FROM MR. ANNING BELL'S 'KEATS.'
BY LEAVE OF MESSRS. GEORGE BELL.
So if Mr. Anning Bell represents the 'Arts and Crafts' movement in the variety of decorative arts he has practised, and in the architectural sense underlying all his art, his work does not agree with the form in which the influence of William Morris on decorative illustration has chiefly shown itself. That form, of course, is Gothic, as the ideal of Kelmscott was Gothic. The work of the 'Century Guild' artists as decorative illustrators is chiefly in the pages of 'The Hobby Horse.' Mr. Selwyn Image and Mr. Herbert Horne can hardly be included among book illustrators, so in this connection one may not stop to consider the decorative strength of their ideal in art. The Birmingham school represents Gothic ideals with determination and rigidity. Morris addressed the students of the school and prefaced the edition of 'Good King Wenceslas,' decorated and engraved and printed by Mr. A. J. Gaskin 'at the press of the Guild of Handicraft in the City of Birmingham,' with cordial words of appreciation for the pictures. These illustrations are among the best Mr. Gaskin has done. The commission for twelve full-page drawings to 'The Shepheardes Calendar' (Kelmscott Press, 1896) marks Morris's pleasure in Mr. Gaskin's work—especially in the illustrations to Andersen's 'Stories and Fairy Tales.' If not quite in tune with Spenser's Elizabethan idyllism, these drawings are distinctive of the definite convictions of the artist.
FROM MR. GASKIN'S 'HANS ANDERSEN.'
BY LEAVE OF MR. GEORGE ALLEN.
These convictions represent a splendid tradition. They are expressive, in their regard for the unity of the page, for harmony between type and decoration, of the universal truth in all fine bookmaking. Only at times, Birmingham work seems rather heavy in spirit, rather too rigid for development. Still, judging by results, a code that would appear to be against individual expression is inspiring individual artists. Some of these—as Mr. E. H. New—have turned their attention to architectural and 'open-air' illustration, in which connection their work will be considered, and many have illustrated children's books. Their quaint and naïve fancy has there, at times, produced a portentous embodiment of the 'old-fashioned' child of fiction. Mr. Gere, though he has done little book-illustration, is one of the strongest artists of the school. His original wood engravings show unmistakably his decorative power and his craftsmanship. With Mr. K. Fairfax Muckley he was responsible for 'The Quest' (1894-96). Mr. Fairfax Muckley has illustrated and decorated a three-volume edition of 'The Faerie Queene' (1897), wherein the forest branches and winding ways of woodland and of plain are more happily conventionalized than are Spenser's figures. Some of the headpieces are especially successful. The artist uses the 'mixed convention' of solid black and line with less confusion than many modern draughtsmen. Once its dangers must have been evident, but now the puzzle pattern, with solid blacks in the foreground, background, and mid-distance—only there is no distance in these drawings—is a common form of black and white.
Miss Celia Levetus, Mr. Henry Payne, Mr. F. Mason, and Mr. Bernard Sleigh, are also to the credit of the school. Miss Levetus, in her later work, shows that an inclination towards a more flexible style is not incompatible with the training in Gothic convention. Mr. Mason's illustrations to ancient romances of chivalry give evidence of conscientious craftsmanship, and of a spirit sympathetic to themes such as 'Renaud of Montauban.' Mr. Bernard Sleigh's original wood-engravings are well known and justly appreciated. Strong in tradition and logic as is the work of these designers, it is, for many, too consistent with convention to be delightful. Perhaps the best result of the Birmingham school will hardly be achieved until the formal effect of its training is less patent.
The 'sixties' might have been void of art, so far as these designers are concerned, save that in those days Morris and Burne-Jones and Walter Crane, as well as Millais and Houghton and Sandys, were about their work. Far other is the case with artists such as Mr. Byam Shaw, or with the many draughtsmen, including Messrs. P. V. Woodroffe, Henry Ospovat, Philip Connard, and Herbert Cole, whose art derives its form and intention from the sixties. Differing in technical power and fineness of invention, in all that distinguishes good from less good, they have this in common—that the form of their art would have been quite other if the illustrated books of that period were among things unseen. Mr. Byam Shaw began his work as an illustrator in 1897 with a volume of 'Browning's Poems,' edited by Dr. Garnett. He proved himself in these drawings, as in his pictures and later illustrations, an artist with a definite memory for the forms, and a genuine sympathy with the aims of pre-Raphaelite art. Evidently, too, he admires the black-and-white of Mr. Abbey. He has the gift of dramatic conception, sees a situation at high pitch, and has a pleasant way of giving side-lights, pictorial asides, by means of decorative head and tailpieces. His illustrations to the little green and gold volumes of the 'Chiswick Shakespeare' are more emphatic than his earlier work, and in the decorations his power of summarizing the chief motive is put to good use. There is no need of his signature to distinguish the work of Byam Shaw, though he shows himself under the influence of various masters. Probably he is only an illustrator of books by the way, but in the meantime, as the 'Boccaccio,' 'Browning,' and 'Shakespeare' drawings show, he works in black and white with vigorous intention.
Mr. Ospovat's illustrations to 'Shakespeare's Sonnets' and to 'Matthew Arnold's Poems' are interesting, if not very markedly his own. He illustrates the Sonnets as a celebration of a poet's passion for his mistress. As in these, so in the Matthew Arnold drawings, he shows some genuine creative power and an aptitude for illustrative decoration. Mr. Philip Connard has made spirited and well-realized illustrations in somewhat the same kind; Miss Amelia Bauerle, and Mr. Bulcock, who began by illustrating 'The Blessed Damozel' in memory of Rossetti, have made appearance in the 'Flowers of Parnassus' series, and Mr. Herbert Cole, with three of these little green volumes, prepared one for more important work in 'Gulliver's Travels' (1900).
The work of Mr. Woodroffe was, I think, first seen in the 'Quarto'—the organ of the Slade School—where also Mr. A. Garth Jones, Mr. Cyril Goldie, and Mr. Robert Spence, gave unmistakable evidence of individuality. Mr. Woodroffe's wood-engravings in the 'Quarto' showed strength, which is apparent, too, in the delicately characterized figures to 'Songs from Shakespeare's Plays' (1898), with their borders of lightly-strung field flowers. His drawings to 'The Confessions of S. Augustine,' engraved by Miss Clemence Housman, are in keeping with the text, not impertinent. Mr. A. Garth Jones in the 'Quarto' seemed much influenced by Japanese grotesques; but in illustrations to Milton's 'Minor Poems' (1898) he has shown development towards the expression of beauty more austere, classical, controlled to the presentment of Milton's high thought. His recent 'Essays of Elia' remind one of the forcible work of Mr. E. J. Sullivan in 'Sartor Resartus.' Mr. Sullivan's 'Sartor' and 'Dream of Fair Women' must be mentioned. His mastery over an assertive use of line and solid black, the unity of his effects, the humour and imagination of his decorative designs, are not likely to be forgotten, though the balance of his work in illustrations to Sheridan, Marryat, Sir Walter Scott, obliges one to class him with "character" illustrators, and so to leave a blank in this article.