'CENTURY GUILD HOBBY-HORSE'
VOL. III. p. 147
DANAE IN THE
BRAZEN CHAMBER
FREDERICK SANDYS
DALZIELS' 'BIBLE
GALLERY,' 1880
JACOB HEARS THE VOICE
OF THE LORD
It is quite possible, although only thirteen of the thirty or so of illustrations by Frederick Sandys appeared in Once a Week, that these thirteen have been the most potent factor in giving the magazine its peculiar place in the hearts of artists. The general public may have forgotten its early volumes, but at no time since they were published have painters and pen-draughtsmen failed to prize them. During the years that saw them appear there are frequent laudatory references in contemporary journals, with now and again the spiteful attack which is only awarded to work that is unlike the average. Elsewhere mention is made of articles upon them which have appeared from time to time by Messrs. Edmund Gosse, J. M. Gray, Joseph Pennell, and others. During the 'seventies,' no less than in the 'eighties' or 'nineties,' men cut out the pages and kept them in their portfolios; so that to-day, in buying volumes of the magazine, a wise person is careful to see that the 'Sandys' are all there before completing the purchase. Therefore, should the larger public admit them formally into the limited group of its acknowledged masterpieces, it will only imitate the attitude which from the first fellow-artists have maintained towards them.
The original drawings, 'If,' Life's Journey, The Little Mourner, and Jacques de Caumont, were exhibited at the 'Arts and Crafts,' 1893. That a companion volume to Millais's Parables, with illustrations of The Story of Joseph, was actually projected, and the first drawings completed, is true, and one's regret that circumstances—those hideous circumstances, which need not be explained fully, of an artist's ideas rejected by a too prudish publisher—prevented its completion, is perhaps the most depressing item recorded in the pages of this volume.
That some thirty designs all told should have established the lasting reputation of an artist would be somewhat surprising, did not one realise that almost every one is a masterpiece of its kind. Owing to the courtesy of all concerned, so large a number of these are reproduced herewith that a detailed description of each would be superfluous. But, at the risk of repeating a list already printed and reprinted, it is well to condense the scattered references in the foregoing pages in a convenient paragraph, wherein those republished in Thornbury's Legendary Ballads (Chatto, 1876) are noted with an asterisk:—
The Cornhill Magazine: The Portent ('60), Manoli ('62), Cleopatra ('66); Once a Week: *Yet once more on the organ play, The Sailor's Bride, From my Window, *Three Statues of Ægina, Rosamund Queen of the Lombards (all 1861), *The Old Chartist, *The King at the Gate, *Jacques de Caumont, *King Warwolf, *The Boy Martyr, *Harold Harfagr (all '62), and Helen and Cassandra ('66); Good Words: Until her Death ('62), Sleep ('63); Churchman's Family Magazine: *The Waiting Time ('63); Shilling Magazine: Amor Mundi ('65); The Quiver: Advent of Winter ('66); The Argosy: 'If' ('65); The Century Guild Hobby Horse: Danae ('88); Wilmot's Sacred Poetry: Life's Journey, The Little Mourner; Cassell's Family Magazine: Proud Maisie ('81); and Dalziels' Bible Gallery: Jacob hears the voice of the Lord.