FROM CRUIKSHANK’S “THREE COURSES.”
FROM CRUIKSHANK’S “THREE COURSES.”
Wood-engravings, not signed.
In England, too, very good work was being done, though it was not so absolutely artistic as the French. Among the men who were working were Thurston, Stothard, Harvey, Landseer, Wilkie, Calcott, and Mulready. The "Penny Magazine" was started in 1832 by Charles Knight. Gray's "Elegy" appeared in 1836, the "Arabian Nights" in 1838, and, about the same time the "Solace of Song," both containing much of Harvey's best work; while later came those drawings by Cruikshank, which mainly owe their claim to notice to the marvellous interpretations of them made by the Thompsons and the Williamses. In England, however, the engravers were seeking more and more to imitate steel, the artist's simplest washes being turned into the most elaborate cross-hatching, which made each block look as if it were a mass of pen-and-ink or pencil detail, when no such work was ever put on it by the draughtsman. The artist was ignored by the engraver, until finally the latter became absolutely supreme, that is to say, his shop became supreme, while the artist who, when he had the chance, could give on a piece of wood an inch or two square, most beautiful, even great, effects of landscape, was subordinated wholly to his interpreter. For an accurate account of this inartistic triumph I would recommend the works of Mr. W. J. Linton.
In France the art of illustration continued to improve. It culminated in 1858 in the "Contes Rémois," with Meissonier for draughtsman and Lavoignat and Leveille for engravers. These illustrations are absolutely equal to Menzel's best work, and are by far the finest ever produced in France.
FROM CRUIKSHANK’S “TABLE BOOK.”
Engraved on wood by T. Williams.
I had always supposed Menzel to occupy a position quite as original as Bewick's. But I find that he was really a follower of Meissonier. His "Life of Frederick the Great" was not published until 1842, while the "Paul et Virginie" had appeared in 1835. Besides, the first of his drawings for the "Frederick" Menzel confided to French engravers,[10] especially to the men who had reproduced Tony Johannot. But this artist's illustrations, though in point of size the most important, in point of excellence are the worst in the French book, being not unlike characterless steel engravings. It is therefore not surprising that Menzel was dissatisfied with the results, and that he proceeded at once to train a number of Germans to produce engravings of his work in facsimile. The best of these men were Bentworth, Unzelmann, the Vogels, Kreitzschmar, who engraved the drawings for the "Works of Frederick the Great," and the "Heroes of War and Peace," those monuments to Menzel's art and German illustration. Indeed, it seems to me that, until the introduction of photography, there is little to be said of German illustration that does not relate entirely to Menzel and Dietz, and some of the artists on "Fliegende Blätter," which was founded in 1844.