BY R. ANNING BELL. FROM AN ORIGINAL PEN DRAWING.
Most of the younger men of individuality have studied abroad and, like Americans, have returned home more or less affected by continental ideas. It would be quite impossible for me to place any estimate on their work, or even attempt to describe it. But certainly it is to some of the new weekly and daily journals and less known monthlies that one must look for their illustrations. It seems to me that E. J. Sullivan, A. S. Hartrick, T. S. Crowther, H. R. Millar, F. Pegram, L. Raven-Hill, W. W. Russell are doing much to brighten the pages of the papers to which they contribute. Raven-Hill, Maurice Greiffenhagen, Edgar Wilson and Oscar Eckhardt have made a most interesting experiment in "The Butterfly," which I hope will have the success it deserves.[20] R. Anning Bell, Aubrey Beardsley, Reginald Savage, Charles Ricketts, C. H. Shannon and L. Pissarro have the courage of their convictions and the ability often to carry out their ideas. Beardsley, in his edition of the "Morte d'Arthur," "Salome," and his "Yellow Book" pictures, among other things, has acquired a reputation in a very short space of time. R. Anning Bell has become known by his very delightful book-plates, while Ricketts, Shannon and Pissarro, are not only their own artists and engravers, but editors and publishers as well. "The Dial" is their organ, and it has contained very many beautiful drawings by them, though they have contributed covers and title-pages to various books and magazines, and have brought out an edition of "Daphnis and Chloe" which must serve to perpetuate the imperfections of the Middle-Age wood-cutter. Wal Paget, W. H. Hatherell, and G. L. Seymour, in very different ways, head a long list of illustrators who can decorate a story with distinction, or depict an event almost at a moment's notice. In facility, I suppose there is no one to equal Herbert Railton, unless it be Hugh Thomson. They have together illustrated "Coaching Days and Coaching Ways." Railton must have drawn almost all the cathedrals and historic houses in the country; and Thomson is in a fair way to resurrect many forgotten and unforgotten authors of the last century. J. D. Batten's illustrations to Celtic, English, and Indian fairy tales are extremely interesting, while Launcelot Speed and H. J. Ford have for several years been making designs for Mr. Lang's series of fairy books. Laurence Housman has this year scored a decided success with his illustrations for Miss Rossetti's "Goblin Market." To Bernard Partridge has fallen of late the task of upholding "Punch" from its artistic end; this has apparently proved too much even for him, since I note that for the first time in its existence that paper is employing outsiders and even foreigners. To what is England, or rather "Punch," coming? His drawings for Mr. Anstey's sketches have been deservedly well received, while lately he, too, has fallen a victim to the eighteenth century in his striking illustrations for Mr. Austin Dobson's "Beau Brocade." Mr. E. T. Reed, of the same journal, during the last year has developed not only a most delightful vein of humour, but an original style of handling—his burlesques of the decadents are better than the originals almost. Reginald Cleaver can probably produce a drawing for a cheap process with more success than anyone, and yet, at the same time, his work is full of character. It is pleasant to turn to men like Sir George Reid and Alfred Parsons, with whom exquisite design and skilled technique, and not cheapness, is the aim in their illustrative work. Parsons has, with Abbey, in "Old Songs," "A Quiet Life," etc., and alone in Wordsworth's "Sonnets," and also in the "Warwickshire Avon," produced the books which reach the high-water mark of English illustration, although they were first published in America. On the other hand Sir George Reid's designs for "Johnny Gibb," "The River Tweed and the River Clyde," and several other publications of David Douglas of Edinburgh, have been brought out altogether in this country.
BY J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE. FROM AUSTIN DOBSON’S
“PROVERBS IN PORCELAIN” (KEGAN PAUL AND CO.).
BY HOLMAN HUNT. FROM GATTY’S “PARABLES” (BELL, 1867).
BY E. H. NEW. FROM A PEN DRAWING FOR “THE QUEST,” NO. 3.
BY WINIFRED SMITH. FROM “CHILDREN’S SINGING GAMES” (NUTT).