Part 25 (1/2)
”(6.) Close to C the thickness of a black line on the edge of the cypress has been split.
”(7.) From E down to F a minute speck of light has here and there been inserted on the outline of the cypress foliage to split some blots of dark which will be seen on the untouched proofs, and which were rather harsh.
”(8.) The light flas.h.i.+ng on the steps ought to make thinner without removing the outline of the arm of the statue. The foot resting upon the pedestal should be indicated. The action of the other leg thrown back is shown in the retouching by the removal of the black line.
”(9.) The getting the upper part of the slender cypress of as full a tint as I have given it here seems to me so important that if it can be done in no other way, I think a piece should be inserted into the block to effect it. In the drawing on the block it was like this, which I have retouched with pencil.”
_Second Proof._
”(1.) Opposite are a few touches on the slender cypress--two very thin lines of light on the stem. Specks of light on the foliage.
”(2.) There is a thick black line on the block, thus [Symbol: left-bowing arc] which I have here crossed with specks of white; although it is in the body of the tree, it kills the fine work on the Villa.
”(3.) The thickness of outline on the light side of this vase unfinishes the foreground. I have altered it.
”(4.) The thick outline on this leaf unfinishes everything about it.”
Thus we discover how fastidious to a degree was the artist in his desire that every subtle touch of his poetic pencil should be reproduced--a result which, as he quickly perceived, it was impossible to achieve.
Samuel Palmer took a still keener delight in Literature than he did in Art. An insatiable but punctilious reader, the novels of d.i.c.kens and Scott were among the very few works of fiction which he read aloud to members of his own household. Mr. A. H. Palmer informs me that he has known his father to be so engrossed by reading aloud one of d.i.c.kens's finer and more exciting pa.s.sages, that the announcement and entry of a visitor served to stop the reading only for a few moments; the crisis past, he laid down the book and apologised. Literature, indeed, const.i.tuted the chief pleasure of his simple life--a life that, at one period at least, would have been almost insupportable without the consolation afforded by books. Early in May, 1881, he became, alas! too ill to work, and on the twenty-fourth of that month he pa.s.sed peacefully away, leaving behind him a reputation which is blameless.
F. W. TOPHAM
Ill.u.s.trations for ”A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND”--Begins Life as a Writing-Engraver--Designs for Books--Exhibits at the Royal Academy--Elected an a.s.sociate of the New Society of Painters--Retires from the Society--Elected a Member of the Old Society of Painters in Water-Colours--First Visit to Spain--Fatal Illness--Some Pictures Inspired by d.i.c.kens's Stories--Histrionic Ability--The Artist as a Juggler.
[Sidenote: =A Child's History of England, 1852-53-54.=]
During the years 1851-52-53, there appeared in the pages of _Household Words_ one of Charles d.i.c.kens's less familiar writings, ”A Child's History of England.” On its completion as a serial, the little work was issued in three 16mo volumes, each containing a frontispiece by F. W.
Topham. These ill.u.s.trations were engraved on wood, each consisting of a circular design, printed in black, and surrounded by an ornamental border of a light mauve colour, the latter enclosing familiar scenes from English History, viz., Alfred in the Neatherd's Cot; Canute reproving his Courtiers; Edwy and Elgiva; Eleanor and Fair Rosamond. The decorative border with its four _tableaux_ remained unchanged, but the subject of the central ill.u.s.tration varied, that in the first volume depicting a girl reading to two children; in the second, Alfred the Great receiving instruction in reading from his mother, Queen Osburgha; while in the third there is a more modern representation of a similar incident.
Francis William Topham, who was born at Leeds in 1808, enjoyed the privilege of being numbered among the personal friends of Charles d.i.c.kens. He entered professional life as a writing-engraver, and his first design was for a label required by a well-known firm of pin manufacturers. From this modest beginning he advanced to more artistic work, and was soon busily engaged in engraving plates for pocket-books, &c. During the several years he was thus occupied he engraved many original designs for book-ill.u.s.trations, and in 1832 began to exhibit pictures; his works after this date being frequently seen at the Royal Academy and other London galleries. In 1842 he was elected an a.s.sociate of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours, of which body he became a full member in the following year. He, with several other members, left the New Society after a comparatively short time, and was immediately elected into the Old Society of Painters in Water-Colours--the present Royal Water-Colour Society--to the Exhibitions of which the majority of his more important productions were contributed. It was in Spain, whither he first went in 1852-53, that he found subjects most congenial to his tastes, and there, in that land of sunny skies, he was seized with a fatal illness in 1877, expiring at Cordova on March 31st of that year.
Topham was a great admirer of the works of Charles d.i.c.kens, and selected from them the subjects of some of his most successful pictures. One of these--a water-colour drawing executed in 1851--ill.u.s.trates a scene in ”Barnaby Rudge,” where children flock round the half-witted hero as he and his mother pa.s.s through her native village; the drawing was presented by the artist to d.i.c.kens, and realised at the sale of the novelist's effects the sum of 115, 10s. This picture was followed by another from ”The Old Curiosity Shop,” representing Little Nell and her Grandfather in the tent, making bouquets for the racecourse, which was also a gift to d.i.c.kens, being subsequently disposed of at the above-mentioned sale for 288, 15s. It is also recorded that the artist, in 1856, produced a drawing portraying ”Little Nell in the Churchyard,”
which some five years after the novelist's death found a purchaser for 325, 10s.
F. W. Topham proved a welcome addition to d.i.c.kens's company of distinguished amateur actors, and concerning his histrionic ability the artist's son, Mr. Frank W. W. Topham (himself an eminent painter), thus writes: ”My father had, from quite a young man, a great love of acting, at which he was considered unusually good. One of my earliest recollections of a play was one acted at the St. James's Theatre, in which my father, Sir John Tenniel, the late Francis Holl, A.R.A. (the engraver), and others took part, for the benefit of the Artists'
Benevolent Fund. I do not know if my father owed his introduction to d.i.c.kens to his acting, but have an impression that he did,--certainly it was the cause of their after intimacy.”
_Apropos_ of their ”splendid strolling,” and the fun incidental thereto, d.i.c.kens observed to his wife, in a letter dated from Clifton, November 13, 1851: ”I forgot to say that Topham has suddenly come out as a juggler, and swallows candles, and does wonderful things with the poker very well indeed, but with a bashfulness and embarra.s.sment extraordinarily ludicrous.”
MARCUS STONE, R.A.