Robert William Buss is referred to in an address issued with the third part of "Pickwick" as "a gentleman already well known to the public as a very humorous and talented artist." He was born on August 29, 1804, in Bull-and-Mouth Street, St. Martin's-le-Grand, and in due course apprenticed to his father, an enameller and engraver on gold and silver. Like Seymour, he was inoculated with the prevailing mania for "High Art," and this inclination becoming too strong to be thwarted, his indulgent father not only permitted the cancelling of his indentures, but even defrayed the cost of a year's study in Art, placing him under his old friend George Clint, A.R.A. (a landscape painter, and subsequently the President of the Society of British Artists), whose son Alfred married the younger Buss's only sister. Having thus, at the age of twenty-one, gained some practical experience in his adopted profession, Robert Buss thought himself competent to start life on his own account by painting portraits and subject-pictures. In this direction he met with fair success, but it was as a painter of humorous incidents that he first made his reputation, these finding eager purchasers among well-known collectors and connoisseurs. Among his earliest achievements was a painting representing "Christmas in the Olden Time," which he exhibited in the gallery of the Society of British Artists in 1838. This work, however, although warmly praised by the critics, proved a most unhappy venture, as the price realised by the artist for what represented the result of a year's labour hardly recouped him for the expenses incurred by its production.[13]
The Pickwick Papers, 1836-37.It was doubtless this painting with which Buss was occupied when Mr. Hall (of Chapman & Hall) called upon him respecting the illustrations for "Pickwick." "Taken quite by surprise," relates the artist, when recalling his association with Dickens's famous work, "I told him [Mr. Hall] I had never in the whole course of my life had an etching-needle in my hand, and that I was entirely ignorant of the process of etching, as far as practice was concerned. He assured me it was very easy to do, and that with my talent I was sure to succeed." After some hesitation, overcome by Mr. Hall's promise that consideration would be shown towards his want of experience, Buss yielded to the pressure thus put upon him, and consented to put aside his picture (although most anxious to complete it for exhibition at the Royal Academy), with a view to embarking upon his new undertaking.
In preparing studies for his pictures, Buss had accustomed himself to the use of bold effects, obtained by means of chalk or black-lead pencils of various degrees of hardness, blackness, and breadth of point. He therefore deemed it necessary to undergo a course of training which would enable him to impart to his work that delicacy of touch so essential in the art of etching upon copper or steel, and devoted himself almost day and night (as there was really no time to lose) to practice in drawing with pen-and-ink,—a fact (he observes) "of which Mr. Hall was utterly and entirely ignorant." There are still extant a few of these experimental efforts (chiefly figures and faces copied from line engravings), including a sheet containing a dozen sketches of heads—studies of characters in "Pickwick," apparently based upon Seymour's etchings—which testify not only to his energy, but also to his rapidly-acquired skill in the adoption of what was to him a novel medium. In these drawings, by the way, he used ordinary ink for the general design, diluting it for the delicate shades and distant objects, thus assimilating the effect of his pen-and-ink work with the variations resulting from the "biting-in" and "re-biting" of etchings.
Plate XXIV
"THE BREAK-DOWN"
Facsimile of an Unpublished Drawing by R. W. BUSS
Illustrating an incident in the ninth chapter of "The Pickwick Papers."
After labouring incessantly for a period of three weeks, the artist felt prepared to make his first attempt in etching, taking for his subject "Mr. Pickwick at the Review." Referring to this plate, he says: "Of course it was full of faults, inevitable to any one in the early stage of practice in etching. But it was shown to Messrs. Chapman & Hall, and approved by them, though not as one of the illustrations to be published.[14] All this occupied much time, which was every hour becoming more and more valuable, as the date of publication was close at hand. I had barely time to prepare my two subjects for the next number of 'Pickwick' in pencil and submit them for approval to the publishers, who returned them, being much pleased with my efforts. The subjects I selected were the Fat Boy watching Mr. Tupman and Miss Wardle in the arbour, and the Cricket-Match." Buss now essayed to reproduce his designs upon the plates; but the result proved disastrous, the too violent action of the improperly diluted acid tearing up the etching-ground, which also broke up under the needle, creating sad havoc. Dreading the possible consequences of delay, he placed his original drawings in the hands of an expert engraver, to be copied on the plate and "bitten-in." "This work," remarks the artist, "he did very well indeed, but, as might have been expected, had I had time for thought, the free touch of an original was entirely wanting. The etching itself failed, but the 'biting-in' was admirably done. Time was up. The plates must be placed at once in the printer's hands, and so (there being no help for it) the plates were printed, the numbers stitched and duly published. Thus my name appeared to designs of which not one touch of mine was on the plates." Had opportunities been given, Buss would have cancelled these plates, and prepared fresh ones of his own etching. The immediate effect of this fiasco was the termination of his connection with "The Pickwick Papers," the artist being actually engaged in preparing designs for the succeeding number when he received a note informing him that the work had been placed in other hands. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that Buss felt this curt dismissal very keenly, for it must be remembered that he ventured upon the undertaking mainly to oblige the publishers, who, it appears, had promised him every consideration on account of his inexperience with the etching-needle.
Forster disposes of the subject of Buss's association with "Pickwick" in a very few words, merely observing that "there was at first a little difficulty in replacing Seymour, and for a single number Mr. Buss was interposed," thus intimating that the engagement was a temporary one. In commenting upon this, the artist's son, the Rev. Alfred J. Buss, expresses a belief that his father could not certainly have regarded it in this light. "Is it reasonable to suppose," he asks, in Notes and Queries, April 24, 1875, "that he would have consented to devote three weeks of his time, at the most valuable season to an artist, to the practice of an entirely new department of art, if it had been clearly stated that his engagement was of the transitory nature Mr. Forster would imply, and the more especially when we bear in mind that the price to be paid for the etchings was only fifteen shillings each?" It was Forster's scanty and misleading reference to Buss's engagement as illustrator of "Pickwick" which induced the artist to draw up for his children a concise and clear account of everything that transpired.