English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century Part 33

Mr. Tenniel's art training before he joined the _Punch_ staff, combined with his undoubted genius, renders him unquestionably one of the most versatile of modern designers. His satire is something quite apart from his caricature, and the former is characterized by a strong dramatic element particularly noticeable in serious ill.u.s.trations, such as his designs to "The Pythagorean," in the second volume of "Once a Week." In caricature he resumes in a measure the manner of the older caricaturists, without retaining a trace of their vulgarity, and a good example will be found in his cartoon of _What Nicholas heard in the Sh.e.l.l_ (1854), in which the features and salient points of the figure are intensely overdrawn. His caricature pure and simple seems to us always inferior to his satirical power; as fine examples of the latter we may mention: _The British Lion Smells a Rat_ (an angry lion sniffing at a door, in allusion to the conference which followed the fall of Sebastopol); _The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger_, which chronicles the ghastly ma.s.sacre of Cawnpore; _Bright the Peace Maker_ (1860), in which _Punch_ testifies his indignation at the manner in which Mr. Bright endeavoured to create a popular feeling against the House of Lords; _Poland's Chain Shot_ (1863), a stirring and powerful composition, wherein Poland, gallantly struggling once more for freedom, breaks her chains and fiercely rams them into a cannon; _Humble Pie at the Foreign Office_ (1863), and _Teucer a.s.sailed by Hector is Protected by the s.h.i.+eld of Ajax_ (1864), in which Lord John Russell is the subject of satire; and _The False Start_ and _Out of the Race_ (the same year), in the first of which Palmerston endeavours to restrain the leaning of Gladstone towards democracy, the last showing the result of his inattention to the starter's warning. In all these and a host of other admirable satires, the superior art training of Mr. Tenniel is seconded by his strong dramatic power, and above all by his unquestionable _genius_. It would be a poor compliment to him to deny that he had his failings--which indeed of the admirable satirists who preceded him had not? His failings, when they do occur, are perhaps more noticeable on account of his style and the mode in which he frequently drapes his figures. We have heard it objected to him, for instance, that the beauty of his female figures is occasionally marred by the somewhat disproportionate size of their feet, and this charge seems to us sustainable. Mr. Tenniel displays rare excellence in the drawing of animals--an excellence peculiarly noteworthy in such cartoons as _The British Lion Smells a Rat_, and _The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger_.

Embracing a period of only fourteen years, from 1851 to 1864, during which time he worked side by side with his friend and colleague, John Leech, on the pages of _Punch_, our notice of the cartoons of John Tenniel must necessarily be short. During the last three years of his life, when, as we have seen, the strength of the artist who had been on the pictorial staff from the commencement had been gradually failing, the execution of the weekly cartoons had fallen almost entirely upon Mr.

Tenniel. As fellow-labourers, constantly a.s.sociated on the same periodical, we are enabled to compare their individual merits. The conclusion we have arrived at is as follows: That as a political _satirist_, Tenniel is the best of the two; while as a delineator of English habits, manners, eccentricities, and peculiarities, Leech finds no equal. After 1864, when the artistic friends.h.i.+p and partners.h.i.+p (so to speak) of these gifted men was dissolved by the untimely death of John Leech, it would be beyond the declared scope and purpose of this work to follow Mr. Tenniel further. Unlike the caricaturists who preceded him, many of whom relied on humour, more or less forced, for the success of their productions, the cartoons of John Tenniel are oftentimes distinguished by a gravity and sternness of purpose which, combined with their artistic excellence, appeals forcibly to the imagination. Unfortunately, as in the case of those of John Leech, these truly admirable examples of nineteenth century satire, apart from the _Punch_ volumes themselves--owing to the material on which they are impressed and the process to which the original drawings are subjected--are practically valueless by the side of an indifferent caricature torn from the scurrilous and worthless pages of "The Scourge"

or "The Meteor."

To the persons who charge this artist with want of humour, his cartoon of _Britannia Discovering the Source of the Nile_--probably the most comical picture in the whole of the _Punch_ volumes--will afford the most conclusive answer, as will also the quaint and mirth-provoking little pictures which he designed for "Alice in Wonderland," its sequel, "Through the Looking-gla.s.s," and the 1864 edition of the "Ingoldsby Legends." One of these last, by the way, so closely resembles a scarce design of John Leech's in the "New Monthly," that the coincidence will strike any one who has an opportunity of comparing the two together.

During the fourteen years that Mr. Tenniel was a fellow-worker with the late John Leech, he contributed to the pages of _Punch_ about 1,400 designs, of which upwards of 400 are cartoons. We believe we are correct in stating that all these ill.u.s.trations, and his subsequent and contemporary designs, were drawn at once upon the wood block, not a single preliminary sketch having been made.

Here, in accordance with the plan which we designed when we sat down to write this work, we bring our labours to a close. If we have omitted all mention of two very excellent and talented artists, Messrs. Charles Keene and George Du Maurier, it is not from any lack of appreciation, but because one of them at least began his labours just about the period when those of John Leech were drawing to a close, while the reputation of both were made _after_ their distinguished contemporary was laid to his rest. The merits of both these able men and of those now following after them must be left to be dealt with by another chronicler.

Although, as we remarked in our opening chapter, the wood engraver has rung the knell of English caricature, with such clever men as Colonel Seccombe, Mr. Proctor, Mr. Randolph Caldicott, Mr. F. Barnard, the present George Cruikshank, Mr. Chasemore, and others whose names do not at present occur to us, there is happily no prospect of a decline in the art of English graphic satire.

FOOTNOTES:

[186] The present chapter was written before the artist's death; but I have to acknowledge the great a.s.sistance I have derived in its _revision_ from the authority indicated.

[187] _The Month, a Catholic Magazine_, No. 237 (March, 1884), p 315.

[188] _Ibid._, page 317.

[189] One of these (and a very effective one) was the work of the present Sir John Gilbert.

[190] Hamerton's "Etching and Etchers."

[191] William Hazlitt on "The Fine Arts," p. 51.

[192] An excellent burlesque of the Emperor's theatrical declarations.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.

_SOME ILl.u.s.tRATIVE WORK OF ISAAC ROBERT CRUIKSHANK._

Coloured frontispiece to the "Age of Intellect; or, Clerical Show Folk and Wonderful Lay Folk," by Francis Moore, Physician. 1819.

"Lessons of Thrift, published for the general benefit, by a Member of the Save-all Club," eleven coloured full-page etchings. 1820.

"The Total Eclipse, a Grand Politico-Astronomical Phenomenon." (Dolby, Strand.) 1820.

"A Peep at the P. C. N.; or, Boiled Mutton with Caper Sauce at the Temple of Joss." (Effingham Wilson.) 1820.

"The Men in the Moon; or, the Devil to Pay." (Dean & Munday.) 1820.

[_With his brother George._] Designs to Nightingale's "Memoirs of Queen Caroline." (J. Robins.) 1820.

"Radical Chiefs." One caricature ill.u.s.tration. 1821.

"The Royal Game of Chess." 1821.

"The Political All-my-knack for the Year of our Lord 1821."

"The Queen and Magna Charta; or, the Thing that John Signed." (Dolby, Strand.) 1821.

"Tales of the Cordelier Metamorphosed." 1821.

[_With his brother George._] "Life in London." (Sherwood, Nealy & Jones.) 1821.

"The Commercial Tourist; or, Gentleman Traveller." (A satirical Poem), five coloured plates. 1822.

"Mock Heroicks; or, Snuff, Tobacco, and Gin, and a Rapsody on an Inkstand." Four caricature engravings. 1822.

"Annals of Sporting and Fancy Gazette." (Numerous coloured plates.) 1822-1825.

[_With C. Williams._] Frontispiece to George Ramsey's "New Dictionary of Anecdote." 1822.

"My Cousin in the Army; or, Johnny Newcome on the Peace Establishment."

Many coloured plates. 1822.

Twenty designs on wood for Charles Westmacott's "Points of Misery."

1823.

A series of drawings on wood to the "Spirit of the Public Journals for 1823 and 1824." (A selection of essays, jeux d'esprit, tales of humour, etc., 2 vols.)

"Life and Exploits of Don Quixote." Twenty-four designs on wood. (Knight & Lacey.) 1824.

Bernard Blackmantle's (Charles Westmacott) "English Spy." 1825.

"Spirit of the Public Journals for 1825."

Charles Westmacott's "Punster's Pocket-book; or, the Art of Punning Enlarged." 1826.

[_With his brother George._] "London Characters." (Twenty-four plates, of which nine only are by Robert.) Robins. 1827.

[_With George._] Designs on wood for the "Fairy Tales" of Albert Ludwigg Grimm. 1827.

J. Thompson's "New Life of J. Allen." 1828.

Smeeton's "Doings in London." 1828.