It was decreed, alas! that Mr. Fildes's visit to Charles Dickens's "little Kentish freehold" would never be realised while the great writer lived. On the morning of the appointed day, Dickens intended making his usual weekly call at the office of All the Year Round, and was to have been accompanied on his return by Mr. Fildes. That very day, however, the artist (whose luggage was packed ready for departure) took up the newspaper, and was startled to read the melancholy intelligence that Dickens was no more. This terribly sudden death changed everything; but in order to fulfil the novelist's express desire, the artist was invited (after the funeral) to stay with the Dickens family. "It was then," remarks Mr. Fildes, "while in the house of mourning, I conceived the idea of "The Empty Chair," and at once got my colours from London, and made the water-colour drawing a very faithful record of his library."[50]
The death of Dickens had an extraordinary effect on Mr. Fildes, for it seemed as though the cup of happiness had been dashed from his lips. Following the example of Mr. Marcus Stone, he decided to abandon black-and-white illustration and direct his entire attention to painting, with what success all the world knows. In 1879 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and attained full honours eight years later. The first picture that brought him into notice was "Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward" (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874), this being elaborated from The Graphic drawing, "Houseless and Hungry," which, as already described, led to his acquaintance with the author of "Pickwick." While occupied with this important canvas, Mr. Fildes was desired by Forster to call upon him, and, on entering the study, he was interrogated respecting his welfare; for Forster apparently opined that the demise of the novelist, and the consequent termination of his illustration-work for "Edwin Drood," might have caused the young artist some embarrassment. After listening intently to Mr. Fildes's description of the subject he was then painting, Forster suddenly exclaimed, "How very strange! You are exactly depicting a scene witnessed by Dickens himself many years ago. I have just copied his letter referring to it, which has never been out of my possession;" and from an accumulation of papers on his desk (for he was then preparing his biography of the novelist) he abstracted the missive in which the novelist alluded to the unfortunate outcasts as "dumb, wet, silent horrors—sphinxes set up against that dead wall, and none likely to be at the pains of solving them until the general overthrow." Mr. Fildes was so struck by this coincidence, that he sought and obtained permission to quote Dickens's forcible sentence under the title of his picture when printed in the Academy Catalogue.
Mr. Luke Fildes has many pleasant recollections of Charles Dickens to impart. "He was extremely kind to me," observes the artist, "and, when living in Hyde Park Place, asked me to many of his entertainments. He was almost fatherly, seeming to throw a protecting air over me, and always elaborately introducing me to his guests." The artist still cherishes, as valued mementoes, a little memorandum porcelain slate bound in leather, a quill pen with the blue ink dried upon it, and a square sheet of blue paper, which were given to him by Miss Hogarth, who found them on the novelist's desk just as he had left them.
When Dickens died, only three numbers of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" had been published. The illustrations for the ensuing portion of the story, as completed up to the time of his brief but fatal illness, had yet to be executed, and it is interesting to know that the titles for these were composed by the artist. With a view to future numbers, Mr. Fildes had made several drawings in Rochester, including the choir of the Cathedral and the exterior of Eastgate House (i.e. "The Nuns' House"), which were never utilised; he also painted a view of Rochester Castle and Cathedral as seen from the Medway, this being reproduced as a vignette for the engraved title-page. The artist invariably signed his drawings "S. L. Fildes;" but in the vignette here referred to the signature incorrectly appears as "J. L. Fildes."
Plate LXVII
STUDY FOR MR. GREWGIOUS
Facsimile of the Original Sketch by
LUKE FILDES, R.A.
This figure appears in the Illustration entitled "Up the River." Vide "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."
Lent by the Artist.
