'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. V. p. 631
ROSAMUND, QUEEN
OF THE LOMBARDS
The index asserts that George Du Maurier is responsible for the pictures in Once a Week, vol. iii. pp. 378–379, signed M.B., and as you find others unmistakably Du Maurier's signed with various monograms, its evidence must not be gainsaid; but neither these nor others, to My Adventures ... in Russia (pp. 553, 557), The Two Hands (p. 640), and The Steady Students (pp. 691, 695), betray a hint of his well-known style. But Non Satis (p. 575) is signed in full, and obviously his, as a glance would reveal. In vol. iv., Indian Juggling (p. 41), The Black Spot (p. 134), A Life Story (p. 165), In search of Garibaldi (p. 210), and The Beggar's Soliloquy (p. 378, more like a Charles Keene) are from his hand. In the picture here reproduced, On her Deathbed (p. 603), the artist has found himself completely, yet A Portuguese Tragedy (p. 668) has no trace of his manner. In vol. v. Recollections of an English Gold Miner (p. 361), Monsieur the Governor (p. 445), A man who fell among thieves (p. 463), Sea-Bathing in France (p. 547), and The Poisoned Mind, are his only contributions. In vol. vi. are three illustrations to The Admiral's Daughters (pp. 1, 29, 57), The Hotel Garden (p. 24), The Change of Heads (p. 71), The latest thing in Ghosts (p. 99), Metempsychosis (p. 294), Per l'Amore d'una Donna (p. 390), A Parent by Proxy (p. 435), and Threescore and Ten (p. 644). Vol. vii. contains Miss Simons (p. 166), Santa (pp. 253, 281, 309, 337), Only (p. 490), and the Cannstatt Conspirators (p. 561). A Notting Hill Mystery is pictured on pages 617, 645, 673, and 701 of the seventh volume, and in vol. viii. is continued on pages 1, 5, 7, 85; Out of the Body (p. 701), is also here. Eleanor's Victory is illustrated on pages 295, 351, 407, 463, 519, 575, 631, and 687, and continued in vol. ix on pages 15, 71, 127, 183, 239, 295, 351, 407. Vol. x. contains The Veiled Portrait (p. 225), The Uninvited (p. 309), My Aunt Tricksy (p. 393), The Old Corporal (p. 462), and Detur Digniori (pp. 505 and 533). In vol. xi. we find two illustrations only by this artist, Philip Fraser's Fate, and vols. xii. and xiii. contain no single example.
A few illustrations by T. Morten appear, and these are scattered over a wide space. The first, Swift and the Mohawks (iv. p. 323), is to a ballad by Walter Thornbury; The Father of the Regiment (v. p. 71), Wish Not (x. p. 421), The Coastguardsman's Tale (x. p. 561), Late is not Never (xi. p. 141), The Cumæan Sibyl (xi. p. 603), and Macdhonuil's Coronach (xii. p. 161), make one regret the infrequent appearance of one who could do so well.
Edward J. Poynter (the present director of the National Gallery) is also sparsely represented: The Castle by the Sea (vi. p. 84), a very pre-Raphaelite decoration to Uhland's ballad, Wife and I (vi. p. 724), The Broken Vow (vii. p. 322), A Dream of Love (vii. pp. 365, 393), A Fellow-Traveller's Story (vii. pp. 699, 722), My Friend's Wedding-day (viii. p. 113), A haunted house in Mexico (viii. p. 141), Ducie of the Dale (viii. p. 476), and A Ballad of the Page to the King's Daughter (viii. p. 658), are all the examples by this artist in Once a Week.
Charles Green, of late known almost entirely as a painter, was a fecund illustrator in the sixties. Beginning with vol. iii., in which seven of his works appear (pp. 246, 327, 330, 375, 472, 612, 633), he contributed freely for several years; in vol. iv. there are examples on pp. 41, 52, 53, 357, 359, 361, and 529, and on pp. 518, 519 of the fifth volume, and 206 and 255 of the sixth, on pp. 306, 505, 589, and 670 of the seventh. But not until the eighth volume, with The Wrath of Mistress Elizabeth Gwynne (p. 169), do we find one that is of any importance. Whether spoilt by the engraver, or immature work, it is impossible to say; but the earlier designs could scarcely be identified except for the index. In the same volume The Death of Winkelried (p. 224), Milly Leslie's Story (p. 225), The Countess Gabrielle (p. 253), Corporal Pietro Micca (p. 364), Damsel John (p. 490), My Golden Hill (p. 505), Five Days in Prison (p. 533), The Queen's Messenger (p. 561), The Centurion's Escape (p. 589), and The Cry in the Dark (p. 673), are so curiously unlike the earlier, and so representative of the artist we all know, that if the 'C. Green' be the same the sudden leap to a matured style is quite remarkable. In volume ix. but three appear: Paul Garrett (p. 1), A Modern Idyll (p. 322), and My Affair with the Countess (p. 337); but in the tenth are nine: Norman's Visit (pp. 1, 43), Legend of the Castle (p. 14), A Long Agony (p. 127), The Lady of the Grange (p. 141), The Gentleman with the Lily (pp. 169, 197), The Mermaid (p. 295), and T' Runawaa Lass (p. 630). The Hunt at Portskewitt (p. 126) is in vol. xi., the last appearance of the artist I have met with in this magazine.
F. J. Shields, so far as I can trace his drawings, is represented but three times: An hour with the dead (iv. p. 491), The Risen Saint (v. p. 378), and Turberville (x. p. 378). As reference to this comparatively infrequent illustrator appears in another place no more need be said of these, except that they do not show the artist in so fine a mood as when he illustrated Defoe's History of the Plague. Simeon Solomon contributes a couple only of drawings of Jewish ceremonies (vii. pp. 192, 193). J. Luard, an artist, whose work floods the cheaper publications of the time, shows, in an early drawing, Contrasts (iii. p. 84), a pre-Raphaelite manner, and a promise which later years did not fulfil, if indeed this be by the Luard of the penny dreadfuls.
J. M'NEILL WHISTLER
