The publications of the Religious Tract Society have employed an enormous mass of illustrations, but as the artist's name rarely appears at the period with which we are concerned, either in the index of illustrations or below the engravings, the task of tracing each to its source would be onerous and the result probably not worth the labour.
Yet, in the volumes of the Leisure Hour for the sixties, there are a few noteworthy pictures which may later on attract collectors to a periodical which so far appealed more, one had thought, to parish workers than to art students.
The 1861 volume starts with the 471st number of the magazine, illustrated by 'Gilbert' (probably Sir John). In 1863 coloured plates are given monthly, three being after originals by the same artist, but, although attributed duly in the advertising pages of its wrapper, the name of the design does not appear in the index. With 1864 a surprise faces you in the illustrations to Hurlock Chase, which are vigorous, dramatic, and excellently composed, full of colour and breadth. That they are by G. Du Maurier internal evidence proves clearly, but there is no formal recognition of the fact. Robert Barnes has a full page, Granny's Portrait (p. 825). Enoch Arden is by 'an amateur whose name the publishers are not able to trace.'4 In 1865 the illustrations to The Awdries, also unsigned, are distinctly interesting; later the well-known monogram of J. Mahoney is met with frequently. In 1866 a series of ten illustrations of the ceremonies of modern Jewish ritual, domestic and ecclesiastical (pp. 72, 167, 216, 328, 376–475, 540, 603, 653, 823) appear. Contrary to the rule usually observed here, they are entitled, 'by S. Solomon.' These are, so far as I know (with four exceptions), the only contributions to periodical literature by Simeon Solomon, an artist who at this date bade fair to be one of the greatest pre-Raphaelite painters. They are distinctly original both in their technical handling and composition, and excellently engraved by Butterworth and Heath. For their sake no collector of the sixties should overlook a book which is to be picked up anywhere at present. The illustrations to The Great Van Bruch property, unsigned, are most probably by J. Mahoney. Others include George III. and Mr. Adams, a full page by C. J. Staniland (p. 494); a series of Pen and Pencil Sketches among the Outer Hebrides, R. T. Pritchett; Finding the body of William Rufus, J. M. In 1867 J. Mahoney illustrates the serial, The Heiress of Cheevely Dale, and contributes a full page, The Blue-Coat Boy's Mother (p. 812); Whymper has two series, On the Nile and A trip through the Tyrol, both oddly enough attributed to him in the index. Silent, with scarce an exception, as regards other artists, the sentence, 'engraved by Whymper,' finds a place each time. In 1868 are more Mahoneys; in 1869 Charles Green illustrates the serial.
This magazine, uniform with the Leisure Hour in style and general arrangement, is hardly of sufficient artistic interest to need detailed comment here. Started in 1852 it relied, like its companion, on Gilbert and other less important draughtsmen. In the sixties it was affected a little by the movement. In 1863 there is one design by G. J. Pinwell, The German Band (p. 753), several by C. Green, and one probably by Du Maurier (p. 513), who has also six most excellent drawings to The Artist's Son in the number for January, and one each to short stories, John Henderson and Siller and Gowd, later in the year. A serial in 1865 and one in 1866 are both illustrated by J. Mahoney; and, in the latter year, W. Small supplies drawings to another story. Beyond a full page, obviously by R. Barnes, there is nothing else peculiarly interesting in 1866; in the 1867 volume F. W. Lawson and Charles Green contribute a good many designs. In 1868 S. L. Fildes has one full page, St. Bartholomew (p. 329), and F. A. F. appears; in 1869 Charles Green is frequently encountered, but the magazine is not a very happy hunting-ground for our purpose.
Serial issues of Cassell's History of England, the Family Bible, and other profusely illustrated works might also repay a close search, but, as a rule, the standard is too ordinary to attract any but an omnivorous collector. Still, men of considerable talent are among the contributors, (Sir) John Gilbert for instance, and others like H. C. Selous, Paolo Priolo, who never fell below a certain level of respectability.
Golden Hours, a semi-religious monthly, started in 1864 as a penny magazine. In 1868 its price was raised to sixpence, and among its artist-contributors we find M. E. Edwards, R. Barnes, and A. Boyd Houghton (represented once only) with An Eastern Wedding (p. 849). In 1869 Towneley Green, C. O. Murray, and others appear, but the magazine can hardly be ranked as one representative of the period. Nor is it essential to record in detail the mass of illustrations in the penny weeklies and monthlies—to do so were at once impossible and unnecessary; nor the mass of semi-religious periodicals such as Our Own Fireside and The Parish Magazine, which rarely contain work that rises above the dull average.
The art of this once popular magazine may be dismissed very briefly. J. G. Thomson made a lot of designs to Silas the Conjuror and other serials. R. Dudley, a conscientious draughtsman whose speciality was mediæval subjects, illustrated its historical romances with spirit and no little knowledge of archæological details. A. W. Bayes, J. A. Pasquier, and others adorned its pages; but from 1863 to its death it contains nothing interesting except to a very rabid collector.
This well-intentioned periodical (Routledge, 1863, etc.), except for certain early works by Walter Crane, would scarce need mention here. Its wrapper for 1865 onwards was from a capital design by Walter Crane, who contributed coloured frontispieces and titles to the 1864 and 1865 volumes. C. H. Bennett illustrated his own romance of The Young Munchausen. In 1867 it called itself The Young Gentleman's Magazine; an heraldic design by J. Forbes Nixon, with the shields of the four great public schools, replaced the Crane cover. T. Morten, M. W. Ridley, and others contributed. A. Boyd Houghton illustrated Barford Bridge, its serial for 1866, and Walter Crane performed the same offices to Mrs. Henry Wood's Orville College in 1867. These few facts seem to comprise all of any interest.
The sixpenny magazine for children, edited by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, issued its first number, May 1866. The artists who contributed include F. Gilbert, J. A. Pasquier, T. Morten, M. E. Edwards, E. Griset, F. W. Lawson, E. H. Wehnert, A. W. Bayes, A. W. Cooper, and others. There are two drawings by George Cruikshank, and later on Randolph Caldecott will be found. In both cases the illustrations were for Mrs. Ewing's popular stories, which had so large a sale, reprinted in volume-form. Neither in the drawings nor in their engraving do you find anything else which is above the average of its class.
Two other magazines remain to be noticed out of their chronological order, both of little intrinsic importance, but of peculiar value to collectors.
A weekly periodical the size of the London Journal, and not more attractive in its appearance, nor better printed, began with No. 1, October 1, 1859, and ceased to exist early in the following year; probably before the end of January, since the British Museum copy in monthly parts is inscribed 'discontinued' on the part containing the December issues. That a complete set is not in our great reference library is a matter for regret; for the first published illustration by Fred Walker, which was issued in Everybody's Journal, January 14, must needs have been in the missing numbers. Those which are accessible include drawings by (Sir) John Gilbert, T. Morten, and Harrison Weir, none of peculiar interest. Among the names of the contributors will be found several that have since become widely known.
This twopenny monthly magazine, which is probably as unfamiliar to those who read this notice as it was to me until a short time since, was published by Virtue and Co., the first number appearing in January 1861. It contains many designs by J. Portch, F. J. Skill, M. S. Morgan, E. Weedar, W. M'Connell, P. Justyne, and W. J. Linton, none being particularly well engraved. But it contains also Walter Crane's first published drawing—a man in the coils of a serpent (p. 327), illustrating one of a series of articles, Among the Mahogany Cutters, which is not very important; another a few pages further on in the volume is even less so. Collectors will also prize A Nocturne by G. Du Maurier, and some designs by T. Morton (sic). The Christmas number contains a delightful design by A. Boyd Houghton, The Maid of the Wool-pack, and another drawing by Du Maurier. The publication ceased, according to a note in the British Museum copy, in May 1862. Among rarities of the sixties this magazine may easily take a high place, for one doubts if there are many copies in existence. Should the mania for collecting grow, it is quite possible this volume, of such slight intrinsic value, will command record prices.
These were of two sorts, a badly printed shilling annual, which appealed to children of all ages, and a six-shilling variety, which appealed to those of a smaller growth. In the higher-priced volumes for 1866 T. Morten, J. G. Thomson, and J. A. Pasquier appear. In the shilling issue, an independent publication, are more or less execrably engraved blocks, after C. H. Bennett, G. Cruikshank, Jun., and others who would probably dislike to have their misdeeds chronicled. These publications added to the gaiety of nations, but when they ceased no eclipse was reported. Yet a patient collation of their pages renewed a certain boyish, if faded, memory of their pristine charm, which the most cautious prophet may assert can never be imparted anew to any reader. Kingston's Annuals and Peter Parley's Annuals, also revisited, left impressions too sad to be expressed here. Nor need Routledge's Christmas Annuals be noticed in detail. Tom Hood's Comic Annuals, which contained much work typical of the seventies, although it began its long career in 1869, includes so little work by heroes of the 'sixties' that it need not be mentioned.
The mass of penny magazines for children do not repay a close search. Here and there you will find a design by a notable hand, but it is almost invariably ruined by poor engraving; so that it were kinder not to attempt to dispel the obscurity which envelops the juvenile 'goody-goody' literature of thirty years ago.
PUNCH.—It is impossible to overlook the famous weekly that from its own pages could offer a fairly representative group of the work of any decade since it was established; a paper which, if it has not attracted every great illustrator, could nevertheless select a hundred drawings from its pages that might be fairly entered in competition with any other hundred outside them. But, at the same time, to give a summary of its record during the sixties, even as compressed as those of The Cornhill Magazine, Once a Week, etc., would occupy more pages than all the rest put together. Fortunately the labour has been accomplished quite recently. Mr. M. H. Spielmann's History of Punch supplies a full and admirably digested chronicle of its artistic achievements. So that here (excluding the staff-artists, Sir John Tenniel, Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Linley Sambourne, and the rest, and the greatest Punch artist, Charles Keene, who was never actually upon its staff) it will be sufficient to indicate where admirers of the men of the sixties may find examples of their work for Punch; Sir John Millais appears twice upon p. 115 of vol. xliv. (1863) with a design to Mokeanna, Mr. F. C. Burnand's laughable parody, and again with Mr. Vandyke Brown's sons thrashing the lay figure, in the Almanac for 1865, a drawing that faces, oddly enough, one of Fred Walker's two contributions, The New Bathing Company, Limited, Specimens of Costumes to be worn by the Shareholders. The other Fred Walker, Captain Jinks of the 'Selfish,' is on p. 74 of vol. lvii. 1869; George J. Pinwell is an infrequent contributor from 1863 to 1869; Walter Crane appears but once, p. 33 (vol. li. 1866); Frederick Shields's three initials, which appeared in 1870, were drawn in 1867; M. J. Lawless is represented by six drawings, which appeared between May 1860 and January 1861; F. W. Lawson has some initials and one vignette in the volume for 1867; Ernest Griset appears in the Almanac for 1867; J. G. Thomson, for twenty years cartoonist of Fun, is an occasional contributor between 1861 and 1864; H. S. Marks appears in 1861, and Paul Gray, also with a few initials and 'socials,' up to 1865; Charles Keene's first drawing for Punch is in 1852, he was 'called to the table' in 1860, and on a few occasions supplied the political cartoon. The mass of his work within the classic pages is too familiar to need more than passing reference. The first drawing by 'George Louis Palmella Busson Du Maurier' appears in 1860, the Legend of Camelot, with five drawings, which are already historic, in 1866. These delicious parodies (here reproduced) of the pre-Raphaelite manner are as fascinating to-day as when they first appeared.
This popular humorous penny weekly, which is still running, would be forever memorable as the birthplace of the famous Bab ballads, with W. S. Gilbert's own thumb-nail sketches: yet it would be foolish to rank him as an illustrator, despite the grotesque humour of these inimitable little figures. The periodical, not (I believe) at first under the editorship of Tom Hood, the younger, began in September 21, 1861. The mass of illustrations must be the only excuse for failing to include an orderly summary; yet there is not, and there is certainly no necessity for, an elaborate chronicle of the paper, like Mr. Spielmann's admirable monograph in Punch. But those who are curious to discover the work of less-known men of the sixties will find plenty to reward their search. A clever parody of Millais' pre-Raphaelite manner is given as a tail-piece to the preface of vol. i. A. Boyd Houghton supplied the cartoons for a short period, November 1866 to April 6, 1867. At least those signed A. H. are attributed to him, and the first would almost suffice by itself to decide it, did any doubt exist. Another cartoonist, who signed his work with the device of a hen, is very freely represented. F. Barnard was also cartoonist for a long time—1869 onwards—and J. G. Thomson, for a score of years, did excellent work in the same department. The authorship of many of the drawings scattered through its pages is easily recognised by their style—others, as for instance one on page five of the Almanac for 1866, puzzle the student. It looks like a Paul Gray, but the monogram with which it is signed, although it is indecipherable, is certainly not 'P. G.' W. J. Wiegand, W. Brunton, H. Sanderson, Matt Stretch, Lieut. Seccombe, L. C. Henley, F. S. Walker, and F. W. Lawson (see for instance, Almanac for 1865, p. 11) contributed a great many of the 'socials' to the early volumes.
Then, as now, you find unconscious or deliberate imitations of other artists' mannerisms. A rash observer might attribute drawings here to C. Keene (Almanac for 1865, vi.), and credit Tenniel with the title-page to vol. iv. N.S.
Still, as a field to discover the work of young artists who afterwards become approximately great, Fun is not a very happy hunting-ground. Despite some notable exceptions, its illustrators cannot be placed even upon the average of the period that concerns us; the presence of a half a dozen or so of first-rate men hardly makes a set of the comic paper essential to a representative collection. After renewed intimacy with its pages there is a distinct feeling of disappointment. That its drawings pleased you mightily, and seemed fine stuff at the time, may be true; but it only proves that the enjoyment of a schoolboy cannot be recaptured in after-life if the quality of the drawing be too poor to sustain the weight of old-fashioned dress and jokes whose first sparkle has dimmed beyond restoration.
The twopenny rival to Punch, began life on May 1, 1867. Although Matt Morgan supplied many of the early cartoons and 'socials,' the really admirable level it reached in the eighties is not foreshadowed even dimly by its first volumes. With vol. ii. J. Proctor, an admirable draughtsman, despite his fondness for the decisive, unsympathetic line which Sir John Tenniel has accustomed us to consider part and parcel of a political cartoon, is distinctly one of the best men who have worked this particular form of satire. Afterwards 'W. B.' contributed many. The mass of work, in the volumes which can be considered as belonging to the period covered by this book, contains hardly a single drawing to repay the weary hunt through their pages. Yet the issues of a later decade are as certain to be prized by students of the 'eighties' as the best periodicals of the sixties are by devotees of that period.
Beginning in October 1869, yet another paper on similar lines, ran a short but interesting career of twelve weeks, and continued, in a commonplace way, for a year or two longer. The reason the first dozen issues are worth notice here is that the illustrations are all by 'graphotype process' (which must not be confused with the far earlier 'glyptography'), and so appeal to students of the technique of illustration. The principle of the graphotype process, it is said, was discovered accidentally. The inventor was removing, with a wet camel-hair brush, the white enamel from the face of a visiting-card, when he noticed that the printing on it was left in distinct relief. After many experiments the idea was developed, and a surface of metal was covered with a powdered chalky substance, upon which the drawing was made with a silicate ink which hardened the substance wherever it was applied. The chalk was then brushed away and the drawing left in low but distinct relief on the metal-plate, from which electrotypes could be taken in the usual way. The experiment gained some commercial success, and quite a notable group of artists experimented with it for designs to an edition of Dr. Isaac Watts's Divine and Moral Songs, a most curious libretto for an artistic venture. In Punch and Judy the blocks are by no means bad as regards their reproduction. Despite the very mediocre drawing of the originals, they are nevertheless preferable to the cheap wood-engravings of their contemporaries. After its change, 'G. O. M.' (if one reads the initials aright), or 'C. O. M.,'contributes some average cartoons. When it first appeared, at least one schoolboy was struck with the curious difference of technique that the illustrations showed, and from that time onwards had his curiosity aroused towards process-work. Therefore, this lapse into anecdotage, in the short record of a venture otherwise artistically unworthy to be noticed here, may be pardoned.
This, another periodical of the same class, started on September 12, 1868, but unlike its fellows relied at first solely upon a double-page political cartoon. From the second number these were contributed by J. Proctor until and after April 17, 1869, when other pictures were admitted. With the 31st of July another hand replaces Proctor's vigorous work. The volume for 1870 contains many woodcuts (I use the word advisedly), unintentionally primitive, that should please a certain school to-day. Whether the journal ceased with its fourth volume, or lasted into the seventies, the British Museum catalogue does not record, nor is it worth while to pursue the inquiry further.
To notice this important paper in a paragraph is little better than an insult, and yet between a full monograph (already anticipated partially in Mr. Mason Jackson's The Pictorial Press) and a bare mention there is no middle course. As a rule the drawings are unsigned, and not attributed to the artists in the index.
The Christmas numbers, however, often adopt a different method, and print the draughtsman's name below each engraving, which is almost always a full page. In that for 1865 we find Alfred Hunt, George Thomas, S. Read, and John Gilbert, all regular contributors, well represented. In the Christmas number of 1866 there is Boyd Houghton's Child's Christmas Carol, and other drawings by Corbould, S. Read, J. A. Pasquier, Charles Green, Matt Morgan, and C. H. Bennett.
The Illustrated Times, first issued in October 1855, maintained a long and honourable effort to achieve popularity. A new series was started in 1867, but apparently also failed to gain a footing. The artists included many men mentioned frequently in this volume. The non-topical illustrations occasionally introduced were supplied chiefly by M. E. Edwards, Adelaide and Florence Claxton, Lieut. Seccombe, P. Skelton, and T. Sulman. Yet a search through its pages revealed nothing sufficiently important to notice in detail.
The Illustrated Weekly News and The Penny Illustrated Weekly News are other lost causes, but the Penny Illustrated Paper, which started in 1861, is still a flourishing concern; yet it would be superfluous to give a detailed notice of its work. Pan (date uncertain5), a short-lived sixpenny weekly. Its cover was from a design by Jules Chéret. Facsimiles of A Head by Lord Leighton, and Proud Maisie by Frederick Sandys, appeared among its supplements.
That this admirably conducted illustrated weekly revolutionised English illustration is granted on all sides. Its influence for good or ill was enormous. With its first number, published on December 4, 1869, we find a definite, official date to close the record of the 'sixties'; one by mere chance, chronologically as well as technically, appropriate. Of course the break was not so sudden as this arbitrary limit might suggest. The style which distinguished the Graphic had been gradually prepared before, and if Mr. William Small is credited with the greatest share in its development, such a statement, incomplete as most generalities must needs be, holds a good part of the truth, if not the whole. The work of Mr. Small introduced new qualities into wood-engraving; which, in his hands and those of the best of his followers, grew to be meritorious, and must needs place him with those who legitimately extended the domain of the art of drawing for the engraver. But to discuss the style which succeeded that of the sixties would be to trespass on new ground, and that while the field itself is all too scantily searched. Mr. Ruskin dubbed the new style 'blottesque,' but, as we have seen, he was hardly more enamoured of the manner that immediately preceded it.
Many of the surviving heroes of the sixties contributed to the Graphic. Charles Green appears in vol. i. with Irish Emigrants, G. J. Pinwell with The Lost Child (January 8, 1870), A. Boyd Houghton has a powerful drawing, Night Charges, and later, the marvellous series of pictures recording his very personal visit to America.
William Small, R. W. Macbeth, S. L. Fildes, Hubert Herkomer, and a crowd of names, some already mentioned frequently in this book, bore the weight of the new enterprise. But a cursory sketch of the famous periodical would do injustice to it. The historian of the seventies will find it takes the place of Once a Week as the happy hunting-ground for the earliest work of many a popular draughtsman and painter—that is to say, the earliest work after his student and experimental efforts. To declare that it still flourishes, and with the Daily Graphic, its offspring, keeps still ahead of the popular average, is at once bare truth and the highest compliment which need be paid.
The illustrated weeklies in the sixties were almost as unimportant, relatively speaking, as are the illustrated dailies to-day. Yet to say that the weeklies did fair to monopolise illustration at the present time is a common truth, and, remembering what the Daily Graphic and the Daily Chronicle have already accomplished, to infer that the dailies will do likewise before 1900 has attained its majority is a prophecy that is based upon a study of the past.
To draw up a complete list, with the barest details of title, artist, author, and publisher of the books in the period with which this volume is concerned would be unnecessary, and well-nigh impossible. The English Catalogue, 1863–1872, covering but a part of the time, claims to give some 30,000 entries. Many, possibly a large majority, of these books are not illustrated; but on the other hand, the current periodicals not included contain thousands of pictures. The following chapters cannot even claim to mention every book worth the collector's notice, and refer hardly at all to many which seemed to the compiler to represent merely the commercial average of their time. Whether this was better or worse than the commercial average to-day is of no moment. Nearly all of the books mentioned have been referred to personally, and the facts reported at first hand. In spite of taxing the inexhaustible courtesy of the officials of the British Museum to the extent of eighty or more volumes during a single afternoon, I cannot pretend to have seen the whole output of the period, for it is not easy to learn from the catalogue those particulars that are needed to identify which books are illustrated.
So far as we are concerned here, the interest of the book lies solely in its illustrations, but the catalogue may not even record the fact that it contains any, much less attribute them to their author. Of those in which the artist's share has been recognised by the publisher in his announcements, I have done my best to find the first edition of each. By dint of patient wading through the advertisements, and review columns of literary journals, trade periodicals, and catalogues, a good many have turned up which had otherwise escaped notice; although for the last twenty years at least I have never missed an opportunity of seeing every illustrated book of the sixties, with a view to this chronicle, which had been shaping itself, if not actually begun, long before any work on modern English illustrators had appeared. When a school-boy I made a collection of examples of the work of each artist whose style I had learned to recognise, and some of that material gathered together so long ago has been of no little use now. These personal reminiscences are not put forward by way of magnifying the result; but rather to show that even with so many years' desultory preparation the digesting and classification of the various facts has proved too onerous. A staff of qualified assistants under a capable director would be needed to accomplish the work as thoroughly as Mr. Sidney Lee has accomplished a not dissimilar, if infinitely more important, task—The Dictionary of National Biography. A certain proportion of errors must needs creep in, and the possible errors of omission are even more to be dreaded than those of commission. A false date, or an incorrect reference to a given book or illustration, is easily corrected by a later worker in the same field; but an omission may possibly escape another student of the subject as it escaped me. As a rule, in a majority of cases—so large that it is practically ninety-nine per cent., if not more—the notes have been made side by side with the publication to which they refer. But in transcribing hasty jottings errors are apt to creep in, and despite the collation of these pages when in proof by other hands, I cannot flatter myself that they are impeccable. For experience shows that you never open the final printed text of any work under your control as editor or author, but errors, hitherto overlooked, instantly jump from the page and force themselves on your notice. An editor of one of the most widely circulated of all our magazines confesses that he has made it a rule never to glance at any number after it was published. He had too often suffered the misery of being confronted with obvious errors of fact and taste which no amount of patient care on his part (and he is a most conscientious workman) had discovered, until it was too late to rectify them. In the matter of dates alone a difficulty meets one at first sight. Many books dated one year were issued several months before the previous Christmas, and are consequently advertised and reviewed in the year before the date which appears upon their title-page. Again, many books, and some volumes of magazines (Messrs. Cassell and Co.'s publications to wit), bear no date. 'Women and books should never be dated' is a proverb as foolish as it is widely known. Yet all the same, inaccuracy of a few months is of little importance in this context; a book or a picture does not cease to exist as soon as it is born, like the performance of an actor or a musician. Consequently, beyond its relative place as evidence of the development or decline of the author's talent, it is not of great moment whether a book was issued in 1869 or 1870, whether a drawing was published in January or February. But for those who wish to refer to the subjects noted, the information has been made as exact as circumstances permitted. When, however, a book has been reissued in a second, or later edition, with no reference to earlier issues, it is tempting to accept the date on its title-page without question. One such volume I traced back from 1868 to 1849, and for all I know the original may have been issued some years earlier; for the British Museum library is not complete; every collector can point with pride to a few books on his shelves which he has failed to discover in its voluminous catalogue.
To select a definite moment to start from is not easy, nor to keep rigidly within the time covered by the dates upon the cover of this book. It is necessary to glance briefly at some work issued before 1855, and yet it would be superfluous to re-traverse ground already well covered in The History of Wood Engraving, by Chatto and Jackson, with its supplementary chapter by H. G. Bohn (in the 1861 edition), in Mr. W. J. Linton's Masterpieces of Engraving, in Mr. Joseph Pennell's two sumptuous editions of Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen (Macmillan), and the same author's Modern Illustrations (Bell), not to mention the many admirable papers read before learned societies by Messrs. W. J. Linton, Comyns Carr, Henry Blackburn, Walter Crane, William Morris, and others. Still less is it necessary to attempt to indorse their arguments in favour of wood-engraving against process, or to repeat those which support the opposite view. So that here, in the majority of cases, the question of the engraver's share has not been considered. Mr. Pennell, for one, has done this most thoroughly, and has put the case for process so strongly, that if any people yet believe a wood-engraving is always something sacred, while a good process block of line work is a mere feeble substitute, there is little hope of convincing them. Here the result has been the chief concern. The object of these notes is not to prove what wood-engraving ruined, or what might or ought to have been, but merely to record what it achieved, without too frequent expression of regret, which nevertheless will intrude as the dominant feeling when you study many of the works executed by even the better class wood-engravers.
One must not overlook the very obvious fact that, in the earlier years, an illustration was a much more serious affair for all concerned than it is to-day. In Jackson's Pictorial Press we find the author says: 'Illustration was so seldom used that the preparation of even a small woodcut was of much moment to all concerned. I have heard William Harvey relate that when Whittingham, the well-known printer, wanted a new cut for his Chiswick Press Series, he would write to Harvey and John Thompson, the engraver, appointing a meeting at Chiswick, when printer, designer, and engraver talked over the matter with as much deliberation as if about to produce a costly national monument. And after they had settled all points over a snug supper, the result of their labours was the production a month afterwards of a woodcut measuring perhaps two inches by three. At that time perhaps only a dozen persons besides Bewick were practising the art of wood-engraving in England.'
But this preamble does not seek to excuse the meagre record it prefaces. A complete bibliography of such a fecund illustrator as Sir John Gilbert would need a volume to itself. To draw up detailed lists of all the various drawings in The Illustrated London News, Punch, and other prominent weeklies, would be a task needing almost as much co-operation as Dr. Murray's great Dictionary. The subject, if it proves to be sufficiently attractive, will doubtless be done piece by piece by future workers. I envy each his easy pleasure of pointing out the shortcomings of this work, for no keener joy awaits the maker of a handbook than gibbeting his predecessors, and showing by implication how much more trustworthy is his record than theirs.
Few artistic movements are so sharply defined that their origin can be traced to a particular moment, although some can be attributed more or less to the influence of one man. Even the pre-Raphaelite movement, clearly distinct as its origin appears at first glance, should not be dated from the formal draft of the little coterie, January 13th, 1851, for, as Mr. W. M. Rossetti writes, 'The rules show or suggest not only what we intended to do, but what had been occupying our attention since 1848. The day when we codified proved also to be the day when no code was really in requisition.' Nor has the autumn 1848 any better claim to be taken as the exact moment, for one cannot overlook the fact that there was Ford Madox Brown, a pre-Raphaelite, long before the pre-Raphaelites, and that Ruskin had published the first volume of Modern Painters. There can be little doubt that it was the influence of the so-called pre-Raphaelites and those in closest sympathy with them, which awakened a new interest in illustration, and so prepared the ground for the men of the sixties; but to confine our notice from 1857 to 1867—a far more accurate period—would be to start without sufficient reference to the work superseded by or absorbed into the later movement. So we must glance at a few of the books which preceded both the Music-master of 1855 and the Tennyson of 1857, either volume, the latter especially, being an excellent point whence to reckon more precisely 'the golden decade of British Art,' as Mr. Pennell terms it so happily.
Without going back too far for our purpose, one of the first books that contains illustrations by artists whose work extended into the sixties (and, in the case of Tenniel, far beyond) is Poems and Pictures, 'A Collection of Ballads, Songs, and Poems illustrated by English Artists' (Burns, 1846). So often was it reprinted that it came as a surprise to discover the first edition was fourteen years earlier than the date which is upon my own copy. Despite the ornamental borders to each page, and many other details which stamp it as old-fashioned, it does not require a rabid apologist of the past to discuss it appreciatively. From the first design by C. W. Cope, to the last, A Storm at Sea, by E. Duncan, both engraved by W. J. Linton, there is no falling off in the quality of the work. The influence of Mulready is discernible, and it seems probable that certain pencil drawings for the Vicar of Wakefield, engraved in facsimile—so far as was within the power of the craftsmen at that time—did much to shape the manner of book-illustrations in the fifties.
Nor does it betray want of sympathy with the artists who were thus influenced to regret that they chose to imitate drawings not intended for illustration, and ignored in very many cases the special technique which employs the most direct expression of the material. In The Mourner, by J. C. Horsley (p. 22), you feel that the engraver (Thompson) has done his best to imitate the softly defined line of a pencil in place of the clearly accentuated line which is most natural in wood. Yet even in this there is scarcely a trace of that elaborate cross-hatching so easily produced in plate-engraving or pen drawing, so tedious to imitate in wood. Another design, Time, by C. W. Cope (p. 88), shows that the same engraver could produce work of quite another class when it was required. Curiously enough, these two, picked at random, reappear in almost the last illustrated anthology mentioned in these chapters, Cassell's Sacred Poems (1867).
Several books earlier in date, including De la Motte Fouqué's Undine, with eleven drawings by 'J. Tenniel, Junr.' (Burns, 1846), and Sintram and his Companions, with designs by H. S. Selous and a frontispiece after Dürer's The Knight and Death need only be mentioned. The Juvenile Verse and Picture Book (Burns, 1848), with many illustrations by Gilbert, Tenniel, 'R. Cruikshank,' Weigall, and W. B. Scott, which was reissued with altered text as Gems of National Poetry (Warne, 1868), and Æsop's Fables (Murray, 1848), with 100 illustrations by Tenniel, deserve a bare mention. Nor should The 'Bon Gaultier' Ballads (Blackwood, 1849) be forgotten. The illustrations by Doyle, Leech, and Crowquill were enormously popular in their day, and although the style of humour which still keeps many of the ballads alive has been frequently imitated since, and rarely excelled, yet its drawings have often been equalled and surpassed, humorous although they are, of their sort.
The Salamandrine, a poem by Charles Mackay, issued in a small quarto (Ingram, Cooke, and Co., 1853), with forty-six designs by John Gilbert, is one of the early volumes by the more fecund illustrators of the century. It is too late in the day to praise the veteran whose paintings are as familiar to frequenters of the Royal Academy now as were his drawings when the Great Exhibition entered a formal claim for the recognition of British Art. Honoured here and upon the Continent, it is needless to eulogise an artist whom all agree to admire. The prolific invention which never failed is not more evident in this book than in a hundred others decorated by his facile pencil, yet it reveals—as any one of the rest must equally—the powerful mastery of his art, and its limitations. Thomson's Seasons, illustrated by the Etching Club (1852), S. C. Hall's Book of British Ballads (1852), an edition of The Arabian Nights, with 600 illustrations by W. Harvey (1852), and Uncle Tom's Cabin, with 100 drawings by George Thomas, can but be named in passing. Gray's Elegy, illustrated by 'B. Foster, G. Thomas, and a Lady,' (Sampson Low), The Book of Celebrated Poems, with eighty designs by Cope, Kenny Meadows, and others (Sampson Low), The Vicar of Wakefield, with drawings by George Thomas, The Deserted Village, illustrated by members of the Etching Club—Cope, T. Creswick, J. C. Horsley, F. Tayler, H. J. Townsend, C. Stenhouse, T. Webster, R.A., and R. Redgrave—all published early in the fifties—may also be dismissed without comment. About the same time the great mental sedative of the period—Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy (Hatchard, 1854)—was reprinted in a stately quarto, with sixty-two illustrations by C. W. Cope, R.A., E. H. Corbould, Birket Foster, John Gilbert, J. C. Horsley, F. R. Pickersgill and others, engraved for the most part by 'Dalziel Bros.' and H. Vizetelly. The dull, uninspired text seems to have depressed the imagination of the artists. Despite the notable array of names, there is no drawing of more than average interest in the volume, except perhaps To-morrow (p. 206), by F. R. Pickersgill, which is capitally engraved by Dalziel and much broader in its style than the rest.
Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (David Bogue, 1854) appears to be the earliest English illustrated edition of any importance of a volume that has been frequently illustrated since. This book is uniform with the Poetical Works of John Milton with 120 engravings by Thompson, Williams, etc., from drawings by W. Harvey, The Works of William Cowper with seventy-five illustrations engraved by J. Orrin Smith from drawings by John Gilbert; Thomson's Seasons with illustrations 'drawn and engraved by Samuel Williams,' and Beattie and Collins' Poems with engravings by the same hand from designs by John Absolon. The title-page of the Longfellow says it is illustrated by 'Jane E. Benham, Birket Foster, etc.' It is odd to find the not very elegant, 'etc.' stands for John Gilbert and E. Wehnert, also to note that the engravers have in each of the above volumes taken precedence of the draughtsman. Except that we miss the pre-Raphaelite group for which we prize the Moxon Tennyson to-day, the ideal of these books is very nearly the same as of that volume. This edition of Longfellow must not be confused with another, a quarto, issued the following year (Routledge, 1855), 'with over one hundred designs drawn by John Gilbert and engraved by the brothers Dalziel.' This notable instance of the variety and inventive power of the artist also shows (in the night pieces especially, pp. 13, 360), that the engraver was trying to advance in the direction of 'tone' and atmospheric effect; and endeavouring to give the effect of a 'wash' rather than of a line drawing or the imitation of a steel engraving. This tendency, which was not the chief purpose of the work of the sixties, in the seventies carried the technicalities of the craft to its higher achievements, or, as some enthusiasts prefer to regard it, to its utter ruin, so that the photographic process-block could beat it on its own ground. But these opposite views have been threshed out often enough without bringing the parties concerned nearer together to encourage a new attempt to reconcile the opposing factions. The Longfellow of 1855 was reissued with the addition of Hiawatha in 1856. Another edition of Hiawatha, illustrated by G. H. Thomas, issued about this time, contains some of his best work.
Allingham's Music-master (Routledge, 1855) is so often referred to in this narrative that its mere name must suffice in this context. But, as the book itself is so scarce, a sentence from its preface may be quoted: 'Those excellent painters' (writes Mr. Allingham), 'who on my behalf have submitted their genius to the risks of wood-engraving, will, I hope, pardon me for placing a sincere word of thanks in the book they have honoured with this evidence through art of their varied fancy.' To this year belongs also The Task, illustrated by Birket Foster (Nisbet, 1855).
Eliza Cook's Poems (Routledge, 1856) is another sumptuously illustrated quarto gift-book with many designs by John Gilbert, J. Wolf, Harrison Weir, J. D. Watson, and others, all engraved by Dalziel Brothers. A notable drawing by H. H. Armstead, The Trysting Place (p. 363), deserves republication. In this year appeared also the famous edition of Adams's Sacred Allegories with a number of engravings from original drawings by C. W. Cope, R.A., J. C. Horsley, A.R.A., Samuel Palmer, Birket Foster, and George C. Hicks. The amazing quality of the landscapes by Samuel Palmer stood even the test of enormous enlargement in lantern slides, when Mr. Pennell showed them at his lectures on the men of the sixties; had W. T. Green engraved no other blocks, he might be ranked as a great craftsman on the evidence of these alone.
In George Herbert's Poetical Works (Nisbet, 1856), with designs by Birket Foster, John Clayton, and H. N. Humphreys, notwithstanding the vitality of the text, the drawings are sicklied over with the pale cast of religious sentimentality which has ruined so much religious art in England. A draughtsman engaged on New Testament subjects of that time rarely forgot Overbeck, Raphael, or still more 'pretty' masters. In the religious illustrations of the period many landscapes are included, some of them exquisite transcripts of English scenery, others of the 'Oriental' order dear to the Annuals. The delightful description of one of these imaginary scenes, by Leland, 'Hans Breitmann,' will come to mind, when he says of its artist that