Newspaper caricature, by Forain, from Figaro. The butler says: “I have heard him say that you spice your dishes too much.” The chef says: “Yes, he misses his Blanchette du Havre.” (Some local hit, blanchette in cookery being a wrapper of pastry, bacon, etc.) “If he is not satisfied why doesn’t he leave?” There are few draughtsmen in the world more expert in the use of line than Forain. He is most wonderful in his construction of forms; every line means something. The French do not mind a free line—one that runs a little too far out—if it has meaning to it; hence we see a line through the butler’s nose, and his mouth extends to the right of the naso-labial line in quite an unnatural fashion, but since the line of the cheek is beautifully attached to the eyesocket and upper eyelid, it does not annoy the French at all.
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Pen drawing by Guillaume, from the French daily paper Gil Blas. This is given as a good example of newspaper work of a kind that could be easily imitated on chalk plate. It is reproduced with adjacent head-line and type that you may get an idea of the typographical appearance of the French newspaper. The legend says: “Today Gil Blas publishes its twelfth supplement, which should be delivered gratuitously (by the news agents) to all the purchasers of the paper.” The cut, then, is merely a little joke to call attention to the more important supplement inside, which supplement in itself is a pictorial one; French readers are fonder of illustrations than American readers.
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An example of pen drawing. Book illustration, by F. H. Lucas. This shows splendid modeling with very delicate pen work, and a certain amount of variety in the background. It is less adaptable to newspaper work than our other illustrations. It is given as a specimen of eccentric line work as regards the background, which is not unlike the Moullier.
and coal shovel, in the Forain, are particularly suggestive from this view-point. The Le Roux is given in order that our text-book may include an example of landscape, and also that the pupil may realize that drawing is frequently a matter of the right line in the right place. As we said in Chapter XIII, just as we studied the matter of the naso-labial line, and the orbicular muscle, one should study the direction of the wickers of a trash basket, so the artist has studied here the characteristic lines of tree trunk, foliage, hillside, and grasses. If you will study a city street or a shipyard in the same spirit—that is, search for the characteristic lines—you will be able to make a drawing which, even though it lacks {145}
