Of The Decorative Illustration Of Books Old And New Part 7

[Sidenote: W. J. LINTON.]

No survey of book ill.u.s.tration would be complete which contained no mention of William James Linton--whom I have already quoted. I may be allowed to speak of him with a peculiar regard and respect, as I may claim him as a very kind early friend and master. As a boy I was, in fact, apprenticed to him for the s.p.a.ce of three years, not indeed with the object of wielding the graver, but rather with that of learning the craft of a draughtsman on wood. This, of course, was before the days of the use of photography, which has since practically revolutionized the system not only of drawing for books but of engraving also. It was then necessary to draw on the block itself, and to thoroughly understand what kind of work could be treated by the engraver.

I shall always regard those early years in Mr. Linton's office as of great value to me, as, despite changes of method and new inventions, it gave me a thorough knowledge of the mechanical conditions of wood-engraving at any rate, and has implanted a sense of necessary relations.h.i.+p between design, material, and method of production--of art and craft, in fact--which cannot be lost, and has had its effect in many ways.

Mr. Linton, too, is himself a notable historic link, carrying on the lamp of the older traditions of wood-engraving to these degenerate days, when whatever wonders of literal translation, and imitation of chalk, charcoal, or palette and brushes, it has exhibited under spell of American enterprise--and I am far from denying its achievements as such--it cannot be said to have preserved the distinction and independence of the engraver as an artist or original designer in any sense. When not extinguished altogether by some form of automatic reproductive process, he is reduced to the office of "process-server"--he becomes the slave of the pictorial artist. The picturesque sketcher loves his "bits" and "effects," which, moreover, however sensational and sparkling they may be in themselves, have no reference as a rule to the decoration of the page, being in this sense no more than more or less adroit splashes of ink upon it, which the text, torn into an irregularly ragged edge, seems instinctively to shrink from touching, squeezing itself together like the pa.s.sengers in a crowded omnibus might do, reluctantly to admit a chimney-sweep.

While, by his early training and practice, he is united with the Bewick school, Mr. Linton--himself a poet, a social and political thinker, a scholar, as well as designer and engraver--having been a.s.sociated with the best-known engravers and designers for books during the middle of the century, and having had art of such a different temper and tendency as that of Rossetti pa.s.s through his hands, and seen the effect of many new impulses, is finally face to face with what he himself has called the "American New Departure." He is therefore peculiarly and eminently qualified for the work to which he has addressed himself--his great work on "The Masters of Wood Engraving," which appeared in 1889, and is in every way complete as a history, learned in technique, and sumptuous as a book.

I have not mentioned Gustave Dore, who fills so large a s.p.a.ce as an ill.u.s.trator of books, because though possessed of a weird imagination, and a poetic feeling for dramatic landscapes and grotesque characters, as well as extraordinary pictorial invention, the ma.s.s of his work is purely scenic, and he never shows the decorative sense, or considers the design in relation to the page. His best and most spirited and sincere work is represented by his designs in the "Contes Drolatiques."

[Sidenote: THE PRE-RAPHAELITES.]

The new movement in painting in England, known as the pre-Raphaelite movement, which dates from about the middle years of our century, was in every way so remarkable and far-reaching, that it is not surprising that it should leave its mark upon the ill.u.s.trations of books; particularly upon that form of luxury known as the modern gift-book, which, in the course of the twenty years following 1850, often took the shape of selections from or editions of the poets plentifully sprinkled with little pictorial vignettes engraved on wood. Birket Foster, John Gilbert, and John Tenniel were leading contributors to these collections.

In 1857 appeared an edition of "Tennyson's Poems" from the house of Moxon. This work, while having the general characteristics of the prevailing taste--an accidental collection of designs, the work of designers of varying degrees of substance, temper, and feeling, casually arranged, and without the slightest feeling for page decoration or harmony of text and ill.u.s.tration--yet possessed one remarkable feature which gives it a distinction among other collections, in that it contains certain designs of the chief leaders of the pre-Raphaelite movement, D.

G. Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.

FROM TENNYSON'S POEMS. (MOXON, 1857.)]

I give one of the Rossetti designs, "Sir Galahad"; the "S. Cecilia" and the "Morte d'Arthur" were engraved by the Brothers Dalziel, the "Sir Galahad" by Mr. W. J. Linton. It seems to me that the last gives the spirit and feeling of Rossetti, as well as his peculiar touch, far more successfully. These designs, in their poetic imagination, their richness of detail, sense of colour, pa.s.sionate, mystic, and romantic feeling, and earnestness of expression mark a new epoch. They are decorative in themselves, and, though quite distinct in feeling, and original, they are more akin to the work of the Mediaeval miniaturist than anything that had been seen since his days. Even here, however, there is no attempt to consider the page or to make the type harmonize with the picture, or to connect it by any bordering or device with the book as a whole, and being sandwiched with drawings of a very different tendency, their effect is much spoiled. In one or two other instances where Rossetti lent his hand to book ill.u.s.tration, however, he is fully mindful of the decorative effect of the page. I remember a t.i.tle page to a book of poems by Miss Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market," which emphatically showed this. The t.i.tle-page designed for his "Early Italian Poets" (given here), and his sonnet on the sonnet too, in which the design encloses the text of the poem, written out by himself, are other instances.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.

DESIGN FOR A t.i.tLE PAGE.]

[Sidenote: DALZIEL'S BIBLE GALLERY.]

Some of the designs made for a later work (Dalziel's Bible Gallery, about 1865-70) also show the effect of the pre-Raphaelite influence, as well as, in the case of the designs of Sir Frederic Leighton and Mr. Poynter, the influence of Continental ideas and training. I saw some of these drawings on the wood at the time, I remember. For study and research, and richness of resource in archaeological detail, as well as firmness of drawing, I thought Mr. Poynter's designs were perhaps the most remarkable. A strikingly realized picture, and a bright and successful wood-engraving, is Ford Madox Brown's design of "Elijah and the Widow's Son." There is a dramatic intensity of expression about his other one also, "The Death of Eglon." Still, at best, we find that these are but carefully studied pictures rendered on the wood. The pre-Raphaelite designs show the most decorative sense, but they are now issued quite distinct from the page, whatever was the original intention, and while they may, as to scale and treatment, be justly considered as book ill.u.s.trations, and as examples of our more important efforts in that direction at that time, they are not page decorations.

One may speak here of an admirable artist we have lost, Mr. Albert Moore, who so distinguished himself for his refined decorative sense in painting, and the outline group of figures given here shows that he felt the conditions of the book page and the press also.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALBERT MOORE.

FROM MILTON'S ODE ON CHRIST'S NATIVITY. (NISBET, 1867.)]

[Sidenote: HENRY HOLIDAY.]

Mr. Henry Holiday is also a decorative artist of great refinement and facility. He has not done very much in book ill.u.s.tration, but his ill.u.s.trations to Lewis Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark" were admirable.

His decorative feeling in black and white, however, is marked, as may be seen in the t.i.tle to "Aglaia."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY HOLIDAY.

COVER FOR A MAGAZINE.]

[Sidenote: TOY BOOKS.]

As, until recently, I suppose I was scarcely known out of the nursery, it is meet that I should offer some remarks upon children's books. Here, undoubtedly, there has been a remarkable development and great activity of late years. We all remember the little cuts that adorned the books of our childhood. The ineffaceable quality of these early pictorial and literary impressions afford the strongest plea for good art in the nursery and the schoolroom. Every child, one might say every human being, takes in more through his eyes than his ears, and I think much more advantage might be taken of this fact.

If I may be personal, let me say that my first efforts in children's books were made in a.s.sociation with Mr. Edmund Evans. Here, again, I was fortunate to be in a.s.sociation with the craft of colour-printing, and I got to understand its possibilities. The books for babies, current at that time--about 1865 to 1870--of the cheaper sort called toy books were not very inspiriting. These were generally careless and unimaginative woodcuts, very casually coloured by hand, dabs of pink and emerald green being laid on across faces and frocks with a somewhat reckless aim. There was practically no choice between such as these and cheap German highly-coloured lithographs. The only attempt at decoration I remember was a set of coloured designs to nursery rhymes by Mr. H. S. Marks, which had been originally intended for cabinet panels. Bold outlines and flat tints were used. Mr. Marks has often shown his decorative sense in book ill.u.s.tration and printed designs in colour, but I have not been able to obtain any for this book.

It was, however, the influence of some j.a.panese printed pictures given to me by a lieutenant in the navy, who had brought them home from there as curiosities, which I believe, though I drew inspiration from many sources, gave the real impulse to that treatment in strong outlines, and flat tints and solid blacks, which I adopted with variations in books of this kind from that time (about 1870) onwards. Since then I have had many rivals for the favour of the nursery const.i.tuency, notably my late friend Randolph Caldecott, and Miss Kate Greenaway, though in both cases their aim lies more in the direction of character study, and their work is more of a pictorial character than strictly decorative. The little preface heading from his "Bracebridge Hall" gives a good idea of Caldecott's style when his aim was chiefly decorative. Miss Greenaway is the most distinctly so perhaps in the treatment of some of her calendars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RANDOLPH CALDECOTT.

HEADPIECE TO "BRACEBRIDGE HALL." (MACMILLAN, 1877.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: KATE GREENAWAY.

KEY BLOCK OF t.i.tLE-PAGE OF "MOTHER GOOSE."

(ROUTLEDGE, N.D.)]

[Sidenote: CHILDREN'S BOOKS.]

Children's books and so-called children's books hold a peculiar position.

They are attractive to designers of an imaginative tendency, for in a sober and matter-of-fact age they afford perhaps the only outlet for unrestricted flights of fancy open to the modern ill.u.s.trator, who likes to revolt against "the despotism of facts." While on children's books, the poetic feeling in the designs of E. V. B. may be mentioned, and I mind me of some charming ill.u.s.trations to a book of Mr. George Macdonald's, "At the Back of the North Wind," designed by Mr. Arthur Hughes, who in these and other wood engraved designs shows, no less than in his paintings, how refined and sympathetic an artist he is. Mr. Robert Bateman, too, designed some charming little woodcuts, full of poetic feeling and controlled by unusual taste. They were used in Macmillan's "Art at Home" series, though not, I believe, originally intended for it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARTHUR HUGHES.

FROM "AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND." (STRAHAN, 1871.)]

[Sidenote: j.a.pANESE INFLUENCE.]

[Sidenote: j.a.pANESE ILl.u.s.tRATION.]

There is no doubt that the opening of j.a.panese ports to Western commerce, whatever its after effects--including its effect upon the arts of j.a.pan itself--has had an enormous influence on European and American art. j.a.pan is, or was, a country very much, as regards its arts and handicrafts with the exception of architecture, in the condition of a European country in the Middle Ages, with wonderfully skilled artists and craftsmen in all manner of work of the decorative kind, who were under the influence of a free and informal naturalism. Here at least was a living art, an art of the people, in which traditions and craftsmans.h.i.+p were unbroken, and the results full of attractive variety, quickness, and naturalistic force.

What wonder that it took Western artists by storm, and that its effects have become so patent, though not always happy, ever since. We see unmistakable traces of j.a.panese influences, however, almost everywhere--from the Parisian impressionist painter to the j.a.panese fan in the corner of trade circulars, which shows it has been adopted as a stock printers' ornament. We see it in the sketchy blots and lines, and vignetted naturalistic flowers which are sometimes offered as page decorations, notably in American magazines and fas.h.i.+onable etchings. We have caught the vices of j.a.panese art certainly, even if we have a.s.similated some of the virtues.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARTHUR HUGHES.

FROM "AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND." (STRAHAN, 1871.)]

In the absence of any really n.o.ble architecture or substantial constructive sense, the j.a.panese artists are not safe guides as designers. They may be able to throw a spray of leaves or a bird or fish across a blank panel or sheet of paper, drawing them with such consummate skill and certainty that it may delude us into the belief that it is decorative design; but if an artist of less skill essays to do the like the mistake becomes obvious. Granted they have a decorative sense--the _finesse_ which goes to the placing of a flower in a pot, of hanging a garland on a wall, or of placing a mat or a fan--taste, in short, that is a different thing from real constructive power of design, and satisfactory filling of s.p.a.ces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROBERT BATEMAN.

FROM "ART IN THE HOUSE."

(MACMILLAN, 1876.)]

When we come to their books, therefore, marvellous as they are, and full of beauty and suggestion--apart from their naturalism, _grotesquerie_, and humour--they do not furnish fine examples of page decoration as a rule. The fact that their text is written vertically, however, must be allowed for. This, indeed, converts their page into a panel, and their printed books become rather what we should consider sets of designs for decorating light panels, and extremely charming as such.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROBERT BATEMAN.

FROM "ART IN THE HOUSE."