;
"Alphabet," 19, 24.
Strahan, A., xvi.
Strang, William, 111.
Strange, E. F., xv.
Stroebel, 78.
Stück, Franz, 77.
Sullivan, E. J., 104.
Sullivan, J. F., 102.
Sumner, Heywood, 108.
_Sunday Magazine_, 90.
_Supplement Littéraire et Artistique_, 54.
Swain, J., 28, 35, 90, 109.
"Tartarin de Tarascon," 52, 61.
Taylor, Tom, 83;
"Pictures in Words," 91.
Tegner, Hans, 73;
drawings for Holberg's "Comedies," 73.
Tenniel, Sir J., 28, 89, 92;
"Alice in Wonderland," "Legendary Ballads," 102.
Thackeray, W. M., 12, 83, 89;
"Roundabout Papers," 90.
Thoma, H., 77.
Thomas, G. H., xxiv.
Thomas, W. L., 115.
Thompson, Charles, 14, 15, 16.
Thompson, John, Hogarth's Works, 13.
Thompsons, the, 12;
Cruikshank's Work, 24.
Thomson, D. C., 115.
Thomson, Hugh, 105.
Thulstrup, T. de, 127.
Thurston's Butler's "Hudibras," 19, 20;
"Tasso," 21, 24.
Tilt's, "Gardens and Menageries of the Zoological Society
Delineated," 21.
Tinkey, J., 129.
"Tierra di Maria Santissima, La," 79.
Titian's "Ariadne and Bacchus," 14.
Tofani, 64.
"Tom Brown's School-days," 96.
Toudouze, Edouard, 62.
Townsend, Horace, xvi.
Trevès, Fratelli, 70.
Tristram's "Coaching Days and Coaching Ways," 105.
_Ueber Land und Meer_, 75.
Unger, J. F. G., 75.
Unzelmann, 25, 74.
Uzanne, Octave, 56, 62.
Valloton, F., 69;
"Enterrement en Province," 69.
_Vanity Fair_, 109.
Vebers, the, 64.
Vedder, Elihu, "Omar Khayyam," 126.
Velasquez, portraits of, 2, 80.
Veronese, 2, 3.
Vierge, Daniel, 19, 51, 54, 61, 71, 79, 80, 126.
"Vie Rustique, La," 61.
Villiers, F., 112.
Vinne, Theodore de, 120.
Vizetelly, H., 27.
Vogels, the, 25, 72, 74, 78.
Walker, Emery, xvi.
Walker, Fred., 27, 39, 88;
"Adventures of Philip," 90, 93;
_Cornhill_ "Gallery," 94;
"English Rustic Pictures," 95.
War Correspondents and their work, 112.
"Warwickshire Avon," 106.
Watson, C. J., 111.
Watson, J. D., 92.
Watteau, 7.
Way, Messrs., 109.
"Wayside Posies," 94.
Weir, Harrison, xv, xxiv, 26, 30, 31, 103.
Whall, Christopher, 108.
Whistler, J. M. N., xxii;
in _Daily Chronicle_, xxiii, 84, 93;
"Legendary Ballads," 95;
"Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain," 95, 101.
White, Gleeson, xiv.
Whittingham, C., 21.
Whymper, 90;
"Scrambles amongst the Alps," 94, 101.
Wiles, Irving R., 128.
Wilkie, Sir David, 24.
Willette, A., 66, 68.
Williamses, the, 12, 15, 24.
Wilmot's, "Sacred Poetry," xxiv.
Wilson, Edgar, 104.
Wilson, Richard, 11.
Wilson, T. Walter, 108.
Wood-engraving, xvi;
early English, 12-14;
French prize for, 14;
rise of in France, 16;
Bewick's influence, 12, 17;
disappearance of, 37;
methods of wood-engraving shops, 38;
bad influence on the artists, 39;
disappearance of the "wood-choppers" again, 39;
replaced by photography, 40;
progression of the art of, 41;
advantages claimed for, 41;
comparison to "process" work, 41-43;
real duties of the engraver, 47;
three great periods, 47;
Japanese wood-cutting, 48;
no danger in the hands of good artists, 48;
modern facsimile wood-engraving, 48;
bound to be superseded by "process" work, 48;
bright outlook for, 49;
revival in France, Germany, etc., 57, 58, 75;
method of publication of the Dalziel books, 91;
"International Society of Wood-Engravers," 109;
American School of, 114-116;
facsimile work in America, 115.
Wolf, Henry, 129.
Woods, H., 86.
Woodville, R. Caton, 108.
Woodward, J. D., "Picturesque Europe and America," 31, 127, 128.
Wollen, W. B., 108.
Wordsworth's "Sonnets," 106.
Wolf, J., 89.
Worf, A., xxiv.
Wright, 21.
Wyllie, W. L., 108.
_Yellow Book_, xxii, 105.
Zogbaum, Rufus, 128.
Zola's "Le Rêve," 63.
[Illustration]
CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Modern Illustration" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.