ROBERT SEYMOUR
From an Unpublished Drawing by
TAYLOR
Lent by Mr. Augustin Daly.
ROBERT SEYMOUR
Early Years—A Taste for High Art—Drawings on Wood for Figaro and Bell's Life in London—Essays the Art of Etching—Designs for "Maxims and Hints for an Angler"—Proposes to Publish a Book of Humorous Sporting Subjects—A "Club of Cockney Sportsmen"—Charles Whitehead and Charles Dickens—The Inception of "The Pickwick Papers"—Seymour's Illustrations—The Artist Succumbs to Overwork—Suicide of Seymour—Dickens's Tribute—Seymour's Last Drawing for "Pickwick"—"The Dying Clown"—His Original Designs—Seymour's Conception of Mr. Pickwick—Letter from Dickens to the Artist—"First Ideas" and Unused Sketches—A Valuable Collection—Scarcity of Seymour's "Pickwick" Plates—Design for the Wrapper of the Monthly Parts—Mrs. Seymour's Account of the Origin of "The Pickwick Papers"—An Absurd Claim Refuted—"The Library of Fiction"—Seymour's Illustrations for "The Tuggses at Ramsgate."
Concerning the artist who was primarily engaged in the illustration of "Pickwick," very little has been recorded, owing perhaps to the fact that his career, which terminated so tragically and so prematurely, was brief and uneventful. The following particulars of his life and labours, culled from various sources, will, I trust, enable the reader to appreciate Robert Seymour's true position respecting his connection with Charles Dickens's immortal work.
Born "in or near London" in 1798, Robert Seymour indicated at a very early age a decided taste for drawing, whereupon his father, Henry Seymour, a Somerset gentleman, apprenticed him to a skilful pattern-draughtsman named Vaughan, of Duke Street, Smithfield.[7] Although this occupation was most uncongenial to young Seymour, it caused him to adopt a neat style of drawing which ultimately proved of much utility. He aspired to a higher branch of Art than that involved in the delineation of patterns for calico-printers; but for a time he remained with Vaughan, pleasantly varying the monotony of his daily routine by producing miniature portraits of friends who consented to sit to him, receiving in return a modest though welcome remuneration. Still cherishing an inclination towards "High Art," he and a colleague named Work (significant patronymic!) deserted Vaughan, and, renting a room at the top of the old tower at Canonbury, they purchased a number of plaster-casts, lay-figures, &c., from which the two juvenile enthusiasts began to study with great assiduity. In Seymour's case tangible results were speedily forthcoming, for he presently painted a picture of unusually large dimensions, quaintly described by his fellow-student as containing representations of "the Giant of the Brocken, the Skeleton Hunt, the Casting of Bullets, and a full meal of all the German horrors eagerly swallowed by the public of that day." This remarkable canvas was, it seems, a really creditable work, and found a place on the walls of a gallery in Baker Street Baazar. Seymour, like many other ambitious young artists possessing more talent than pence, quickly realised the sad fact that, though the pursuit was in itself a very agreeable one, it meant penury to the painter unless he owned a private fortune or commanded the purse-strings of rich patrons. The artist's widow afterwards declared that he invariably sold his pictures direct from the easel; but there is no doubt that with him "High Art" proved a financial failure, and he reluctantly turned his attention to the more lucrative (if less attractive) occupation of designing on wood, for which he was peculiarly fitted by his previous practice in clean, precise draughtsmanship during that probationary period in Vaughan's workshop.
Seymour was endowed by Nature with a keen sense of the ludicrous, and this, aided by a knowledge of drawing, enabled him to execute designs of so humorous a character that his productions were immediately welcomed by the proprietors of such publications as Figaro and Bell's Life in London, to which were thus given a vitality and a popularity they did not previously possess. Although at first the recompense was but scanty, hardly sufficient, indeed, to procure the necessaries of life, yet Robert Seymour felt it was the beginning of what might eventually resolve itself into a fairly remunerative vocation. His talent speedily brought him profitable commissions for more serious publications, while his pencil was simultaneously employed in sketching and drawing amusing incidents, especially such as related to fishing and shooting,—forms of sport which constituted his favourite recreation. Living at this time in the then rural suburb of Islington, he had many opportunities of observing the methods of Cockney sportsmen, who were wont to wander thither on Sundays and holidays, and whose inexperience with rod and gun gave rise to many absurdities and comic fiascos, thus affording the young artist abundant material for humorous designs.