BY A. DE NEUVILLE. FROM “COUPS DE FUSIL” (CHARPENTIER).
Wood-engraving by Farlet.
BY GUSTAVE DORÉ.
Process block, from a Lithograph.
A few words as to the men, and the books they have illustrated. The artist who was most in evidence twenty years ago was Gustave Doré. The unceasing stream of books which continued for years to delight the provinces and to amaze his biographers was then at its flood. That Doré was a man of the most marvellous imagination, no one will doubt; that his imagination ran completely away with him is equally true. He has had no influence upon anything but the very cheapest form of wood-engraving. Though it is easy to understand his popularity, it is difficult, considering how much really good work he did, to explain why he has been completely ignored as an artist. There is no question that some of his compositions were magnificent, even if every figure and type in them was mannered and hackneyed to a horrible degree. The only way in which we can account for his utter failure as an artist, is the fact that he was ruined by the praise of his friends. Although Doré started as a lithographer, carrying on the traditions of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries, Daumier and Gavarni, Raffet and Charlet, he soon took to drawing on the block, and for years the world was inundated with his work. In popularity no one ever approached him, but his drawing on the block is no more to be compared to Meissonier's, than his lithographs to Gavarni's, who contributed some of the most exquisite designs to "L'Artiste" in its early days.
In Alphonse de Neuville's "Coups de Fusil," one will find most delightful renderings of the late war, while many of his illustrations to Guizot's "History of France," or "En Campagne" are superb. His rival and successor, Detaille, has carried on the military tradition very well in "L'Armée Française," which contains the best illustrations of any sort that he ever did. P. G. Jeanniot also has done excellent work in the same field, but his studies of Parisian types are probably still more successful. The best work of all is probably contained in Dentu's edition of "Tartarin de Tarascon." L. Lhermitte, too, has made some striking drawings in charcoal, both for reproduction by photography and for engraving on wood, especially in "La Vie Rustique," where the designs were extraordinarily well engraved. Jean Paul Laurens heads a long list of painters who have made many pictures in black and white for the illustration of books, but most of them are duller as illustrators than painters. Maurice Leloir and V. A. Poirson have illustrated the "Sentimental Journey," the "Vicar of Wakefield," and some other English books, though their point of view is always that of the Frenchman who knows little about England; their drawings were reproduced mainly by photogravure, with small blocks printed in colour, or black and white process, interspersed. About 1880 an illustrated theatrical journal was started, "Les Premières Illustrées," and in this F. Lunel, Fernand Fau, L. Galice, G. Rochegrosse, and A. F. Gourget did remarkable work. Some of the painters, too, have allowed their sketch-books to be used, and from them books of travel have been manufactured, but these are hardly to be considered seriously as illustrations, as they were not specially made for the works which contain them.
PEN DRAWING BY D. VIERGE. FROM “PABLO DE SÉGOVIE” (FISHER UNWIN).
Daniel Vierge's "Pablo de Ségovie," though the work of a Spaniard, has for twelve years held its own as the best example of pen drawing for process reproduction published in France. Following, a long way behind, come men like Henri Pille and Edouard Toudouze. The development of the Guillaume half-tone process produced the curious series of little books known under that title; and also the larger series which contained "Madame Chrysanthème" and "François le Champi," books which made tone-process in France, and also the reputation of Myrbach and Rossi.
