Part 29 (1/2)

This figure appears in the Ill.u.s.tration ent.i.tled ”Up the River.” _Vide_ ”The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

_Lent by the Artist._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It will readily be conceded that Mr. Fildes's ill.u.s.trations for d.i.c.kens's final romance are remarkable for a serious and sound draughtsmans.h.i.+p, while the life-like delineation of the various characters, as well as the pictorial exact.i.tude of backgrounds and accessories, invite careful study and examination. Without unduly disparaging the excellent etchings by Cruikshank and ”Phiz,” it must be admitted that there is a vitality appertaining to Mr. Fildes's designs which imparts to them a reality not always discoverable in the ill.u.s.trations produced by those admirable artists.

APPENDIX

I

ILl.u.s.tRATORS OF CHEAP EDITIONS

C. R. LESLIE, R.A.--Design for ”Pickwick”--Was.h.i.+ngton Irving's Tribute to the Artist--Portrait of ”d.i.c.kens as Captain Bobadil”--T. WEBSTER, R.A.--His Picture of ”Dotheboys Hall”--A. BOYD HOUGHTON--Ill.u.s.trations for ”Hard Times” and ”Our Mutual Friend”--G. J. PINWELL--Ill.u.s.trations for ”The Uncommercial Traveller”--Interesting Portrait of the Novelist--F. WALKER, A.R.A.--Ill.u.s.trations for ”Reprinted Pieces” and ”Hard Times”--Ill.u.s.trators of the Household Edition--C. GREEN, F. BARNARD, J. MAHONEY, E. G.

DALZIEL, F. A. FRASER, G. THOMSON, H. FRENCH, A. B. FROST, and J. M^CL. RALSTON--Charles Green's Ill.u.s.trations for ”The Old Curiosity Shop,” ”Great Expectations,” and the Christmas Books--F. BARNARD, the _Premier_ Ill.u.s.trator of d.i.c.kens--The Novels Ill.u.s.trated by him--His Favourite Model--Tragic Death of the Artist--An American Household Edition--New Designs by C. S. REINHART, T. WORTH, W. L. SHEPPARD, E. A. ABBEY, A. B.

FROST, and T. NAST--Ill.u.s.trations by J. M^CLENAN--F. O. C.

DARLEY--His Reputation as a Draughtsman--His Designs for an American Household Edition Engraved on Steel--Independent Ill.u.s.trations--Death of the Artist--Sir JOHN GILBERT'S Designs for ”Holiday Romance”--G. G. WHITE--S.

EYTINGE--Prolific Contributor to Books and Periodicals--His Picture of ”Mr. Pickwick's Reception”--Designs for the Diamond Edition, &c.--Character Sketches--d.i.c.kens's Admiration of the Artist's Conceptions--Gives a Sitting for his Portrait--A Unique Print--Eytinge Visits Gad's Hill--Ill.u.s.trations by H. BILLINGS for ”A Child's Dream of a Star”--The ”Christmas Carol” Designs by GAUGENGIGL and CHOMINSKI--”The Cricket on the Hearth” Designs by MAROLD and MITTIS, and L. ROSSI--Some d.i.c.kens Ill.u.s.trations by J. NASH, T. W. WILSON, J. E. CHRISTIE, and G. BROWNE--Designs by E.

J. WHEELER for ”Tales from Pickwick”--Ill.u.s.trations by PHIL MAY, MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN, and HARRY FURNISS--Coloured Frontispieces for the Temple Library Edition.

[Sidenote: =C. R. Leslie, R.A.=]

Besides the ill.u.s.trators of the original issues of Charles d.i.c.kens's novels there are other distinguished artists concerning whose designs for the cheaper editions some mention should be made in the present work. Besides Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., who has already been referred to as supplying the frontispiece to the first cheap issue of ”American Notes,” d.i.c.kens was under a similar obligation to two other Royal Academicians, Leslie and Webster, for frontispieces to the first cheap edition of ”Pickwick” (1847) and ”Nicholas Nickleby” (1848) respectively. Charles Robert Leslie, of whom Thackeray once said that no artist possessed so much as he ”the precious quality of making us laugh kindly,” found a suitable subject in the twelfth chapter of ”The Pickwick Papers,” his ill.u.s.tration representing Mrs. Bardell fainting in the arms of Mr. Pickwick,--an incident that had already been depicted by ”Phiz.” The original picture by Leslie--which was a commission from d.i.c.kens--is a cabinet-painting in grisaille or monochrome; it realised 137, 11s. at the sale of the novelist's effects in 1870, and is now the property of Mr. William Wright, of Paris. It seems probable that d.i.c.kens owed his introduction to this artist through the friendly intervention of Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, who, in May 1841, thus wrote to the novelist: ”Do you know Leslie the painter, the one who has recently painted a picture of Queen Victoria? If you do not, I wish you would get acquainted with him. You would like one another. He is full of talent and right feeling.

He was one of my choice and intimate companions during my literary sojourn in London. While I was making my early studies with my pen, he was working with his pencil. We sympathised in tastes and in feelings, and used to explore London together, and visit the neighbouring villages, occasionally extending our researches into different parts of the country. He is one of the purest and best of men, with a fine eye for nature and character, and a true Addisonian humour.” In 1846 Leslie produced his well-known picture of d.i.c.kens as Captain Bobabil, in Ben Jonson's play, ”Every Man in his Humour,” which was exhibited in the Royal Academy the same year; shortly afterwards the painting was reproduced in lithography by T. H. Maguire, impressions of which (especially those that were coloured) are now very scarce.

[Sidenote: =T. Webster, R.A.=]

The first cheap edition of ”Nicholas Nickleby” was embellished by means of a frontispiece engraved on wood by T. Williams from the picture by T.

Webster, R.A., which (like Leslie's) was painted for the novelist. This exquisite painting (measuring only ten inches by seven inches) depicts the familiar scene at Dotheboys Hall, where Mrs. Squeers administers the much-dreaded brimstone and treacle; at the d.i.c.kens sale the interesting little picture realised the substantial sum of 535, 10s. It is said that the artist was so thorough and so persistent in ill.u.s.trating the humours of boys' schools that he earned the _sobriquet_ of ”Dotheboys Webster.”

[Sidenote: =A. B. Houghton and G. J. Pinwell=]

[Sidenote: =F. Walker, A.R.A.=]

The first cheap editions of later works were graced with frontispieces from the pencils of two artists better known as draughtsmen than as painters. These were A. Boyd Houghton, who designed the frontispiece for ”Hard Times” (1865) and ”Our Mutual Friend” (1867), and G. J. Pinwell, who furnished an ill.u.s.tration for ”The Uncommercial Traveller”

(1865)--all of which were engraved on wood by the Dalziel Brothers. In 1868 Pinwell likewise contributed four excellent woodcut ill.u.s.trations to the Library Edition of the same work,[51] and it is interesting to note that in one of these, ”Leaving the Morgue,” he has introduced a full-length presentment of the novelist.[52] a.s.sociated with the Library Edition we find the name of Fred. Walker, A.R.A., whose position as a designer in black-and-white stands high in the first rank of English masters. This clever artist prepared four ill.u.s.trations respectively for ”Reprinted Pieces” and ”Hard Times” (1868), and for refinement of execution they have probably never been excelled. Fred. Walker, the painter of those world-famous pictures known as ”The Harbour of Refuge,”

”The Bathers,” ”The Lost Path,” &c., died prematurely of consumption in 1875, at the age of thirty-five, a loss which all artists and art-lovers have never ceased to deplore. The Library Edition of the ”Christmas Stories” is ill.u.s.trated by F. A. Fraser, H. French, E. G. Dalziel, J.

Mahoney, Townley Green, and Charles Green, fourteen woodcuts in all.

Footnote 51: The later volumes of the Library Edition were issued at intervals during 1862-1868.