DEATH DEALING
ARROWS
The ninth volume, like the eighth, has only one picture by Millais not illustrating its serial. This is Hacco the Dwarf (p. 504). The others represent scenes in Miss Martineau's Sir Christopher (pp. 491, 519, 547, 575, 603, 631, 659, 687), a seventeenth-century story. The illustrators of to-day should study these and other pictures where the artist was hampered by the story, and imitate his loyal purpose to expound and amplify the text, accomplishing it the while with most admirably dramatic composition and strong character-drawing. In the remaining volume of the first series there are no other examples by Millais; nor, with the exceptions Death Dealing Arrows (Jan. 25, 1868, p. 79), one in the Christmas Number for 1860, and Taking his Ease, 1868 (p. 65), does he appear as a contributor to the magazine. It must not be forgotten that high prices are often responsible for the desire, or rather the necessity, of using second-rate work. When an artist attains a position that monopolises all his working hours, it is obvious that he cannot afford to accept even the highest current rate of payment for magazine illustration; nor, on the other hand, can an editor, who conducts what is after all a commercial enterprise, afford to pay enormous sums for its illustrations. For later drawings this artist was paid at least five times as much as for his earlier efforts, and possibly in some cases ten or twelve times as much.
Charles Keene, the great illustrator so little appreciated by his contemporaries, whose fame is still growing daily, was a frequent contributor to Once a Week for many years. Starting with volume i. he depicted, in quasi-mediæval fashion, Charles Reade's famous Cloister and the Hearth, then called, in its first and shorter form, A Good Fight (pp. 11, 31, 51, 71, 91, 111, 131, 151, 171, 191, 211, 231, 251, 254, 273). Coincidently he illustrated also Guests at the Red Lion (pp. 61, 65), A Fatal Gift (p. 141), Uncle Simkinson (pp. 201, 203), Gentleman in the Plum-coloured Coat (p. 270), Benjamin Harris (pp. 427, 449, 471), My Picture Gallery (p. 483), and A Merry Christmas (p. 544). In volume ii. there are only five illustrations by him (pp. 1, 5, 54, 111, and 451) to shorter tales; but to George Meredith's Evan Harrington, running through this volume and the next, he contributes thirty-nine drawings, some of them in his happiest vein, all showing strongly and firmly marked types of character-drawing, in which he excelled. Volume iii. contains also, on pages 20, 426, 608, 687, and 712, less important works: The Emigrant Artist on p. 608 is a return to the German manner which distinguished the Good Fight. The drawings for Sam Bentley's Christmas commence here in (pp. 687, 712), and are continued (pp. 19, 45, 155, 158) in vol. iv., where we also find In re Mr. Brown (pp. 330, 332), The Beggar's Soliloquy (p. 378), A Model Strike (p. 466), The Two Norse Kings (pp. 519, 547), and The Revenue Officer's Story (p. 713). In volume v. are: The Painter Alchemist (p. 43), Business with Bokes (p. 251), William's Perplexities (pp. 281, 309, 337, 365, 393), also a romantic subject, Adalieta (p. 266): a poem by Edwin Arnold, and The Patriot Engineer (p. 686). To the sixth volume, the illustrations for The Woman I Loved and The Woman who loved me (pp. 85, 113, 141, 169, 197, 225, 253, 281) are by Keene, as are also those to My Schoolfellow Friend (p. 334), A Legend of Carlisle (p. 407), a curiously Germanic Page from the History of Kleinundengreich (p. 531), Nip's Daimon (p. 603), and A Mysterious Supper-Party (659). In vol. vii. and vol. viii. Verner's Pride, by Mrs. Henry Wood, supplies motives for seventeen pictures. In vol. viii. The March of Arthur (p. 434), The Bay of the Dead (p. 546), and My Brother's Story (p. 617). In vol. ix. The Viking's Serf (p. 42), The Station-master (pp. 1, 69), and The Heirloom (pp. 435, 463) complete Charles Keene's share in the illustration of the thirteen volumes of the first series.
Fred Walker is often supposed to have made his first appearance as an illustrator in Once a Week, vol. ii. with Peasant Proprietorship (p. 165); and, although an exception of earlier date may be discovered, it is only in an obscure paper (of which the British Museum apparently has no copy) barely a month before. For practical purposes, therefore, Once a Week may be credited with being the first-established periodical to commission a young artist whose influence upon the art of the sixties was great. This drawing was quickly followed by God help our Men at Sea (p. 198), An honest Arab (p. 262), Après (p. 330), Lost in the Fog (p. 370), Spirit Painting (p. 424), and Tenants at No. 27 (p. 481), and The Lake at Yssbrooke (p. 538). Looking closely at these, in two or three only can you discover indications of the future creator of Philip. Those on pages 424 and 481 are obviously the work of the Fred Walker as we know him now. But those on pp. 165, 198, 330, and 538 would pass unnoticed in any magazine of the period, except that the full signature 'F. Walker' arouses one's curiosity, and almost suggests, like Lewis Carroll's re-attribution of the Iliad, 'another man of the same name.'
CHARLES KEENE
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. I. p. 91
'A GOOD FIGHT'
In vol. iii. a poem, Once upon a Time, by Eliza Cook, has two illustrations (pp. 24, 25), which, tentative as they are, and not faultless in drawing, foreshadow the grace of his later work. In Markham's Revenge (pp. 182–184) the artist is himself, as also in Wanted a Diamond Ring (p. 210). A Noctuary of Terror (pp. 294, 295), First Love (p. 322), The Unconscious Bodyguard (p. 359), are unimportant. The Herberts of Elfdale (pp. 449, 454, 477, 505, 508), possibly the first serial Walker illustrated, is infinitely better. Black Venn (p. 583), A Young Wife's Song (p. 668), and Putting up the Christmas, a drawing group, complete the examples by this artist in vol. iii. Volume iv. contains: Under the Fir-trees (p. 43), Voltaire at Ferney (p. 66), a very poor thing, The Fan (p. 75), Bring me a light (pp. 102–105), The Parish Clerk's Story (p. 248), The Magnolia (pp. 263, 267), Dangerous (p. 416), An Old Boy's Tale (p. 499), Romance of the Cab-rank (p. 585), and The Jewel Case (p. 631). In vol. v. we find Jessie Cameron's Bairn (p. 15), The Deserted Diggings (p. 83), Pray, sir, are you a Gentleman? (pp. 127, 133), A Run for Life (p. 306), Cader Idris (p. 323), and a series of illustrations to The Settlers of Long Arrow: a Canadian Story (pp. 421, 449, 477, 505, 533, 561, 589, 617, 645, 673, and 701). To volume vi. Walker contributes Patty (pp. 126, 127), A Dreadful Ghost (p. 211), and nine to Dutton Cook's The Prodigal Son (pp. 449, 477, 505, 533, 561, 589, 617, 673, 701), which story, running into volume vii., has further illustrations on pp. 1, 29, and 57. The Deadly Affinity (pp. 421, 449, 477), and Spirit-rapping Extraordinary (p. 614) are the only others by the artist in this volume. The eighth volume has but one, After Ten Years (p. 378), and The Ghost in the Green Park (p. 309) is the only one in volume ix., and his last in the first series. Vol. i. of the New Series has the famous Vagrants (p. 112) for one of its special art supplements.
Amid contemporary notices you often find the work of M. J. Lawless placed on the same level as that of Millais or Sandys; but, while few of the men of the period have less deservedly dropped out of notice, one feels that to repeat such an estimate were to do an injustice to a very charming draughtsman. For the sake of his future reputation it is wiser not to attempt to rank him with the greatest; but in the second order he may be fitly placed. For fancy and feeling, no less than for his loyal adherence to the Dürer line, at a time it found little favour, Lawless deserves to be more studied by the younger artists of to-day. A great number of decorative designers are too fond of repeating certain mannerisms, and among others, Lawless in England and Howard Pyle in America, two men inspired by similar purpose, should receive more attention than they have done. Once a Week contains the largest number of his drawings. In vol. i., to Sentiment from the Shambles, there are three illustrations attributed to him. Those on pp. 505 and 509 are undoubtedly by Lawless, but that on p. 507 is so unlike his method, and indeed so unimportant, that it matters not whether the index be true or in error.