In 1862 Walker concludes his Philip series with eight full-page drawings, including the superb Philip in Church, of which he made a version in water-colours that still ranks among his most notable work. The first two illustrations to Miss Thackeray's Story of Elizabeth are also from his hand. Millais is represented by Irené, a kneeling figure (v. p. 478), and by the powerfully conceived Bishop and the Knight (vi. p. 100), and the first four illustrations to Trollope's Small House at Allington. Richard Doyle continues the series of Pictures of English Society; but now that their actuality no longer impresses, we fail to discover the special charm which endeared them to contemporaries. F. Sandys is represented by Manoli (vi. p. 346), the second of his three contributions, which deepens the regret that work by this fine artist appeared so seldom in this magazine. But the most notable feature this year is found in the drawings contributed by Frederick Leighton, then not even an Associate of the Royal Academy, which illustrate George Eliot's Romola. With these the Cornhill departed from its ordinary custom, and gave two full-page illustrations to each section of the serial month by month. Consequently in the volumes in 1862 and 1863 the usual two-dozen plates are considerably augmented.
In 1863 twelve more of the Romola series complete Leighton's contributions to the magazine. Millais has twelve more to The Small House at Allington, Walker is represented by one drawing, Maladetta, another to Mrs. Archie, two to Out of the World, and one more to The Story of Elizabeth. Du Maurier, destined to occupy the most prominent position in later volumes, appears for the first time with The Cilician Pirates, Sibyl's Disappointment, The Night before the Morrow, and Cousin Phillis. Possibly a drawing entitled 'The First Meeting' to a story, The ... in her Closet, is from his hand; but the style is not clearly evident, nor is it included in the Cornhill Gallery which, published in the next year, drew its illustrations from the few volumes already noticed, with the addition of five others from the early numbers of 1864. Another drawing, signed A. H., to Margaret Denzil, is by Arthur Hughes.
In 1864 two other illustrations complete The Small House at Allington, and Millais has also two others for Madame de Monferrat. Sir Noel Paton appears for the only time with a fine composition, Ulysses (IX. p. 66). Margaret Denzil has its three illustrations signed R. B., probably the initials of Robert Barnes, who did much work in later volumes. Charles Keene, a very infrequent contributor, illustrated Brother Jacob, a little-known story by George Eliot. Du Maurier supplies the first four illustrations to Mrs. Gaskell's unfinished Wives and Daughters, and Fred Walker contributes five to the other serial, also interrupted by its author's death, the delightful Denis Duval. Here we see the artist employed on costume-work, and hampered somewhat by historical details, yet infusing into his designs the charm which characterises his idyllic work. G. J. Pinwell is represented by The Lovers of Ballyvookan. G. H. Thomas starts Wilkie Collins's Armadale with two pictures that do not accord with the rest of the Cornhill work, but belong to a differently considered method, popular enough elsewhere, but rarely employed in this magazine. The volume contains also a portrait of Thackeray engraved on steel, by J. C. Armytage, after Laurence.
In 1865 the Armadale illustrations take up twelve full pages, and Du Maurier supplies the remaining twelve stories to Wives and Daughters.
In 1866 six Armadale and one Wives and Daughters are reinforced by eleven illustrations to The Claverings by M. Ellen Edwards. Fred Walker is again a contributor with five drawings for Miss Thackeray's Village on the Cliff, and Frederick Sandys, with a fine composition illustrating Swinburne's Cleopatra (xiv. p. 331), makes his last appearance in the magazine.
In 1867 M. E. Edwards signs five of The Claverings and seven to The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly. The Satrap, an admirable composition, is signed F. W. B., but for whom these initials stand is not clear. Fred Walker completes his illustrations to the Village on the Cliff, and adds one other to Beauty and the Beast, and two to A Week in a French Country House and one to Red Riding Hood. F. W. Lawson makes his entrée with the four drawings to Stone Edge, and Du Maurier has a curiously massive Joan of Arc.
In 1868 Walker has three illustrations to Jack the Giant Killer, 'I do not love you,' and From an Island respectively. M. Ellen Edwards is responsible for ten to The Bramleighs, one to a story, The Stockbroker, and the first two to That Boy of Norcott's. F. W. Lawson has four to Avonhoe, and two to Lettice Lisle, and Du Maurier two to My Neighbour Nelly, and one to Lady Denzil.
In 1869 That Boy of Norcott's supplies the subjects for three others by M. E. Edwards, and Lettice Lisle for four by F. W. Lawson. The first chapters of Put yourself in his place, Charles Reade's trades-union novel, are illustrated by ten drawings by Robert Barnes, F. Walker has one to Sola, for which tale Du Maurier supplies another, as well as one to the Courtyard of the Ours d'Or, and the three for Against Time.
In 1870 Robert Barnes continues illustrating Charles Reade's novel with seven full pages. Du Maurier contributes ten to Against Time, and four to George Meredith's Adventures of Harry Richmond, and S. L. Fildes (more familiar to-day as Luke Fildes) comes in with three admirable compositions to Charles Lever's Lord Kilgobbin.
In 1871 the latter story engages twelve full pages, and Harry Richmond and eleven others, Du Maurier has the first to a Story of the Plébiscite.
In 1872 Du Maurier continues The Plébiscite with one full page (the others to the same story are signed 'H. H.'), and has four others to Francillon's Pearl and Emerald, and ten to The Scientific Gentleman. Fildes concludes his embellishment of Lord Kilgobbin with three full pages. Hubert Herkomer (the 'H. H.' of The Plébiscite probably) appears as a recruit with two most satisfactory designs to The Last Master of the Old Manor-House, and G. D. Leslie, also a fresh arrival, finds, in Miss Thackeray's Old Kensington, the themes for nine graceful compositions.
In 1873 to Du Maurier are devoted twelve subjects illustrating Zelda's Fortune. G. D. Leslie has four others concluding Old Kensington. S. L. Fildes illustrates Willows with two, and Marcus Stone is represented by half-a-dozen idyllic and charming, if somewhat slight, designs for Young Brown.
In 1874 H. Paterson, W. Small, and Du Maurier contribute all the pictures excepting one by Marcus Stone. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, illustrated by the first artist, and A Rose in June, and Black's Three Feathers by the second.
In 1875 H. Allingham supplies most graceful pictures to Miss Angel. Du Maurier is the artist chosen for another Hardy novel, The Hand of Ethelberta. A. Hopkins illustrates Mr. Henley's wonderful achievement, Hospital Outlines, as the poems were called when they appeared in July 1875. From this date to the last number of the shilling series, June 1883, the artists are limited to Small and Du Maurier for the most part, and as this record has already exceeded its limits, no more need be said, except that until the last, the high standard of technical excellence was never abandoned. Although the rare mastery of Millais and the charm of Walker were hardly approached by their successors, yet the magazine was always representative of the best work of those of its contemporaries who devoted themselves to black and white, and not infrequently, as this notice shows, attracted men who have made few, if any other, attempts to draw for publication. It is curious to find that, notwithstanding the evident importance it attached to its pictorial department, no artist's name is ever mentioned in the index or elsewhere. In a graceful and discriminative essay 'S. C.' speaks feelingly and appreciatively of Fred Walker just after his death; but that seems to be the only time when the anonymity imposed on the artists was divulged in the magazine itself. It is but fair to add that the literary contents were never signed, or attributed in the index, except that a few articles bear the now familiar initials, 'L. S.', 'W. E. H.', 'R. L. S.', 'G. A.', and others.
This popular, semi-religious, sixpenny magazine, established in 1860, achieved quickly a circulation that was record-breaking in its time. Edited by Dr. Norman Macleod, it was printed by Thomas Constable, and published (at first) in Edinburgh by Alexander Strahan and Co. Although, viewed in the light of its later issues, one cannot help feeling disappointed with the first volume, yet even there the pictures are distinctly interesting as a forecast, even if they do not call for any detailed notice by reason of their intrinsic merit. They rarely exceed a half page in size, and were engraved none too well by various craftsmen. Indeed, judging from the names of the artists, then as afterwards, given fully in the index of illustrations, it might not be unfair to blame the engravers still more strongly. The very fact that the illustrations are duly ascribed in a separate list is proof that, from the first, the editor recognised their importance. Such honourable recognition of the personality of an illustrator is by no means the rule, even in periodicals that have equal right to be proud of their collaborators. Where the artists' names are recorded it is rare to find them acknowledged so fully and thoroughly as in Good Words. In other magazines they are usually referred to under the title of the article they illustrate and nowhere else; or their name is printed (as in Once a Week) with a bare list of numerals showing the pages containing their pictures; but in Good Words the subject, titles, and artists' names have always been accorded a special index.
In the first volume, for 1860, W. Q. Orchardson—not then even an Associate of the Royal Academy—supplies nine drawings, engraved by F. Borders. Admirable in their own way, one cannot but feel that the signature leads one to expect something much more interesting; and, knowing the quality of Mr. Orchardson's later work, it is impossible to avoid throwing the blame on the engraver. Keeley Halswelle contributes six; in these you find (badly drawn or spoilt by the engraver) those water-lilies in blossom, which in after years became a mannerism in his landscape foregrounds. J. W. M'Whirter has four—one a group of Autumn Flowers (p. 664), cut by R. Paterson, that deserves especial notice as a much more elaborate piece of engraving than any other in the volume. Erskine Nicol supplies two genre pieces, the full-page, Mary Macdonell and her friends (p. 216), being, most probably, a thoroughly good sketch, but here again the translator has produced hard scratchy lines that fail to suggest the freer play of pencil or pen, whichever it was that produced the original. Others by 'J. B.,' J. O. Brown, C. A. Doyle, Clarence Dobell, Jas. Drummond, Clark Stanton, Gourlay Steell, and Hughes Taylor, call for no particular comment.
From 1861 the chief full-page illustrations were printed separately on toned paper. A series of animal subjects by 'J. B.,' twelve 'Illustrations of Scripture,' engraved by Dalziel Brothers, were announced in the prospectus as a special feature. Somewhat pre-Raphaelite in handling they are distinctly interesting, but hardly masterly. But the volume will be always memorable for its early work by Frederick Walker and G. Du Maurier. A Time to Dance, by the latter, shows a certain decorative element, which in various ways has influenced his work at different periods, although no one could have deduced from it the future career of its brilliant author as a satirist of society, a draughtsman who imparted into his work, to a degree no English artist has surpassed, and very few equalled, that 'good form' so prized by well-bred people. The drawing unsigned The Blind School (p. 505), attributed to Fred Walker in the index, suggests some clerical error. Like one attributed to Sandys in a later volume, you hesitate before accepting evidence of the compiler of the list of engravings, which the picture itself contradicts flatly. Only a Sweep (p. 609) is signed, and, although by no means a good example, is unquestionably attributed rightly. John Pettie has two designs, Cain's Brand (pp. 376, 422); J. M'Whirter and W. Q. Orchardson, one each; H. H. Armstead, a pre-Raphaelite composition, A Song which none but the Redeemed ever sing, which is amongst the most interesting of the comparatively few illustrations by the Royal Academician, who is better known as a sculptor, as his Music, Poetry, and Painting in the Albert Memorial, the panels beneath Dyce's frescoes at Westminster Palace, and a long series of works shown at the Academy exhibitions suffice to prove. T. Morten, a draughtsman who has missed so far his due share of appreciation, is represented by The Waker, Dreamer, and Sleeper (p. 634), a powerful composition of a group of men praying at night by the side of a breaking dyke. John Pettie has two drawings; and J. D. Watson, six subjects—the first, The Toad, being singularly unlike his later style, and suggesting a closer discipleship with the pre-Raphaelites than he maintained afterwards. Two by Clarence Dobell, and three by T. Graham—one, The Young Mother, a charming arrangement in lines; with others by J. Wolf, Zwecker, W. M'Taggart, J. L. Porter, A. W. Cooper, A. Bushnell, W. Fyfe, W. Linney, and C. H. Bennett, are also included. Altogether the second volume shows marked advance upon the first, although this admirable periodical had not yet reached its high-water mark.
In 1862 we find added to its list of artists, Millais, Keene, Sandys, Whistler, Holman Hunt, E. Burne-Jones, A. Boyd Houghton, Tenniel, S. Solomon, and Lawless, a notable group, even in that year when so many magazines show a marvellous 'galaxy of stars.' To Millais fell the twelve illustrations to Mistress and Maid, by the author of John Halifax, and two others, Olaf (p. 25) and Highland Flora (p. 393). That these maintain fully the reputation of the great illustrator, whose later achievements in oil have in popular estimation eclipsed his importance as a black-and-white artist, goes without saying. If not equal to the superb Parables of the following year, they are worthy of their author. Indeed, no matter when you come across a Millais, it is with a fresh surprise each time that one finds it rarely falls below a singularly high level, and is apt to seem, for the moment, the best he ever did.
The two illustrations by J. M'Neill Whistler seem to be very little known. Those to Once a Week, possibly from the fact of their being reprinted in Thornbury's Legendary Ballads, have been often referred to and reproduced several times; but no notice (so far as I recollect) of these, to The First Sermon, has found its way into print. The one (p. 585) shows a girl crouching by a fire, with a man, whose head is turned towards her, seated at a table with his hand on a lute. The other (p. 649) is a seated girl in meditation before a writing-table. Not a little of the beauty of line, which distinguishes the work of the famous etcher, is evident in these blocks, which were both engraved by Dalziel, and as whatever the original lost cannot now be estimated, as they stand they are nevertheless most admirable works, preserving the rapid touch of the pen-line in a remarkable degree.
The Charles Keene drawing to Nanneri the Washerwoman is another Dalziel block which merits praise in no slight measure; as here again one fancies that the attempt has been to preserve a facsimile of each touch of the artist, and not to translate wash into line. The King Sigurd of Burne-Jones has certainly lost a great deal; in fact, judging by drawings of the same period still extant, it conveys an effect quite different from that its author intended. Certainly, at the present time, he regards it as entirely unrepresentative; but no doubt then as now he disliked drawing upon wood. To-day it has been said that his Chaucer drawings in pencil were practically translated by another hand in the course of their being engraved on wood. Certainly technique of lead pencil is hardly suggested, much less reproduced in facsimile in the entirely admirable engravings by the veteran Mr. W. H. Hooper. But if the designs were photographed on the block such translation as they have undergone is no doubt due to the engraver.
A drawing by Simeon Solomon, The Veiled Bride (p. 592), seems also much less dainty than his pencil studies of the same period. Many artists, when they attempt to draw upon wood, find the material peculiarly unsympathetic. Rossetti has left his opinion on record, and it is quite possible that in both the Burne-Jones and Solomon, as in the Tennyson drawings, although the engravers may have accomplished miracles, what the artist had put down was untranslatable. For the delicacies of pencil may easily produce something beyond the power of even the most skilful engraver to reproduce. The Sandys, Until her Death (p. 312), illustrating a poem, loses much as it appeared in the magazine; you have but to compare a proof from the block itself, in a reprinted collection of Messrs. Strahan's engravings, to realise how different a result was secured upon good paper with careful printing. A. Boyd Houghton is represented by four subjects: My Treasure (p. 504), On the Cliff (p. 624), True or False (p. 721), and About Toys (p. 753); they all belong to the manner of his Home Scenes, rather than to his oriental illustrations. The Battle of Gilboa (p. 89), by Tenniel, is typical. M. J. Lawless is at his best in Rung into Heaven (p. 135), and in the Bands of Love (p. 632) shows more grace than he sometimes secured when confronted by modern costume.
T. Morten has a finely-engraved night-piece, Pictures in the Fire (p. 200), besides The Christmas Child (p. 56) and The Carrier Pigeon (p. 121). The Holman Hunt, Go and Come (p. 32), a weeping figure, is not particularly interesting. Honesty (p. 736), by T. Graham, gives evidence of the power of an artist who has yet to be 'discovered' so far as his illustrations are concerned. H. H. Armstead's Seaweeds (p. 568), and eight by J. D. Watson (pp. 9, 81, 144, 201, 209, 302, 400, 433) need no special comment, nor do the ten by J. Pettie (pp. 264–713). Fred Walker is represented by The Summer Woods, a typical pastoral (p. 368), Love in Death, a careworn woman in the snow (p. 185), and Out among the wild flowers (p. 657), the latter an excellent example of the grace he imparted to rustic figures. These, with a few diagrams and engravings from photographs, complete the record of a memorable, if not the most memorable, year of the magazine.
In 1863 we find less variety in the artists and subjects, which is due to the presence of the superb series of drawings by Millais, The Parables, wherein the great illustrator touched his highest level. To call these twelve pictures masterpieces is for once to apply consistently a term often misused. For, though one ransacked the portfolios of Europe, not many sets of drawings could be found to equal, and very few to excel them. The twelve subjects appeared in the following order: The Leaven (p. 1), The Ten Virgins (p. 81), The Prodigal Son (p. 161), The Good Samaritan (p. 241), The Unjust Judge (p. 313), The Pharisee and Publican (p. 385), The Hid Treasure (p. 461), The Pearl of Great Price (p. 533), The Lost Piece of Money1 (p. 605), The Sower (p. 677), The Unmerciful Servant (p. 749), and The Labourers in the Vineyard (p. 821). To F. Sandys two drawings are attributed; one is obviously from another hand, but Sleep (p. 589) undoubtedly marks his final appearance in this magazine. T. Morten is represented by Cousin Winnie (p. 257), Hester Durham (p. 492), The Spirit of Eld (p. 629, unsigned), a powerful composition that at first glance might almost be taken for a Sandys, and An Orphan Family's Christmas (p. 844). In Autumn Thoughts (p. 743) we have an example of J. W. North, more akin to those he contributed to the Dalziel table-books, a landscape, with a fine sense of space, despite the fact that it is enclosed by trees. John Tenniel, in The Norse Princess (p. 201) and Queen Dagmar (p. 344), finds subjects that suit him peculiarly well. The Summer Snow (p. 380), attributed to 'Christopher' Jones, is by Sir Edward Burne-Jones of course, and the final contribution of the artist to these pages. H. J. Lucas, a name rarely encountered, has one drawing, The Sangreal (p. 454). A. Boyd Houghton, in St. Elmo (p. 64), A Missionary Cheer (p. 547), and Childhood (p. 636), is showing the more mature style of his best period. G. J. Pinwell has but a single drawing, Martin Ware's Temptation (p. 573), and that not peculiarly individual; John Pettie appears with six, The Monks and the Heathen (p. 14), The Passion Flowers of Life (p. 141), a study of an old man seated in a creeper-covered porch with a child on his lap, The Night Walk over the Mill Stream (p. 185), and Not above his Business (p. 272), A Touch of Nature (p. 417), and The Negro (p. 476). To a later generation, who only know the pictures of the Royal Academician, these come as a surprise, and prove the versatility of an artist whose painting was somewhat mannered. Walter Crane's—a fine group of oriental sailors—Treasure-trove (p. 795), and J. D. Watson's six drawings are all capable and accomplished; A Pastoral (p. 32), a very elaborate composition which looks like a copy of an oil-painting, Fallen in the Night (p. 97), The Curate of Suverdsio (p. 333), The Aspen (p. 401), Rhoda (p. 520), and Olive Shand's Partner (p. 774), with the not very important Sheep and Goats wrongly attributed to Sandys, two decorated pages by John Leighton, one drawing by E. W. Cooke and five by T. Graham, complete the year's record.
The volume for 1864 is distinctly less interesting. Nevertheless it holds some fine things. Notably five Millais', including Oh! the Lark (p. 65), A Scene for a Study (p. 161), Polly (p. 248), (a baby-figure kneeling by a bed, which has been republished elsewhere more than once), The Bridal of Dandelot (p. 304), and Prince Philibert (p. 481), another very popular childish subject, a small girl with a small boy holding a toy-boat. Frederick Walker, in his illustrations to Mrs. Henry Wood's novel, Oswald Cray (pp. 32–129, 202, 286, 371, 453, 532, and 604), shows great dramatic insight, and a certain domestic charm, which has caused the otherwise not very entrancing story to linger in one's memory in a way quite disproportionate to its merits. The remaining illustrations to Oswald Cray are by R. Barnes (pp. 691, 761, 827), the same artist contributing also Grandmother's Snuff, (p. 411), A Burn Case (p. 568), A Lancashire Doxology, (p. 585), Blessed to Give (p. 641), and The Organ Fiend (p. 697). M. J. Lawless is responsible for only one subject, a study of a man and a harpsichord, The Player and the Listeners; in this case, as, on turning over the pages, you re-read a not very noteworthy poem, you find it has lingered in memory merely from its association with a picture. Arthur Hughes has a graceful design, At the Sepulchre (p. 728), which seems to have lost much in the engraving; John Tenniel is also represented by a solitary example, The Way in the Wood (p. 552); G. J. Pinwell, in five full-page drawings, A Christmas Carol (p. 30), The Cottage in the Highlands (p. 427), M'Diarmid explained (p. 504), Malachi's Cove (p. 729), and Mourning (p. 760), sustains his high level. Other subjects, animal pictures by J. Wolf, and figures and landscapes by R. P. Leitch, Florence Claxton, F. Eltze, J. W. Ehrenger, R. T. Pritchett, and W. Colomb, call for no special mention. To John Pettie is attributed a tail-piece of no importance.
With 1865 comes a sudden cessation of interest, as seventy of the illustrations are engraved 'from photographs of oriental scenes to illustrate the editor's series of travel papers,' Eastward. This leaves room merely for pictures to the two serials. Paul Gray contributed those to Charles Kingsley's novel, Hereward, the Last of the English; but the twelve drawings are unequal, and in few show the promise which elsewhere he exhibited so fully. Robert Barnes supplies nine for the story, Alfred Hagart's Household, by Alexander Smith of City Poems fame. These, like all the artist's work, are singularly good of their kind, and show at once his great facility and his comparatively limited range of types.
In 1866, although engravings after photographs do not usurp the space to the extent they did in the previous year, they are present, and the volume, in spite of many excellent drawings, cannot compare in interest with those for 1862–64. The frontispiece, Lilies, is a most charming figure-subject by W. Small, who contributes also three others: The Old Yeomanry Weeks (p. 127), Deliverance (p. 663), a typical example of a landscape with figures in the foreground, which, in the hands of this artist, becomes something entirely distinct from the 'figure with a landscape beyond' of most others; and Carissimo (p. 736), a pair of lovers on an old stone bench, 'just beyond the Julian gate,' which seems as carefully studied as if it were intended for a painting in oils. To compare the average picture to a poem to-day, with the work of Mr. Small and many of his fellows, is not encouraging. Thirty years ago it seemed as if the draughtsman did his best to evolve a perfect representation of the subject of the verses; now one feels doubtful whether the artist does not keep on hand, to be supplied to order, a series of lovers in attitudes warranted to fit, more or less accurately, any verses by any poet. Of course for one picture issued then, a score, perhaps a hundred, are published to-day, and it might be that numerically as many really good drawings appear in the course of a year now, as then; but, while our average rarely descends to the feeblest depths of the sixties, it still more rarely comes near such work as Mr. Small's, whose method is still followed and has influenced more decidedly a larger number of draughtsmen than has that of Millais, Walker, Pinwell, or Houghton.
Studying his work at this date, you realise how very strongly he influenced the so-called 'Graphic School' which supplanted the movement we are considering in the next decade. Despite the appreciation, contemporary and retrospective, already bestowed upon his work, despite the influence—not always for good—upon the younger men, it is yet open to doubt if the genius of this remarkable artist has received adequate recognition. In a running commentary upon work of all degrees of excellence, one is struck anew with its admirably sustained power and its constantly fresh manner.
This digression, provoked by the four delightful 'Small' drawings, must not lead one to overlook the rest of the pictures in Good Words for 1866. They include The Island Church, by J. W. North (p. 393), The Life-Boat, by J. W. Lawson (p. 248), Between the Showers, by W. J. Linton, (p. 424), six illustrations to Ruth Thornbury, by M. E. Edwards, and one by G. J. Pinwell, Bridget Dally's Change. Perhaps the most notable of the year are the five still to be named: A. Boyd Houghton's The Voyage, and a set of four half-page drawings, Reaping, Binding, Carrying, Gleaning, entitled The Harvest (pp. 600, 601). These have a decorative arrangement not always present in the work of this clever artist, and a peculiarly large method of treatment, so much so that if the text informed you that they were pen-sketches from life-size paintings, you would not be surprised. Whether by accident or design, it is curious to discover that the landscapes in each pair, set as they are on pages facing one another, have a look of being carried across the book in Japanese fashion.
1867 might be called the Pinwell year, as a dozen of his illustrations to Dr. George Mac Donald's Guild Court, and one each to A Bird in the Hand and The Cabin Boy, account for nearly half the original drawings in the volume. W. Small is seen in five characteristic designs to Dr. Macleod's The Starling, and one each to Beside the Stile (p. 645) and The Highland Student (p. 663). Arthur Boyd Houghton contributes Omar and the Persian (p. 104) and Making Poetry (p. 248); the first a typical example of his oriental manner, the latter one of his home scenes. S. L. Fildes appears with In the Choir (p. 537), a church interior showing the influence of William Small. F. W. Lawson illustrates Grace's Fortune with three drawings, also redolent of Small, and Fred Walker has Waiting in the Dusk, a picture of a girl in a passage, which does not illustrate the accompanying verses, and has the air of being a picture prepared for a serial some time before, that, having been delayed for some reason, has been served up with a poem that chanced to be in type.
In 1868 Pinwell and Houghton between them are responsible for quite half the separate plates, and Small contributes no less than thirty-four which illustrate delightfully The Woman's Kingdom, a novel by the author of John Halifax, together with a large number of vignetted initials, a feature not before introduced into this magazine. Without forgetting the many admirable examples of Mr. Small's power to sustain the interest of the reader throughout a whole set of illustrations to a work of fiction, one doubts if he has ever surpassed the excellence of these. The little sketches of figures and landscapes in the initials show that he did not consider it beneath his dignity to study the text thoroughly, so as to interpret it with dramatic insight. Your modern chic draughtsman, who reads hastily the few lines underscored in blue pencil by his editor, must laugh at the pains taken by the older men. Indeed, a very up-to-date illustrator will not merely refuse to carry out the author's idea, but prefer his own conception of the character, and say so. That neither course in itself produces great work may be granted, but one cannot avoid the conclusion that if it be best to illustrate a novel (which is by no means certain) that artist is most worthy of praise who does his utmost to present the characters invented by the author. True, that character-drawing with pen and pencil is out of date,—subtle emotion has taken its place,—it is not easy to make a picture of a person smiling outwardly, but inwardly convulsed with conflicting desires; the smile you may get, but the conflicting desires are hard to work in at the same time. Appreciation of Mr. Small's design need not imply censure of the work of others; but, all the same, the cheap half-tone from a wash-drawing, in the current sixpenny magazine, looks a very feeble thing after an hour devoted to the illustrations to Guy Waterman's Maze, The Woman's Kingdom, Griffith Gaunt, and the rest of the serials he illustrated. In this volume two others, The Harvest Home (p. 489) and A Love Letter (p. 618), are also from the same facile hand.
The first of the Boyd Houghtons is a striking design to Tennyson's poem of The Victim (p. 18); neither picture nor poem shows its author at his best. Others signed A. B. H. are: The Church in the Cevennes (pp. 56, 57), Discipleship (p. 112), The Pope and the Cardinals (p. 305), The Gold Bridge (p. 321), The Two Coats (p. 432), How it all happened (seven illustrations), Dance my Children (p. 568), a typical example of the peculiar mannerism of its author, and a Russian Farmyard (p. 760); also a number of small designs to Russian Fables, some of which were illustrated also by Zwecker. G. J. Pinwell illustrates Notes on the Fire (pp. 47, 49), Much work for Little Pay (p. 89), A Paris Pawn-shop (p. 233), Mrs. Dubosq's Daughter (four pictures), Una and the Lion (p. 361), Lovely, yet unloved (pp. 376, 377), Hop Gathering (p. 424), The Quakers in Norway (p. 504). S. L. Fildes has The Captain's Story, a good study of fire-light reflected on three seated figures. Other numbers worth noting are an excellent example of J. Mahoney, Yesterday and To-day (p. 672), Briton Rivière's At the Window (p. 630), R. Buckman's The White Umbrella (p. 473), and seven by Francis Walker to Hero Harold, and one each to Glenalla (p. 384), The Bracelet (p. 753), and Thieves' Quarter (p. 553).
With 1869 we lose sight of many of the men who did so much to sustain the artistic reputation of this magazine. W. Small has but one drawing, The Old Manor-House (p. 849). Hubert Herkomer is represented by The Way to Machaerus (pp. 353, 497). J. Mahoney by five designs to The Staffordshire Potter, Francis Walker by nine to The Connaught Potters and A Burial at Machaerus and Holyhead Breakwater. Arthur Hughes, an infrequent contributor so far, contributes two illustrations to Carmina Nuptialia. F. Barnard has two to House-hunting; F. A. Fraser has no less than seventy-five: thirty-five to Debenham's Vow, and thirty-three to Noblesse Oblige, with seven others, none of them worth reconsideration, although they served their purpose no doubt at the time.
With 1870 we reach the limit of the present chronicle, to which Francis Walker and F. A. Fraser contribute most of the pictures. The most interesting are: Arthur Hughes's Fancy (p. 777) and The Mariner's Cave (p. 865); J. D. Linton, Married Lovers (p. 601); J. Mahoney, The Dorsetshire Hind (p. 21), Ascent of Snowdon (p. 201); and Dame Martha's Well (p. 680), and G. J. Pinwell's three very representative drawings, Rajah playing Chess (p. 211), Margaret in the Xebec (p. 280), and A Winter Song (p. 321).
1871 is memorable for three of Arthur Hughes's designs, made for a projected illustrated edition of Tennyson's Loves of the Wrens, a scheme abandoned at the author's wish; the three drawings cut down from their original size, Fly Little Letter (p. 33), The Mist and the Rain (p. 113), and Sun Comes, Moon Comes (p. 183), are especially dear to collectors of Mr. Hughes's work, which appeared here with the lyrics set to Sir Arthur Sullivan's music; another by the same artist, The Mother and the Angel (p. 648), is also worth noting. One Boyd Houghton, Baraduree Justice (p. 464), twenty-one drawings by W. Small to Katharine Saunders, The High Mills, and one by the same artist to An Unfinished Song (p. 641) are in this volume, besides four by Pinwell, Aid to the Sick (p. 40), The Devil's Boots (p. 217), Toddy's Legacy (p. 336), and Shall we ever meet again? (p. 817).
Without discussing the remaining years of this still flourishing monthly one can hardly omit mention of the volume for 1878, in which William Black's Macleod of Dare is illustrated by G. H. Boughton, R.A., J. Pettie, R.A., P. Graham, R.A., W. Q. Orchardson, R.A., and John Everett Millais, R.A., a group which recalls the glories of its early issues.
This popular illustrated shilling magazine, started in February 1862 under the editorship of Mr. James Hogg, has not received so far its due share of appreciation from the few who have studied the publications of the sixties. Yet its comparative neglect is easily accounted for. It contains, no doubt, much good work—some, indeed, worthy to be placed in the first rank. But it also includes a good deal that, if tolerable when the momentary fashions it depicted were not ludicrous, appears now merely commonplace and absurd. A great artist—Millais especially—could introduce the crinoline and the Dundreary whiskers, so that even to-day their ugliness does not repel you. But less accomplished draughtsmen, who followed slavishly the inelegant mode of the sixties, now stand revealed as merely journalists. Journalism, useful and honourable as its work may be, rarely has lasting qualities which bear revival. Aiming as it did to be a 'smart' and topical magazine, with the mood of the hour reflected in its pages, it remains a document not without interest to the social historian. Amid its purely ephemeral contents there are quite enough excellent drawings to ensure its preservation in any representative collection of English illustrations.
In the first volume for 1862 we find a beautiful Lawless, Beauty's Toilet (p. 265), spoilt by its engraving, the texture of the flesh being singularly coarse and ineffectual. Fred Walker, in The Drawing-room, 'Paris' (i. p. 401), is seen in the unusual and not very captivating mood of a 'society' draughtsman. Ash Wednesday (p. 150), by J. D. Watson, is a singularly fine example of an artist whose work, the more you come across it, surprises you by its sustained power. The frontispiece Spring Days and A Romance and A Curacy (p. 386), are his also. Other illustrations by T. Morten, H. Sanderson, C. H. Bennett, Adelaide Claxton, Julian Portch, and F. R. Pickersgill, R.A., call for no special comment. In the second volume there are two drawings by Lawless, First Night at the Seaside (p. 220) and A Box on the Ear (p. 382); several by Du Maurier, one A Kettledrum (p. 203), peculiarly typical of his society manner; others, Refrezzment (p. 110), Snowdon (p. 481), Oh sing again (p. 433), Jewels (p. 105), and a Mirror Scene (p. 107), which reveal the cosmopolitan student of nature outside the artificial, if admirable, restrictions of 'good form.' The Border Witch (p. 181), by J. E. Millais, A.R.A., is one of the very few examples by the great illustrator in this periodical. J. D. Watson, in Moonlight on the Beach (p. 333), Married2 (p. 449), A Summer Eve (p. 162), On the Coast (p. 321), Holiday Life (p. 339), and How I gained a Wife (p. 551), again surprises you, with regret his admirable work has yet not received fuller appreciation by the public. Walter Crane contributes some society pictures which reveal the admirable decorator in an unusual, and, to be candid, unattractive aspect. Kensington Gardens (p. 172), A London Carnival (p. 79), and Which is Fairest? (p. 242), are interesting as the work of a youth, but betray little evidence of his future power. Robert Barnes, in Dreaming Love and Waiting Duty (p. 564), shows how early in his career he reached the level which he maintained so admirably. A. Boyd Houghton's Finding a Relic (p. 89) is a good if not typical specimen of his work. The designs by E. J. Poynter, Tip Cat (p. 321), I can't thmoke a pipe (p. 318), and Lord Dundreary (pp. 308, 472), are singularly unlike the usual work of the accomplished author of Israel in Egypt. To these one must add the names of C. H. Bennett (Beadles, three), W. M'Connell, C. A. Doyle, George H. Thomas, E. K. Johnson, F. J. Skill, F. Claxton, H. Sanderson, and A. W. Cooper. So that 1862 offers, at least, a goodly list of artists, and quite enough first-rate work to make the volumes worth preserving.
In vol. iii. 1863 there is a drawing, The Confession (p. 37), engraved by Dalziel, that is possibly by Pinwell. Three by T. Morten, After the Opera (p. 39), A Struggle in the Clouds (p. 287), and Ruth Grey's Trial (p. 59), are good, if not the best of this artist's work. Two by George Du Maurier (pp. 209, 216) employ, after the manner of the time, a sort of pictured parable entitled On the Bridge and Under the Bridge. Our Honeymoon, by Marcus Stone, is interesting. Struck Down (p. 106) and The Heiress of Elkington (p. 345), both by J. D. Watson, are as good as his work is usually. A May Morning (p. 428), by George H. Thomas, is also worthy of mention, but the rest, by E. K. Johnson, E. H. Corbould, W. Brunton, W. Cave Thomas, Louis Huard, etc., are not peculiarly attractive.
The concluding volume for 1863 has a very dainty figure, Honey-Dew, by M. J. Lawless (p. 554). The three Du Mauriers are A Little Hop in Harley St. (p. 469), Lords: University Cricket Match (p. 161), and the Worship of Bacchus (p. 192) at first sight so curiously like a Charles Keene that, were it not for the signature, one would distrust the index. Nine drawings by T. Morten to The First Time are good, especially those on p. 180, and A First Attempt, Charles Green (p. 205), is also worth notice. Two drawings by G. J. Pinwell, Wolsey (p. 311) and another (p. 319), are characteristic. For the rest, C. H. Bennett, Louis Huard, Felix Darley, W. M'Connell, W. Brunton, Matt Morgan, Florence Claxton, T. Godwin, Waldo Sargent, George Thomas, and C. A. Doyle, provide entrées and sweets a little flavourless to-day, although palatable enough, no doubt, at the time.
In 1864, M. J. Lawless's Not for You (p. 85); a fine J. D. Watson, The Duet (p. 268); Charley Blake, by G. Du Maurier (p. 385); At Swindon (p. 41), M. E. Edwards, and Little Golden Hair, by R. Barnes, are the only others above the average. Adelaide Claxton, W. M'Connell, H. Sanderson, and J. B. Zwecker provide most of the rest. The second half of the year (vol. vi.) is far better, contains some good work by the 'talented young lady,' M. E. E. (to quote contemporary praise); that her work was talented all students of the 'sixties' will agree. A Holocaust (p. 433), Dangerous (p. 353), Gone (p. 185), Magdalen (p. 553), Milly's Success (p. 269), and Unto this Last (p. 252) are all by Miss Edwards. A fine Millais, Knightly Worth (p. 247), and a good J. D. Watson, Blankton Weir (p. 416), would alone make the volume memorable. C. A. Doyle has some of his best drawings to A Shy Man, and G. H. Thomas and others maintain a good average. Rebecca Solomon has a good full page (p. 541). In the extra Christmas number you will find E. J. Poynter's A Sprig of Holly (p. 28), J. D. Watson's Story of a Christmas Fairy (p. 24), a notable design, besides capital illustrations by Du Maurier, R. Dudley (The Blue Boy), R. Barnes, and Marcus Stone.
1865 is a Du Maurier year. In vol. vii. eleven drawings by this fecund artist on pp. 38, 193, 202, 289, 296, 428, 430, 481, 488, and 697, all excellent examples of his early manner. Arthur Hughes, with The Farewell Valentine (p. 188), makes his first appearance within the pages of London Society. A. W. Cooper, J. Pasquier, T. R. Lamont, and A. Claxton are to the fore, and C. H. Bennett has a series of typical members of various learned societies, which, characteristic as they are, might have their titles transposed without any one being the wiser. In vol. viii. 1865, Paul Gray appears with My Darling (p. 253). T. Morten has three capital drawings: Two Loves and a Life (p. 400), A Romance at Marseilles (p. 549), and Love and Pride (p. 16); and Du Maurier has Codlingham Regatta (p. 284), How not to play Croquet (p. 61), Where shall we go? (p. 17), Old Jockey West (p. 288), The Rev. Mr. Green (p. 122), Furnished Apartments (p. 481), and Ticklish Ground (p. 488). G. J. Pinwell is represented by a solitary example, The Courtship of Giles Languish (p. 384), J. D. Watson by Green Mantle (pp. 385, 388, 389), and M. E. Edwards by Georgie's First Love-letter (p. 152), Faithful and True (p. 263), Firm and Faithful (p. 60). The other contributors are A. W. Bayes (To Gertrude, p. 460), L. C. Henley, T. R. Lamont, J. A. Pasquier, Kate Edwards, W. Brunton, T. S. Seccombe, John Gascoine, etc.
In 1866, vol. ix., George Du Maurier signs the frontispiece, Two to One, and also two illustrations to Much Ado About Nothing (pp. 289, 296), two to Second Thoughts (pp. 385, 391), and two to Queen of Diamonds (pp. 481–488). T. Morten has again three designs: Mrs. Reeve (p. 135), On the Wrekin (p. 1), and The Man with a Dog (p. 239); R. Dudley supplies one, The Tilt-Yard (p. 441), and Kate Edwards one, The June Dream (p. 531). M. Ellen Edwards in three admirable examples, In Peril (p. 450), Mutually Forgiven (p. 228), and The Cruel Letter (p. 364), shows how cleverly she caught the influence in the air. Other artists contribute many drawings of no particular interest.
Vol. x. shows W. Small with two drawings, Agatha (p. 160) and The Reading of Locksley Hall (p. 8). It is curious to see how the sentimentality of the poem has influenced the admirable draughtsman, who is not here at his best. Paul Gray has also two, An English October (p. 289) and To a Flirt (p. 373); G. Du Maurier is represented by one only, Life in Lodgings (p. 516); J. G. Thompson by one also, Caught at Last (p. 80); T. Morten again contributes three: Marley Hall (p. 560), May's Window (p. 432), and The Trevillians' Summer Trip (p. 124); A. Boyd Houghton is represented by Ready for Supper (p. 146), and M. E. Edwards by two drawings to Something to My Advantage (pp. 481–488). The Christmas number contains one Boyd Houghton, The Christmas Tree (p. 80); a J. D. Watson, Given back on Christmas Morn (p. 63); a very good F. W. Lawson, Did I Offend? (p. 32); a delightful Charles Keene, How I lost my Whiskers (p. 27); Sir Guy's Goblet (p. 16), by M. E. Edwards, and one by George Cruikshank, My Christmas Box, looking curiously out of place here.
In the eleventh volume (1867) the four by W. Small are among the most important. They are A Pastoral Episode (p. 406), Quite Alone (p. 277), The Meeting (p. 163), and Try to Keep Firm (p. 361); a J. D. Watson, Changes (p. 373); a Paul Gray, Goldsmith at the Temple Gate (p. 392); a J. G. Thompson, An Expensive Journey (p. 36); M. E. Edwards's Winding of the Skein (p. 177), and L. C. Henley's How I set about Paying my Debts (p. 388), are all that need be mentioned. In the twelfth volume (1867) A. Boyd Houghton signs a couple of drawings to A Spinster's Sweepstake (pp. 376, 383), G. J. Pinwell supplies two to Beautiful Mrs. Johnson (pp. 136–248), F. W. Lawson two to Dedding Revisited (p. 433), Without Reserve (p. 440), and four to Mary Eaglestone's Lover (pp. 97, 103, 207, 362). Charles Green is responsible for The Meeting at the Play (p. 276), and J. G. Thompson for a series, Threading the Mazy at Islington. The Christmas number is honoured by two fine drawings by Charles Keene (p. 18) and a good double page by J. D. Watson, Christmas at an old Manor-House. Sir John Gilbert, a rare contributor to these pages, is represented by The Rowborough Hollies (p. 41), M. E. Edwards by The Christmas Rose (p. 16), and F. W. Lawson by My Turn Next (p. 73).
With its thirteenth volume (1868) London Society still keeps up to the level it established. Among much that was intended for the moment only there is also work of far more sterling value. Charles Keene, in two drawings for Tomkins' Degree Supper (pp. 224, 232), is seen at his best, and how good that is needs no retelling. Sir John Gilbert, among a new generation, keeps his place as a master, and in four drawings (pp. 113, 249, 314, 429) reveals the superb qualities of his work, coupled, it must be said, with certain limitations which are almost inseparable from rapid production. G. Du Maurier is represented by two, Lift her to it (p. 324) and The White Carnation (p. 558). The inscription of Expectation (p. 360), by 'the late M. J. Lawless', marks the final discharge of an illustrator who did much to impart permanent interest to the magazine. It is always a regret to find that Mr. Sandys chose other fields of work, and that death withdrew Lawless so soon; for these two, not displaying equal power, together with Walter Crane maintained the decorative ideal through a period when it was unpopular with the public and apparently found little favour in editors' eyes. M. E. Edwards's My Valentine (p. 114) and Married on her tenth Birthday (p. 206). To this list must be added W. Small, with a delightful out-of-doors study, 'You did not come' (p. 368); G. B. Goddard with some capital 'animal' pictures: Spring of Life (p. 353), Buck Shooting (p. 72), and Dogs of Note (pp. 75, 179); Wilfrid Lawson, A Spring-tide Tale (p. 472); F. Barnard, A Bracing Morning (p. 60); A. W. Cooper, The Old Seat (p. 268); and others by Tom Gray, J. G. Thomson, W. L. Thomas, J. A. Pasquier, W. S. Gilbert, S. E. Illingworth, Rice, W. Brunton, H. French, A. Crowquill, Edwin J. Ellis, Fane Wood, and Isaac L. Brown. Vol. xiv., the second of 1868, contains J. D. Watson's The Oracle (p. 457); W. Small's The Lights on Gwyneth's Head (p. 165); A. Boyd Houghton, The Turn of the Tide (p. 458); John Gilbert's Cousin Geoffrey's Chamber (Frontispiece), and Box and Cox in Bay of Bengal (p. 392); Birket Foster's The Falconer's Lay, probably engraved from a water-colour drawing (p. 529); Wilfrid Lawson's Crush-room (p. 140); For Charity's Sake (p. 112); Behind the Scenes (p. 141), The Gentle Craft (p. 86), and The Golden Boat (p. 579), with many others by the regular contributors. In the Christmas number we find Linley Sambourne, whose work is encountered rarely outside the pages of Punch, with a design for a Christmas Day Costume (p. 17); Charles Keene, with two drawings for Our Christmas Turkey (pp. 44, 46); G. B. Goddard's full-page, Knee-deep (p. 32); J. D. Watson's Aunt Grace's Sweetheart (p. 19) and The Two Voices (p. 86) deserve noting.
In 1869 Wilfrid Lawson illustrates Whyte-Melville's M. or N., and has several other full-page drawings in his best vein (pp. 8, 48, 89, 128, 152, 232, 307, 467, 540); J. Mahoney is first met here with Officers and Gentlemen (p. 284), and J. D. Watson supplies the frontispiece to vol. xv., Bringing Home the Hay, and also that to vol. xvi., Second Blossom. In this latter Wilfrid Lawson has illustrations to M. or N. (pp. 156, 193, 236, 386); T. Morten, a powerful drawing, Winter's Night (p. 550); G. B. Goddard, The Sportman's Resolve (p. 528). The other artists, including some new contributors, are M. A. Boyd, Horace Stanton, E. J. Ellis, T. Sweeting, James Godwin, F. Roberts, A. W. Cooper, L. Huard, and B. Ridley. The Christmas number for 1869 contains a good Charles Keene, The Coat with the Fur Lining (pp. 1, 6); Gilbert's Secret of Calverly Court (p. 4); M. E. Edwards's How the Choirs were Carolling (p. 84); and J. Mahoney's Mr. Daubarn (p. 49), with others of no particular importance.
The numbers for 1870 contain, inter alia, in the first half-year, a good J. D. Watson, Going down the Road (Frontispiece); A Leaf from a Sketch-Book, by Linley Sambourne (printed, like a series this year, on special sheets of thick white paper, as four-page supplements), which contained lighter work by artists of the hour, but none worth special mention.
J. Mahoney's Going to the Drawing-room (p. 321), and Sir Stephen's Question (p. 112), and Spring-time, drawn and engraved by W. L. Thomas (p. 375), are among the most interesting of the ordinary full pages. In the second half of the year, volume 18, there is a full page, Not Mine (p. 501), by Arthur Hughes, which links 1855 to 1870; A. W. Small, After the Season (p. 338); the very unimportant drawing by M. J. Lawless, An Episode of the Italian War (p. 97), has interest as a relic; J. Mahoney contributes two to The Old House by the River (pp. 67, 172), and many others by H. Paterson, Wilfrid Lawson, A. Claxton. This year a Holiday number appeared, with a not very good J. D. Watson, A Landscape Painter (p. 47), and two Francis Walkers, A Summer Holiday and Rosalind and Celia, and other seasonable designs by various hands. The Christmas number has a coloured frontispiece and other designs by H. D. Marks; J. D. Watson illustrates What might have happened (pp. 8, 17, 19); and Charles Keene, Gipsy Moll (pp. 39, 45); Francis Walker has The Star Rider (p. 59) and A Tale (p. 63); F. A. Fraser, typical of the next decade, and one might say, without undue severity, of the decadence also, and F. Gilbert, that facile understudy of Sir John, show examples of work differing as far as it well could; but 1870 is the last stage we need note here in the career of a magazine which did notable service to the cause of illustration, and brought a good many men into notice who have taken prominent part in the history of 'black and white.' Without placing it on a level with Once a Week, it is an interesting collection of representative work, with some really first-rate drawing.