"OLD CHRISTMAS."
The "new departure" which Caldecott made in the summer of 1874 will be
seen clearly marked in the next few pages, where, with the permission
of the publishers, we have reproduced some characteristic drawings from
_Old Christmas_.
"There was issued in 1876 by the Messrs. Macmillan" (writes
Mr. William Clough, an old and intimate friend of Caldecott)
"a book with illustrations that forcibly drew attention to
the advent of a new exponent of the pictorial art. These
pictures were of so entirely new a nature, and gave such a
meaning and emphasis to the text, as to stir even callous
bosoms by the graceful and pure creations of the artist's
genius. Washington Irving's _Old Christmas_ was made alive
for us by a new interpreter, who brought grace of drawing
with a dainty inventive genius to the delineation of English
life in the last century."
It is not generally known that the drawings for _Old Christmas_, one
hundred and twelve in number, were all made in 1874; and there is a
marked alteration in style during the progress of this book, such as,
for example, between the drawing of "The Village Choir" (commenced in
March 1874), and the portrait of "Master Simon," placed opposite to
each other on pages 96 and 97 of the first edition of _Old Christmas_.
The humour is more robust, but never in after-work was more delightful,
than in his rendering of the typical stage coachman. Until these
illustrations came it had been said that Washington Irving's coachman
stood out as a unique and matchless description of a character that has
passed away.
"In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire," writes
Washington Irving, "I rode for a long distance on one of the
public coaches on the day preceding Christmas."
Three schoolboys were amongst his fellow-passengers. "They
were under the particular guardianship of the coachman to
whom, whenever an opportunity presented, they addressed a
host of questions, and pronounced him one of the best
fellows in the world. Indeed I could not but notice the more
than ordinary air of bustle and importance of the coachman,
who wore his hat a little on one side and had a large bunch
of Christmas green stuck in the button-hole of his coat.
"Wherever an English stage coachman may be seen he cannot be
mistaken for one of any other craft or mystery. He has
commonly a broad full face, curiously mottled with red, as
if the blood had been forced by hard feeding into every
vessel of the skin; he is swelled into jolly dimensions by
frequent potations of malt liquors, and his bulk is still
further increased by a multiplicity of coats in which he is
buried like a cauliflower, the upper one reaching to his
heels. He wears a broad-brimmed low-crowned hat; a huge roll
of coloured handkerchief about his neck, knowingly knotted
and tucked in at the bosom, and has in summer-time a large
bouquet of flowers in his button-hole, the present most
probably of some enamoured country lass. His waistcoat is
commonly of some bright colour, striped; and his small
clothes extend far below the knees to meet a pair of
jockey-boots which reach about halfway up his legs.
[Illustration: THE STAGE COACHMAN.]
"All this costume is maintained with much precision; he has
a pride in having his clothes of excellent materials; and
notwithstanding the seeming grossness of his appearance,
there is still discernible that neatness and propriety of
person which is almost inherent in an Englishman. He enjoys
great consequence and consideration along the road; has
frequent conferences with the village housewives, who look
upon him as a man of great trust and dependence; and he
seems to have a good understanding with every bright-eyed
lass. The moment he arrives he throws down the reins with
something of an air, and abandons the cattle to the care of
the ostler; his duty being merely to drive from one stage to
another. When off the box his hands are thrust in the
pockets of his greatcoat, and he rolls about the inn yard
with an air of the most absolute lordliness. Here he is
generally surrounded by an admiring throng of ostlers,
stable-boys, shoe-blacks, and those nameless hangers-on that
infest inns and taverns and run errands. Every ragamuffin
that has a coat to his back thrusts his hands in his
pockets, rolls in his gait, talks slang, and is an embryo
'coachey.'"
[Illustration: IN THE STABLE YARD.]
Surely it has seldom happened in the history of illustration that an
author should be so very closely followed--if not overtaken--by his
illustrator. No literary touch seemed to be wanting from the author to
convey a picture of English life and character passed away; but
Caldecott's coachman helps to elucidate the text; and whilst it carried
to many a reader of _Old Christmas_ in the New World a living portrait
of a past age, it revealed also the presence of a new illustrator.
Here was a reproachful lesson. The art of illustration--an art untaught
in England and unconsidered by too many--was shown in all its strength
and usefulness by a comparatively new hand.
Of the numerous illustrations drawn by Caldecott in 1874 for _Old
Christmas_, we may select as examples the young Oxonian leading out one
of his maiden aunts at a dance on Christmas Eve; and "the fair Julia"
in the intervals of dancing listening with apparent indifference to a
song from her admirer; amusing herself the while by plucking to pieces
a choice bouquet of hothouse flowers.
[Illustration: THE TROUBADOUR.]
[Illustration: THE FAIR JULIA.]
The style and treatment of the drawing, on the opposite page, differs
from anything previously done by Caldecott, and would hardly have been
recognised as his work; the handling is less firm, and colour and
quality have been more considered in deference to what was considered
the public taste in such matters. But in a few pages he emancipates
himself again, and gives us some brilliant character sketches. In the
last example from _Old Christmas_ he is in his element. Nothing could
be more characteristic, or in touch with the period illustrated, than
the picture of Frank Bracebridge, Master Simon, and the author of _Old
Christmas_, walking about the grounds of the family mansion "escorted
by a number of gentleman-like dogs, from the frisking spaniel to the
steady old staghound. The dogs were all obedient to a dog-whistle which
hung to Master Simon's button-hole, and in the midst of the gambols
would glance an eye occasionally upon a small switch he carried in his
hand."[7] Thus the minute observation of the writer is closely followed
by the illustrator, who here from his own habit of close observation of
the ways of animals, was enabled to give additional completeness to the
picture; and the effect was greatly heightened by a wise determination
on the part of Mr. Cooper the engraver, that the illustrations should
be "so mingled with the text that both united should form one picture."
This book was engraved at leisure, and not published until the end of
1875, by Messrs. Macmillan & Co., bearing date 1876.
[Illustration: MASTER SIMON AND HIS DOGS.]
It is interesting to note that _Old Christmas_ was offered to, and
declined by, one of the leading publishers in London; principally on
the ground that the illustrations were considered "inartistic,
flippant and vulgar, and unworthy of the author of _Old Christmas_"! It
was not until 1876 that the world discovered a new genius.
During the progress of the drawings for _Old Christmas_ in 1874,
Caldecott went with the writer to Brittany to make sketches for a new
book; but the publication was postponed until after a more extended
tour in 1878.
These summer wanderings of Caldecott in Brittany were prolific of work;
his pencil and notebook were never at rest, as the pages of _Breton
Folk_ testify (see Chapter xi.). The drawings, both in 1874 and
in 1878, mark a strong artistic advance upon similar work in the Harz
Mountains. His feeling for the sentiment and beauty of landscape,
especially the open land,--generally absent from the sketches in the
Harz Mountains,--is noticeable here. The statuesque grace of the
younger women, the picturesqueness of costume, operations of husbandry,
outdoor _fêtes_ and the like, and the open air effect of nearly every
group of figures seen in these summer journeys--all came as delightful
material for his pencil.
Caldecott's studies with M. Dalou, the sculptor, in 1874, and the great
proficiency he had already obtained in modelling in clay, enabled him
to make several successful groups from his Brittany subjects.
[Illustration: ON THE ROAD SIDE, BRITTANY.]
The bright-eyed stolid child in sabots at the roadside (one of the
first of the quaint little figures that attracted his attention in
Brittany) stands on the writer's table in concrete presentment in
clay; the model is not much larger than the sketch--the front, the
profile, and the back view, each forming a separate and faithful study
from life.
The young mother and child in the cathedral at Guingamp (reproduced
opposite) was another successful effort in modelling, but Caldecott was
not satisfied with it excepting as a rough sketch--"a recollection in
clay."
It is interesting here to note the handling of the artist in his
favourite material, French clay. The model stands but six inches high,
but it was intended to have reproduced it larger. Another sketch in the
round was of "a pig of Brittany," reproduced on page 194.
"Save up," he writes about this time to a friend in
Manchester, "and be an art patron; you will soon be able to
buy some interesting terra cottas by R. C.!"
This was a heavy year, for many illustrations were produced not
mentioned in these pages; and in October he was busy on the wax
bas-relief of a "Brittany horse fair," afterwards cast in metal and
exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1876 (see page 137).
[Illustration: AT GUINGAMP, BRITTANY.
Facsimile of Model in Terra Cotta, 1874.]
[Illustration: TO M. H.--CHRISTMAS, 1874.]
On the 19th of November and following days Caldecott was "working at
Dalou's on a cat crouching for a spring." He had a skeleton of a cat, a
dead cat, and a live cat to work from. This model in clay was finished
on the 8th December, 1874.
Christmas Eve was spent "in the caverns of the British Museum making a
drawing, and measuring skeleton of a white stork." This was a most
elaborate and careful record of measurements. On the 28th of December
he was "engaged on brown paper cartoon of storks at Armstrong's," and
on the 30th is the entry,--"at British Museum; had storks out of cases
to examine insertion of wing feathers."
Thus, all through the year 1874 Caldecott, working without much
recognition excepting from a few intimates, got through an immense
amount of work; not forgetting his friends the children, to whom he
sent many Christmas greetings with letters and coloured sketches. The
drawing on the opposite page accompanied a kindly letter to a child of
six years.
"I thank you," he says, "very much for your grand sheet of drawings,
which I think are very nice indeed. I hope you will go on trying and
learning to draw. There are many beautiful things waiting to be drawn.
Animals and flowers oh! such a many--and a few people."
The last sketch in 1874--a postscript to a private letter--tells its
own story.
[Illustration]
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