PEN DRAWING BY C. D. GIBSON. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”
PEN DRAWING BY OLIVER HERFORD. FROM “FABLES” (GAY AND BIRD).
Mr. C. D. Gibson exhibits the follies and graces of society; it was he who contributed so brilliantly to the success of "Life," the American "Punch." Messrs. Frost, Kemble, Redwood, Remington, show the life of the West and the South; while, as a comic draughtsman, Frost stands at the head of Americans. These men's work will one day be regarded as historical documents. Mr. Remington has given the rapidly vanishing Indian and cowboy, especially in the "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman." Mr. Frost's drawings of the farmer in the Middle States will later be as valuable records as Menzel's "Uniforms of Frederick the Great." Mr. Kemble is not alone in his delineation of darkey life and character. In fact, he has rather worked in a field which was marked out for him by W. L. Shepherd and Gilbert Gaul. W. Hamilton Gibson has treated many beautiful and pleasing aspects of nature, both as writer and illustrator. Blum, Brennan and Lungren transported the Fortuny, Rico, Vierge movement to America, but have now worked out schemes for themselves. Blum has produced more complete work than the others, however, and his illustrations to Sir Edwin Arnold's "Japonica," and his own articles on Japan, have given him a deservedly prominent position. Elihu Vedder, most notably in his edition of Omar Khayyam, Kenyon Cox, and Will Low, who have illustrated Keats and Rossetti, are responsible for much of the decoration and decorative design in the country, and there are many other extremely clever, brilliant and most artistic men whose work can be found almost every month in the magazines. Mr. Childe Hassam has brought Parisian methods to bear upon the illustration of New York life; and Mr. Reginald Birch's studies of childhood, though frequently German in handling, are altogether delightful in results, his drawings having no doubt added much to the popularity of "Little Lord Fauntleroy;" in the same sort of work P. Newell and Oliver Herford are distinguished. Mrs. Mary Halleck Foote is one of the few who continue to draw upon the wood, and very beautifully she does this; while Mrs. Alice Barber Stephens, and Miss Katharine Pyle prove that there is no earthly reason why women should not be illustrators. Mr. Otto Bacher, Mr. W. H. Drake and Mr. Charles Graham turn the most uninteresting photograph, if they are not doing original work, into a pleasing design; while that phenomenally clever Frenchman, A. Castaigne, who, I believe, now considers himself to be naturalized, gets more movement and dramatic feeling into his drawing than almost anyone else, though he is closely approached in some ways by T. de Thulstrup.
BY F. HOPKINSON SMITH. FROM “THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.”
PEN DRAWING BY ROBERT BLUM. FROM “SCRIBNER’S MAGAZINE.”
BY CHILDE HASSAM. FROM A PEN DRAWING MADE FOR THE “NEW YORK COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.”