The speedy relinquishment by Charles Collins of the illustrating of "Edwin Drood" caused something of a dilemma. Dickens being again without an illustrator, he appealed for advice to his friends Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Millais, R.A., and Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., who promised to aid him in searching for a suitable artist. Shortly afterwards there was published in the initial number of The Graphic an engraving entitled "Houseless and Hungry," depicting a crowd of vagrants of both sexes awaiting admission to the workhouse,—a picture at once so powerfully conceived and so pathetic in sentiment that it immediately attracted the attention of Sir John Millais, who immediately hastened in a cab to Dickens's rooms at Hyde Park Place, bearing in his hand a copy of the new journal. Striding into the study, and waving The Graphic above his head, the famous painter exclaimed, "I've got him!"
"Got whom?" inquired the novelist.
"The fellow for 'Edwin Drood,'" replied Millais, as he threw the paper down on the table.
No sooner had Dickens examined the picture than he became similarly enthusiastic in his praise, and wrote forthwith to his publishers, requesting them to communicate with the artist, Mr. Samuel Luke Fildes, now a popular Royal Academician, but who was then comparatively unknown in the world of Art. At the period referred to, Mr. Fildes was a young man of five-and-twenty, who had but just begun to make his mark as a draughtsman in black-and-white. After some desultory study of drawing and painting at Chester and Warrington, he came to London in 1862 for the purpose of seeing the Great Exhibition, and was so impressed that he determined to make his future home in the Metropolis. In the following year he gained a scholarship at the South Kensington Schools, and afterwards became a student of the Royal Academy. The Cornhill, Once a Week, and other magazines then in the ascendant, owed much of their popularity to the beautiful designs by Millais, Leighton, and similarly distinguished artists, and these remarkable productions inclined Mr. Fildes to adopt book-illustration as a stepping-stone towards painting. Good-fortune attended his efforts, and in June 1869, by which time he had achieved a position as a black-and-white draughtsman, he received an intimation from Mr. W. L. Thomas that he had conceived the idea of publishing a new illustrated paper, eventually called The Graphic, and suggested that he should draw something effective, the subject to be the artist's own choice, for publication therein.
Plate LXII
STUDY FOR THE HEAD OF NEVILLE LANDLESS
Facsimile of an Original Sketch for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" by
LUKE FILDES, R.A.
Lent by the Artist.
"I went home," says Mr. Fildes, "and, at ten o'clock on a terribly hot night, I sat with a piece of paper and sketched out the idea for 'The Casuals.' Some few years before, when I first came to London, I was very fond of wandering about, and remember beholding somewhere near the Portland Road, one snowy winter's night, the applicants for admission to a casual ward." Recollecting the incident, Mr. Fildes endeavoured to reproduce this scene as a subject likely to prove acceptable to the manager of The Graphic, and it was that very picture which, as already related, led to the artist's introduction to the famous novelist.
Messrs. Chapman & Hall, who had been authorised to write to Mr. Fildes respecting the illustration of "Edwin Drood," desired him to submit specimens of his black-and-white work, and at the same time expressed a hope that, as they had no recollection of having seen representations of beautiful women in any of his drawings, he would enclose a few examples of his ability in that direction, for the very important reason that in Charles Dickens's new story would appear two attractive heroines. Mr. Fildes immediately dispatched a parcel containing various illustrations designed by him for the magazines, and promised to execute, for the novelist's inspection, two or three drawings of scenes from one of his stories. A few days later the artist became the recipient of a very complimentary letter, in which Dickens said: "I beg to thank you for the highly meritorious and interesting specimens of your art that you have had the kindness to send me. I return them herewith, after having examined them with the greatest pleasure. I am naturally curious to see your drawing from 'David Copperfield,' in order that I may compare it with my own idea. In the meanwhile, I can honestly assure you that I entertain the greatest admiration for your remarkable powers."