Part 9 (1/2)

[Illustration: No xxxII

(_A Photograph froraved on wood_)]

This influence and this --and vital to the artist--that it cannot be erapher is ever in ourwith facts and details which no human eye can see, and no one ations of artists to photographers a book ht be written

The benefits are not, as a rule, unacknowledged; nor are the bad influences of photography always noticed That is to say, that before the days of photography, the artist s necessary to his art, for which he now depends upon the photographic lens; in short, he uses his powers of observation less than he did a few years ago That the photographer leads hi to re upperhts, let us consider further the influences hich he is surrounded As to photography, Mr William Small, the well-known illustrator (who always draws for wood engraving), says:--”it will never take good work out of a good artist's hands” He speaks as an artist who has taken to illustration seriously anddevoted the best years of his life to its development The moral of it is, that in whatever material or style newspaper illustrations are done, to hold their own they ht as you please, if they be original and good In line work (the best and surest for the processes) photography can only be the servant of the artist, not the competitor--and in this direction there is much employment to be looked for At present the influence is very ratefully it would seeraver, and are setting in its place an art half developed, half studied, full of crudities and discords The illustrations which succeed in books and newspapers, succeed for the most part from sheer ability on the part of the artist; _they are full of ability_, but, as a rule, are bad examples for students to copy ”Time is money” with these brilliant executants; they have no time to study the value of a line, nor the requires are handed to the photo-engravers--which are often quite unfitted for mechanical reproduction--to be produced literally in a few hours It is an age of vivacity, daring originality, and reckless achievement in illustration

”Take it up, look at it, and throw it down,” is the order of the day

There is no reason but an economic one why the work done ”to look at”

should not be as good as the artist can afford to s or printed cottons will produce only a lin, no o on to another So ner, ould not keep employment if he did not do his best, no matter whether his as to last for a day or for a year The life of a single number of an illustrated newspaper is a week, and of an illustrated book about a year

The young illustrators on the _Daily Graphic_--notably Mr Reginald Cleaver--obtain the maximum of effect with thehours so out Charles Keene's exa, no matter how trivial the subject, until he was satisfied that it was right ”Either right or wrong,” he used to say; ”'right enough'

will not do for me”

[Illustration: No xxxIII

”PROUD MAIRIE” (LANCELOT SPEED)

(_Fro by line process]

Another influence on ht It enables the photographic operator to be independent of dark and foggy days, and to put a search-light upon objects which otherwise could not be utilised So far good To the illustrator this aid is often a doubtful advantage The late Charles Keene (hoeneral deterioration in the quality of illustrations from what he called ”unnatural and impossible effects,” and he ures seen under the then--(10 or 15 years ago)--novel conditions of electric street lighting, one of which represented a hted up by electric la up his trowsers to cross a black shadohich he takes for a strealare of thepublic is dazzled every week in the illustrated sheets with these ”unnatural and impossible effects”

Thus it has coarish, exaggerated, and untrue in effect, is accepted to-day by the itimate method of illustration

DANIEL VIERGE

One of the influences on the modern illustrator--a decidedly adverse influence on the unlearned--is the proe

There is probably no illustrator of to-day who has enius--than Vierge, and none whose work, for practical reasons, isto students

As to his illustrations, froinative side, they are as attractive to the scholar as drawings by Holbein or Menzell are to the artist Let us turn to the illustration on the next page, froovia_ by Quevedo; an example selected by the editor, or publisher, of the book as a speci in its oay could bein hurotesque duel with long ladles at the entrance to an old Spanish posada The sparkle and vivacity of the scene are iniure haunts the race, touched in by a master of expression in line In short, we are in the presence of genius

[Illustration: No xxxIV

Exaovia_, the Spanish Sharper, by Francisco de Quevedo-Villegas, first published in Paris, in 1882; afterwards translated into English (with an Essay on Quevedo, by H E Watts, and coe's work by Joseph Pennell), and published by Mr T Fisher Unwin, in 1892

Vierge was born in 1851, and educated in Madrid, where he spent the early years of his life Since 1869 he has lived in Paris, and produced numerous illustrations for _Le Monde Illustre_ and _La Vie Moderne_, and other works His faovia_, the illustrations to which he was unable to co to illness and paralysis About twenty of these illustrations were draith the left hand, owing to paralysis of the right side His career, full of roests the future illustrator of _Don Quixote_