Forty Years Of Spy Part 13

Mr. Comyns Carr, an old and valued friend of mine, always divided my work into two cla.s.ses, one of which he was pleased to term the "_beefs_" and the other the "_porks_." He begged me, when I was painting his own cartoon, to put him among the "porks." I promised I would and did my best to prevent his face from becoming too florid.

But apparently my labours were in vain, or else the lithographers failed me, for after the drawing was published, Comyns Carr greeted me at the club with the words, "Oh, Leslie! I'm among the 'beefs' after all!"

I regretted the fact, but unfortunately the fault was not mine. The reproduction was limited to the number of colours, so that there was no happy medium for the lithographers; if the reproducers wanted a florid effect, the face appeared red all over, if the drawing was a "pork" with a red rose in his coat and a faint colour in his cheeks, they made the face all red and used the same colour for the rose.

OXFORD DONS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DR JOWITT (_Master of Balliol_).

1876.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DR SPOONER (_Dean, New College_).

1898.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROFESSOR ROBINSON ELLIS (Professor of Latin).

1894.]

One of the difficulties of my position as a caricaturist for a newspaper came home to me on the occasion of the visit to my studio of a Queen's Messenger.

I was extremely busy at the time, and was, luckily for me, quite unable to accede to his request that I should immediately make a drawing of him, as he was shortly to appear in _Vanity Fair_. Making an appointment for the next day he took his departure. I _called_ upon my editor on the following day, and while in conversation I remembered my engagement, and breaking it off suddenly, prepared to go.

"Who is your sitter?" said he.

I referred to the gentleman in question, who I imagined had been sent to me from my editor.

"I won't have that man. I have made no arrangement. He's been bothering me to put him in for years."

"What shall I do then?" I said. "This is very awkward for me."

"Tell him we've got too many Queen's Messengers already."

I hurried off and found my poor rejected sitter waiting with a thick stick, the presence of which he began to explain before I could make my apologies to him. He told me that he had bought the weapon, not in self-defence, or with an idea of attack, but because he thought it was most characteristic of him.

I then had to interrupt him with my excuses which was a most disagreeable task.

"Oh," he said, "that's only an excuse for not putting me in. I see it."

He flushed very red and showed a little temper, for he had been endeavouring for some time to be placed upon the list of subjects in _Vanity Fair_ and without success.

After some discussion, during which, in some sympathy with his annoyance, I anxiously watched the stick, he slunk out of the studio with an air greatly different from the spruce and upright demeanour of his arrival.[4]

An awkward predicament in which I was the innocent arbitrator came about through a very gross caricature by another artist (I do not remember whom) of Mr. Pigott the censor of plays and a very old friend; I believe it was unpleasant, for he wrote to me and said he wished he had been put in my hands. I do not know whether I am wrong in saying so, but it was rather odd his writing to ask my advice, for he was strongly in favour of suing _Vanity Fair_ for libel. At all events I called upon him and advised him to ignore the matter. He rea.s.sured me by saying, "Well, I've already come to that conclusion myself since writing my letter. I've seen my solicitors who gave me the same advice, but I still wish I'd been done by you."

A friend of mine came to me once and said, "You simply must make a drawing of 'Piggy' Palk, he's such a splendid subject--have you ever seen him? I'm sure if you had you couldn't resist making a caricature of him."

"Very well," I said. "Give me an opportunity of meeting him--what's he like?"

"I must introduce you to him first, we'll get up a little dinner--he shall be there--at the Raleigh Club. We'll introduce you as 'Mr.

Spy'--don't forget that he wears an eyegla.s.s, because he's nothing without it."

When the evening came I was placed on the opposite side of the table to the young man, where I had a good opportunity of studying his features, which were diminutive, with the exception of his ears which were enormous. I waited and waited for the eyegla.s.s to appear (for as my friend had truly said, his face was nothing without it), and finally got up from dinner full of disappointment. There were several other guests who were quite aware of my ident.i.ty, and all attempted to help me in my object, but without success, a fact which created no little amus.e.m.e.nt among us.

My host pressed his friend to join our party in his rooms, and "Piggy," as his friends called him, to my horror, said that he had another engagement; when, however, he was informed that there would be attractive young ladies among the party, he altered his mind. On arriving we were received by these charming ladies, who contributed to the evening's fun by entering very completely into the open secret of my visit. We had a piano and plenty of fun and chaff, and under cover of the evening's amus.e.m.e.nt I took in "Piggy" Palk. I was introduced to the most attractive of the ladies and enlisted her services on my behalf over the eyegla.s.s. My friend at once introduced "Piggy" to her, and she induced him to produce the eyegla.s.s. After some preliminary conversation she began:

"Oh, Lord Haldon, I see you have an eyegla.s.s, do you ever wear it?

Sometimes an eyegla.s.s improves a man's appearance immensely, I should like to see how you look in one."

"Oh, yes," he said, "I sometimes wear it!" And so he put it into his right eye.

"Yes, it suits you very well. You don't make such faces as some people do in wearing it."

He was flattered.

"Now I'd just love to see if you look as nice with it in the left eye."

The obedient young man, mollified by her flattery, did all he was told, while I made good use of my eyes, and the company were becoming so hilarious that they could hardly conceal their merriment while the girl went on.

"It's really wonderful how effective it is, and how it suits you equally in either eye."

Thinking he had made an impression, "Piggy" took her into a corner and made himself most fascinating, a.s.siduously retaining the eyegla.s.s all the time.

"He seems to be getting on very well," said one of the guests to me, in an undertone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LORD HALDON, 1882.]

I was about to reply when Lord Haldon turned to me and said:--

"Do you know, 'Mr. Spy,' that it's very bad manners to whisper?"

So addressing myself to the lady, I offered my humble apologies and regrets for my forgetfulness (much to her amus.e.m.e.nt).

When the caricature appeared he wondered "who the fellow was who had seen him," and tried to remember when it was he had worn lilies of the valley in his dress coat. I wonder he did not suspect "Mr. Spy."

CHAPTER VII

PORTRAITURE

Some of my sitters.--Mrs. Tom Caley.--Lady Leucha Warner.-- Lady Loudoun.--Colonel Corbett.--Miss Reiss.--The late Mrs.

Harry McCalmont.--The Duke of Hamilton.--Sir W. Jaffray.-- The Queen of Spain.--Soldier sitters.--Millais.--Sir William Cunliffe Brooks.--Holman Hunt.--George Richmond.--Sir William Richmond.--Sir Luke Fildes.--Lord Leighton.--Sir Laurence Alma Tadema.--Sir George Reid.--Orchardson.--Pettie.--Frank d.i.c.ksee.--Augustus Lumley.--"Archie" Stuart Wortley.--John Varley.--John Collier.--Sir Keith Fraser.--Sir Charles Fraser.--Mrs. Langtry.--Mrs. Cornwallis West.--Miss Rousby.

--The Prince of Wales.--King George as a boy.--Children's portraits.--Mrs. Weldon.--Christabel Pankhurst.

"In portraits, the grace and one may add the likeness consists more in the general air than in the exact similitude of every feature."

_Sir Joshua Reynolds._

Of the study of portraiture I was always fond, and the prospect of becoming a portrait painter appealed greatly to me.

Although Fate interrupted this good intention through the unforeseen offer to work for _Vanity Fair_ (which, with my love for caricature, I could not resist the temptation of accepting), I did not refuse commissions to execute portraits, but as the number of cartoons that I had undertaken to do for publication was considerable, naturally private work had to make way for it. Finding it difficult to direct my mind to both the serious and the comic at the same time, I was obliged to select different days for each; in case I might put too humorous an expression into the picture of a baby, or distort the features of a mayor in his robes.