The Art of Illustration Part 10

We are fast losing sight of first principles and aiming rather at catching the eye and the public purse with a pretty page; and in doing this we are but imitators. In the English magazines it is strange to find a slavish, almost childish imitation of the American system of ill.u.s.tration; adopting, for instance, the plan of pictures turned over at the corners or overlapping each other with exaggerated black borders and other devices of the alb.u.m of the last generation. This is what we have come to in England in 1894 (with excellent wood engravers still), and the kind of art by which we shall be remembered at the end of the nineteenth century! I am speaking of magazines like _Good Words_ and _Ca.s.sell's Magazine_, where wood engraving is still largely employed.

It may be as well to explain here that the reasons for employing the medium of wood engraving for elaborate ill.u.s.trations which, such as we see in American magazines, were formerly only engraved on copper or steel, are--(1) rapidity of production, and (2) the almost illimitable number of copies that can be produced from casts from wood blocks. The broad distinction between the old and new methods of wood engraving is, that in early days the lines were drawn clearly on the wood block and the part not drawn cut away by the engraver, who endeavoured to make a perfect fac-simile of the artist's lines. It is now a common custom to transfer a photograph from life on to the wood block (_see p. 167_), also to draw on the wood with a brush in tint, and even to photograph a water-colour drawing on to the wood, leaving the engraver to turn the tints into lines in his own way.

In the very earliest days of book ill.u.s.tration, before movable type-letters were invented, the ill.u.s.tration and the letters of the text were all engraved on the wood together, and thus, of necessity (as in the old block books produced in Holland and Belgium in the fifteenth century), there was character and individuality in every page; the picture, rough as it often was, harmonising with the text in an unmistakable manner. From an artistic point of view, there was a better balance of parts and more harmony of effect than in the more elaborate ill.u.s.trations of the present day. The ill.u.s.tration was an ill.u.s.tration in the true sense of the word. It interpreted something to the reader that words were incapable of doing; and even when movable type was first introduced, the simple character of the engravings harmonised well with the letters. There is a broad line of demarcation, indeed, between these early wood engravings (such, for instance, as the "Ars Moriendi,"

purchased for the British Museum in 1872, from the Weigel collection at Leipsic, and recently reproduced by the Holbein Society) and the last development of the art in the American magazines. The movement is important, because the Americans, with an energy and _navete_ peculiar to them, have set themselves the task of outstripping all nations in the beauty and quality of magazine ill.u.s.trations. That they have succeeded in obtaining delicate effects, and what painters call colour, through the medium of wood-engraving, is well known, and it is common to meet people in England asking, "Have you seen the last number of _Harper's_ or the _Century Magazine_?" The fas.h.i.+on is to admire them, and English publishers are easily found to devote time and capital to distributing American magazines (which come to England free of duty), to the prejudice of native productions. The reason for the excellence (which is freely admitted) of American wood-engraving and printing is that, in the first place, more capital is employed upon the work. The American wood-engraver is an artist in every sense of the word, and his education is not considered complete without years of foreign study. The American engraver is always _en rapport_ with the artist--an important matter--working often, as I have seen them at _Harper's_, the _Century Magazine_, and _Scribner's_ in New York, in the same studio, side by side. In England the artist, as a rule, does not have any direct communication with the wood engraver. In America the publisher, having a very large circulation for his works, is able to bring the culture of Europe and the capital of his own country to the aid of the wood-engraver, spending sometimes five or six hundred pounds on the ill.u.s.trations of a single number of a monthly magazine. The result is _an engraver's success_ of a very remarkable kind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: x.x.xV.

_A Portrait_ engraved on wood at the Office of the CENTURY MAGAZINE.

Example of portraiture from the _Century Magazine_. It is interesting to note the achievements of the American engravers at a time when wood engraving in England is under a cloud.

This portrait was photographed from life and afterwards worked up by hand and most skilfully engraved in New York.

(_Photograph from life, engraved on wood. From the Century Magazine._)]

A discussion of the merits of the various styles of wood engraving, and of the different methods of drawing on wood, such as that initiated by the late Frederick Walker, A. R. A.; the styles of Mr. William Small, E.

A. Abbey, Alfred Parsons, etc.--does not come into the scope of this publication, but it will be useful to refer to one or two opinions on the American system.

"Book ill.u.s.tration as an art," as Mr. Comyns Carr pointed out in his lectures at the Society of Arts ten years ago, "is founded upon wood engraving, and it is to wood engraving that we must look if we are to have any revival of the kind of beauty which early-printed books possess. In the ma.s.s of work now produced, there is very little trace of the principles upon which Holbein laboured. Instead of proceeding by the simplest means, our modern artist seems rather by preference to take the most difficult and complex way of expressing himself. A wood engraving, it is not unjust to say, has become scarcely distinguishable from a steel engraving excepting by its inferiority."

Mr. Hubert Herkomer, R. A., who has had a very wide experience in the graphic arts, says:--

"In modern times a body of engravers has been raised up who have brought the art of engraving on wood to such a degree of perfection, that the most modern work, especially that of the Americans, is done to show _the skill of the engraver_ rather than the art of the draughtsman. This, I do not hesitate to say, is a sign of decadence.

Take up any number of the _Century_ or _Harper's_ magazines, and you will see that effect is the one aim. You marvel at the handling of the engraver, and forget the artist. Correct, or honest, drawing is no longer wanted. This kind of ill.u.s.tration is most pernicious to the student, and _will not last_....

"America is a child full of promise in art--a child that is destined to be a great master; so let us not imitate its youthful efforts or errors. Americans were the first to foster this style of art, and they will be the first to correct it."

Mr. W. J. Linton, the well-known wood engraver, expresses himself thus strongly on the modern system, and his words come with great force from the other side of the Atlantic:--

"Talent is misapplied when it is spent on endeavours to rival steel-line engraving or etching, in following brush-marks, in pretending to imitate crayon-work, charcoal, or lithography, and in striving who shall scratch the greatest number of lines on a given s.p.a.ce without thought of whether such multiplicity of lines adds anything to the expression of the picture or the beauty of the engraving. How much of talent is here thrown away! How much of force that should have helped towards growth is wasted in this slave's play for a prize not worth having--the fame of having well done the lowest thing in the engraver's art, and having for that neglected the study of the highest! For it is the lowest and the last thing about which an artist should concern himself, this excessive fineness and minuteness of work.... In engraving, as in other branches of art, _the first thing is drawing, the second drawing, the third drawing_."

This is the professional view, ably expressed, of a matter which has been exercising many minds of late; and is worth quoting, if only to show the folly of imitating a system acknowledged by experts to be founded on false principles.

But there is another view of the matter which should not be lost sight of. Whatever the opinion of the American system of ill.u.s.tration may be, there is, on the other side of the Atlantic, an amount of energy, enterprise, cultivation of hand and eye, delicacy of manipulation, and individual industry, cleverly organised to provide a wide continent with a better art than anything yet attempted in any country. Some fine engravings, which the Americans have lately been distributing amongst the people, such, for instance, as the portraits (engraved from photographs from life) which have appeared in _Harper's_ and the _Century_ magazines, only reach the cultivated few in Europe in expensive books. It is worth considering what the ultimate art effect of this widespread distribution will be. The "prairie flower" holds in her hand a better magazine, as regards ill.u.s.trations, than anything published in England at the same price; and a taste for delicate and refined ill.u.s.tration is being fostered amongst a variety of people on the western continent, learned and unlearned. That there is a want of sincerity in the movement, that "things are not exactly what they seem,"

that something much better might be done, may be admitted; but it will be well for our ill.u.s.trators and art providers to remember that the Americans are advancing upon us with the power of capital and ever-increasing knowledge and cultivation. In the _Century_ magazine, ten years ago, there was an article on "The Pupils of Bewick," with ill.u.s.trations admirably reproduced from proofs of early wood engravings, by "photo-engraving."

This is noteworthy, as showing that the knowledge of styles is disseminated everywhere in America; and also, how easy it is to reproduce engravings by "process," and how _important to have a clear copyright law on this subject_.

Of the English wood engravers, and of the present state of the profession in England much has been written. I believe the fact remains that commercial wood engraving is still relied on by many editors and publishers, as it prints with more ease and certainty than any of the process blocks.

That there are those in England (like Mr. Bis...o...b.. Gardner and others, whose work I am unable to reproduce here), that believe in wood engraving still as a vital art, capable of the highest results, I am also well aware. But at the moment of writing it is difficult to get many publishers to expend capital upon it for ordinary ill.u.s.trations.

On the next page is an example of good wood engraving.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "DRIVING HOME THE PIGS." (JOHN PEDDER.)

(_Academy Notes, 1891._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. x.x.xVI.

_Joan of Arc's House at Rouen_, by the late SAMUEL PROUT.

Engraved on wood by Mr. J. D. Cooper, from a water-colour drawing by Samuel Prout.

The original drawing, made with a reed pen and flat washes of colour, was photographed on to the wood block, and the engraver interpreted the various tints into line. The method is interesting, and the tones obtained in line show the resources of the engraver's art, an art rather carelessly set aside in these days.

This engraving is from _Normandy Picturesque_. (London: Sampson Low & Co.)]

FOOTNOTE:

[21] In _The Life and Works of Thomas Bewick_, by D. C. Thomson; in _The Portfolio_, _The Art Journal_, _The Magazine of Art_, and in _Good Words_, Bewick's merits as artist and engraver have been exhaustively discussed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DESIGN BY WALTER CRANE.]

CHAPTER VI.

THE DECORATIVE PAGE.

To turn next to the more decorative side of modern ill.u.s.tration, where design and the _ensemble_ of a printed page are more considered, it is pleasant to be able to draw attention to the work of an art school, where an educated and intelligent mind seems to have been the presiding genius; where the ill.u.s.trators, whilst they are fully imbued with the spirit of the past, have taken pains to adapt their methods to modern requirements. I refer to the Birmingham Munic.i.p.al School of Art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. x.x.xVII.

_Decorative Page_, by A. J. GASKIN.

(From Hans Andersen's _Fairy Tales_. London: George Allen.)

This is a good example of the appropriate decoration of a page without any ill.u.s.tration in the ordinary sense of the word. The treatment of ornament harmonises well with old-faced type letter.

The original was drawn in pen and ink, about _the same size_ as the reproduction. The ground is excellent in colour, almost equal to a wood engraving.

This is another example of the possibilities of process, rightly handled, and also of effect produced _without reduction_ of the drawing.]

Whilst using wood engraving freely, the ill.u.s.trators of Birmingham (notably Mr. Gaskin), are showing what can be done in line drawing by the relief processes, to produce colour and ornament which harmonise well with the letterpress of a book. This seems an important step in the right direction, and if the work emanating from this school were less, apparently, confined to an archaic style, to heavy outline and mediaeval ornament (I speak from what I see, not knowing the school personally), there are possibilities for an extended popularity for those who have worked under its influence.[22]

The examples of decorative pages by experienced ill.u.s.trators like Mr.

Walter Crane and others, will serve to remind us of what some artists are doing. But the band of ill.u.s.trators who consider design is much smaller than it should be, and than it will be in the near future. A study of the past, if it be only in the pages of mediaeval books, will greatly aid the student of design. In the Appendix I have mentioned a few fine examples of decorative pages, with and without ill.u.s.trations, which may be usefully studied at the British Museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. x.x.xVIII.]

In all these pages, it will be observed, what is called "colour" in black and white is preserved throughout; showing that a page can be thoroughly decorative without ill.u.s.trations to the text. Closely criticised, some of the old block designs may appear crude and capable of more skilful treatment, but the pages, as a rule, show the artistic sense--unmistakably, mysteriously, wonderfully.

In these and similar pages, such, for instance, as _Le Mer des Histoires_, produced in Paris by Pierre le Rouge in 1488 (also in the British Museum), the harmony of line drawing with the printed letters is interesting and instructive. (_See Appendix._)