THE SINGING LESSON
—No. 2. FROM THE
ORIGINAL DRAWING
BY A. NOBODY
ILLUSTRATION FROM "ADVENTURES IN TOY LAND" BY ALICE B. WOODWARD (BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)
Prince of all foreign illustrators for babyland is M. Boutet de Monvel, whose works deserve an exhaustive monograph. Although comparatively few of his books are really well known in England, "Little Folks" contains a goodly number of his designs. La Fontaine's "Fables" (an English edition of which is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) is (so far as I have discovered) the only important volume reprinted with English text. Possibly his "Jeanne d'Arc" ought not to be named among children's books, yet the exquisite drawing of its children and the unique splendour the artist has imparted to simple colour-printing, endear it to little ones no less than adults. But it would be absurd to suppose that readers of The Studio do not know this masterpiece of its class, a book no artistic without. Earlier books by M. de Monvel, which show him in his most engaging mood (the mood in the illustration from "Little Folks" here reproduced), are "Vieilles Chansons et Rondes," by Ch. M. Widor, "La Civilité Puérile et Honnête," and "Chansons de France pour les Petits Français." Despite their entirely different characterisation of the child, and a much stronger grasp of the principles of decorative composition, these delightful designs are more nearly akin to those of Miss Kate Greenaway than are any others published in Europe or America. Yet M. de Monvel is not only absolutely French in his types and costumes but in the movement and expression of his serious little people, who play with a certain demure gaiety that those who have watched French children in the Gardens of the Luxembourg or Tuileries, or a French seaside resort, know to be absolutely truthful. For the Gallic bébé certainly seems less "rampageous" than the English urchin. A certain daintiness of movement and timidity in the boys especially adds a grace of its own to the games of French children which is not without its peculiar charm. This is singularly well caught in M. de Monvel's delicious drawings, where naïvely symmetrical arrangement and a most admirable simplicity of colour are combined. Indeed, of all non-English artists who address the little people, he alone has the inmost secret of combining realistic drawing with sumptuous effects in conventional decoration.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "PRINCE BOOHOO" BY GORDON BROWNE (GARDNER, DARTON AND CO. 1897)
The work of the Danish illustrator, Lorenz Froelich, is almost as familiar in English as in Continental nurseries, yet his name is often absent from the title-pages of books containing his drawings. Perhaps those attributed to him formally that are most likely to be known by British readers are in "When I was a Little Girl" and "Nine Years Old" (Macmillan), but, unless memory is treacherous, one remembers toy-books in colours (published by Messrs. Nelson and others), that were obviously from his designs. A little known French book, "Le Royaume des Gourmands," exhibits the artist in a more fanciful aspect, where he makes a far better show than in some of his ultra-pretty realistic studies. Other French volumes, "Histoire d'un Bouchée de Pain," "Lili à la Campagne," "La Journée de Mademoiselle Lili," and the "Alphabet de Mademoiselle Lili," may possibly be the original sources whence the blocks were borrowed and adapted to English text. But the veteran illustrator has done far too large a number of designs to be catalogued here. For grace and truth, and at times real mastery of his material, no notice of children's artists could abstain from placing him very high in their ranks.
Oscar Pletsch is another artist—presumably a German—whose work has been widely republished in England. In many respects it resembles that of Froelich, and is almost entirely devoted to the daily life of the inmates of the nursery, with their tiny festivals and brief tragedies. It would seem to appeal more to children than their elders, because the realistic transcript of their doings by his hand often lacks the touch of pathos, or of grown-up humour that finds favour with adults.
The mass of children's toy-books published by Messrs. Dean, Darton, Routledge, Warne, Marcus Ward, Isbister, Hildesheimer and many others cannot be considered exhaustively, if only from the fact that the names of the designers are frequently omitted. Probably Messrs. Kronheim & Co., and other colour-printers, often supplied pictures designed by their own staff. Mr. Edmund Evans, to whom is due a very large share of the success of the Crane, Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway (Routledge) books, more frequently reproduced the work of artists whose names were considered sufficiently important to be given upon the books themselves. A few others of Routledge's toy-books besides those mentioned are worth naming. Mr. H.S. Marks, R.A., designed two early numbers of their shilling series: "Nursery Rhymes" and "Nursery Songs;" and to J. D. Watson may be attributed the "Cinderella" in the same series. Other sixpenny and shilling illustrated books were by C. H. Bennett, C. W. Cope, A. W. Bayes, Julian Portch, Warwick Reynolds, F. Keyl, and Harrison Weir.