BY CHARLES GREEN.
BY FRED. WALKER. PROCESS BLOCK FROM AN ORIGINAL STUDY IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.
In 1868, "The North Coast," by Robert Buchanan, was issued by Routledge; it has much good work by Houghton hidden away in it. In the next year the "Graphic" started, and these books virtually ceased to appear—why, I know not. There were some spasmodic efforts, most notable of which were Whymper's magnificent "Scrambles amongst the Alps," 1871, containing T. Mahoney's best drawings and Whymper's best engraving; and "Historical and Legendary Ballads," Chatto and Windus, 1876; in this book, made up from the early numbers of the magazines, one will find Whistler's and Sandys' rare drawings; it is almost the only volume which contains these men's work, although the drawings were not done originally for it, as the editor would like one to believe.
Whistler, it is true, illustrated a "Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain," published by Ellis and White, 1878, a very interesting work, mainly in colours. But Sandys' drawings must be looked for in the magazines alone. I know of no book that he ever illustrated, a few volumes contain one or two, that is all; his drawings are separate distinct works of art, every print from them worthy of the portfolio of the collector. Dalziels issued at least two books later on, magnificent India proofs of "English Rustic Pictures," printed from the original blocks by Pinwell and Walker, done for the books I have mentioned, this volume is undated; and their Bible Gallery in 1881 (the drawings were made long before), to which all the best-known artists contributed, though the result was not altogether an artistic success; but most notable drawings by Ford Madox-Brown, Leighton, Sandys, Poynter, Burne-Jones, S. Solomon, Houghton, and T. Dalziel, are included in it.
This is the last great book illustrated by a band of artists and engravers working together in this country; whether the results are satisfactory or not, the fact remains that the engravers were most enthusiastic, and encouraged the artists as no one has done since in the making of books; and the artists were the most distinguished that have ever appeared in England. Possibly, I should also have referred to the "British Workman," which was probably the first penny paper to publish good work of a large size. And I may have treated Mr. Arthur Hughes in a rather summary fashion. But I know his original drawings far better than the books in which they were printed; the only book which I really am acquainted with is "Tom Brown's School Days;" yet I know that he has made a very large number of illustrations, especially for Norman MacLeod's books among others. After twenty-five years illustration is again reviving in England, and one looks forward hopefully to the future of this branch of art.
Ten years later than the "Graphic" came the introduction of process, and process was employed in England mainly for one reason only: cheapness. Bad cheap process—which by the way is very little worse than cheap wood-engraving—has been responsible in this country for more vile work than in all the rest of the world put together. The development of process has brought with it not only truth of reproduction, which is its aim, but evils which its inventors did not anticipate.
BY F. SANDYS. FROM THORNBURY’S “LEGENDARY BALLADS” (CHATTO AND WINDOS).
Too many process-engravers encourage the most commonplace, because it is the easiest, work. They know perfectly well that mechanical engraving will reproduce almost any drawings at the present moment, but then, good reproduction demands time and trouble and artistic intelligence. But it is no wonder that process-engravers are indifferent, when we remember the lamentable ignorance displayed by some editors, whose knowledge of art—in fact, of all art work—is simply nil. They may have piles of taste, but all of it is bad. They know exactly what the public wants, for they themselves are the public they consider. The slightest attempt at the artistic rendering of a drawing, or the appearance of a new man with a new style, is enough to put them in a rage, because they cannot understand the one or the other. And the selection of "cuts which embellish"—I believe is the expression—their pages, is left to the process man, the photographer, and the cliché agent, who of course pick out the easiest they can supply. Their other duty is to edit their contributors, that is, if screwing and jewing an artist, and taking all life and soul for work out of him, can be described as editing. Lately has sprung up a species of illustrator who licks the boots of these editors and grovels before the process man. He turns out as much work as he can in the shortest space of time, knowing that he must make as many drawings as possible before some miserable creature, more contemptible than himself, comes along with an offer to do the work at half the price which he is paid.