But this only in passing, for our subject debars us from lingering over Hogarth’s best. {126} From the nature of our theme we are confined to the examination in the majority of cases of that which verges upon failure either from artistic or social considerations.
CHAPTER VII CANCELLED DESIGNS FOR PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK
[CHARLES KEENE AND FREDERICK SANDYS]
IN the present chapter I propose to deal with three masterly drawings prepared for the publications of Messrs. Bradbury and Evans (the predecessors of Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew) which were suppressed for various reasons. Two of them are drawings by Charles Keene done for Punch, which were never even “brought to the block.” The third is by Frederick Sandys, designed for Once a Week, and actually engraved, but cancelled before publication for reasons which shall appear.
For leave to reproduce the first—one of the rare cartoons (in this case a double-page one) drawn by Keene for Punch—I am indebted to {128} the generosity of Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew, to whom the original drawing now belongs. For years it has hung amongst other well-nigh priceless treasures in the dining hall in Bouverie Street, Whitefriars, and, until reproduced by me in the Pall Mall Magazine in 1899, was only known to the privileged few whose good fortune it has been to penetrate into that Temple of the Comic Muse. It is therefore with the greater satisfaction that it is here reproduced for the delight of that surely increasing public which recognises in Charles Keene the greatest master of pen-and-ink drawing that England has produced. But this is not the place to linger over the qualities of artists. At the same time we cannot but congratulate ourselves that, by good fortune, our chosen subject brings us into contact not only with work to which adventitious interest attaches, but also with artistic work evidencing a technical mastery hard indeed to surpass.
The Cancelled Cartoon. (By Charles Keene)
The Cancelled Cartoon. (By Charles Keene)
The only public mention before the year 1899 made of this splendid pen-and-ink drawing is to be found on page 60 of Mr. Spielmann’s monumental work, The History of Punch. There, in his most {129} interesting description of The “Punch” Dining Hall, it is described as “a masterly drawing, 2 feet long, by Keene, bought by the late Mr. Bradbury at a sale—the (unused) cartoon of Disraeli leading the principal financiers of the day in hats and frock-coats across the Red Sea. (‘Come along, it’s getting shallower!’)”