T. Webster, R.A.The first cheap edition of "Nicholas Nickleby" was embellished by means of a frontispiece engraved on wood by T. Williams from the picture by T. Webster, R.A., which (like Leslie's) was painted for the novelist. This exquisite painting (measuring only ten inches by seven inches) depicts the familiar scene at Dotheboys Hall, where Mrs. Squeers administers the much-dreaded brimstone and treacle; at the Dickens sale the interesting little picture realised the substantial sum of £535, 10s. It is said that the artist was so thorough and so persistent in illustrating the humours of boys' schools that he earned the sobriquet of "Dotheboys Webster."
A. B. Houghton and G. J. PinwellThe first cheap editions of later works were graced with frontispieces from the pencils of two artists better known as draughtsmen than as painters. These were A. Boyd Houghton, who designed the frontispiece for "Hard Times" (1865) and "Our Mutual Friend" (1867), and G. J. Pinwell, who furnished an illustration for "The Uncommercial Traveller" (1865)—all of which were engraved on wood by the Dalziel Brothers. In 1868 Pinwell likewise contributed four excellent woodcut illustrations to the Library Edition of the same work,[51] and it is interesting to note that in one of these, "Leaving the Morgue," he has introduced a full-length presentment of the novelist.[52] Associated with the Library Edition we find the name of Fred. Walker, A.R.A., whose position as a designer in black-and-white F. Walker, A.R.A.stands high in the first rank of English masters. This clever artist prepared four illustrations respectively for "Reprinted Pieces" and "Hard Times" (1868), and for refinement of execution they have probably never been excelled. Fred. Walker, the painter of those world-famous pictures known as "The Harbour of Refuge," "The Bathers," "The Lost Path," &c., died prematurely of consumption in 1875, at the age of thirty-five, a loss which all artists and art-lovers have never ceased to deplore. The Library Edition of the "Christmas Stories" is illustrated by F. A. Fraser, H. French, E. G. Dalziel, J. Mahoney, Townley Green, and Charles Green, fourteen woodcuts in all.
After Dickens's death, that is, during 1871-79, Chapman & Hall issued a Household Edition of his novels, ensuring their further popularity by inserting entirely fresh illustrations. The artists selected for this undertaking were Charles Green, Fred. Barnard, J. Mahoney, E. G. Dalziel, F. A. Fraser, Gordon Thomson, H. French, A. B. Frost, and J. McL. Ralston, nearly all of whom had already been represented in the Library Edition. In commenting upon these designs, it may be remarked that, of his numerous illustrators, Dickens has never been more sympathetically interpreted than by Charles Green and Fred. Barnard.
Charles Green.The thirty-two illustrations contributed by Charles Green to the Household Edition of "The Old Curiosity Shop" contrast most favourably with those by "Phiz" in the original issue; these drawings, which, for the most part, were made upon paper by means of the brush-point, are entirely free from the gross exaggeration and caricature which impart such grotesqueness to the majority of the figure subjects by Hablôt Browne for this story. Mr. Green's design for the wrapper enclosing each part of the Crown Edition of the novelist's works (subsequently published by Chapman & Hall) is cleverly conceived, for here he has introduced all the leading personages, happily grouped around the principal figure, Mr. Pickwick, who occupies an elevated position upon a pile of books representing the novels of Dickens. A few years ago Messrs. A. & F. Pears commissioned Mr. Green to design a number of illustrations for a series of their Annuals, the artist's services being specially retained for the following reprints of Dickens's Christmas Books: "A Christmas Carol" (1892), twenty-seven drawings; "The Battle of Life" (1893), twenty-nine drawings; "The Chimes" (1894), thirty drawings; and "The Haunted Man" (1895), thirty drawings. His latest productions as a Dickens illustrator consist of a series of ten new designs, reproduced by photogravure for the Gadshill Edition of "Great Expectations," recently published by Chapman & Hall. Undoubtedly Mr. Green's most important work in connection with Dickens is to be found in his water-colour drawings of scenes from the novels, of which a complete list is given in the chapter entitled "Dickens in Art."[53]
Fred. Barnard.Fred. Barnard has come to be considered, par excellence, the illustrator of the famous novelist; indeed, he has been not inaptly termed "the Charles Dickens among black-and-white artists." Like Dickens himself, he was essentially a humorist, and his designs, although never lacking in infectious humour, had always something in them which raised them above the commonplace. To his skilful and vigorous pencil the Household Edition is indebted for the majority of the illustrations appearing therein, as the following list testifies: "Sketches by Boz," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Martin Chuzzlewit," "Barnaby Rudge," "Master Humphrey's Clock" (incidental chapters), "David Copperfield," "Dombey and Son," "Bleak House," "Christmas Books," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Hunted Down," "Holiday Romance," and "George Silverman's Explanation,"—making a grand total of nearly four hundred and fifty drawings. There is no doubt that Fred. Barnard "knew his Dickens" as well as any man, and he produced (independently of the foregoing designs) a number of pictures and drawings of characters and scenes from the novels, to which special reference is made in the next chapter.
Mr. M. H. Spielmann informs me that, for the purposes of his Dickensian subjects, the model who sat to Barnard was the late well-known French. The tragic death (in his fiftieth year) of this popular artist in September 1896 is not yet forgotten. He had accustomed himself to the pernicious habit of smoking in bed, and falling asleep (under the influence of a powerful drug) while his pipe was yet alight, the bedding caught fire, with the result that he was suffocated by the smoke, his body being much burned.