LETTERS, DIAGRAMS, ETC.
In a letter to a friend in Manchester, on the 17th January, 1875,
Caldecott writes:--
"I stick pretty close to business, pretty much in that
admirable and attentive manner which was the delight, the
pride, the exultation of the great chiefs who strode it
through the Manchester banking halls. Yes, I have not
forsaken those gay--though perhaps, to the heart yearning to
be fetterless, irksome--scenes without finding that the
world ever requires toil from those sons of labour who would
be successful.
"However, during the last year I managed to do a lot of work
away from town, and enjoyed it. Sometimes it was expensive,
because when at the cottage in Bucks, we of course mixed
with the county families and had to 'keep a carriage' to
return calls, return from dinner, and so forth."
[Illustration: AT FARNHAM ROYAL--RETURNING VISITS.]
Here is "a meditation for the New Year"--
"You will excuse me," he says, "talking of myself when I
tell you that amongst the resolutions for the New Year was
one only to talk of matters about which there was a
reasonable probability that I knew something. Now human
beings are a mystery to me, and taking them all round I
think we may consider them a failure. If I do not understand
anything that belongs to myself, how can I understand what
belongeth to another? This, my dear W., with your clear
intellect, you will see is sound.
"I often think of the scenes and faces and jokes of banking
days, and have amongst them many pleasant reminiscences.
Perhaps we shall all meet again in that land which lies
round the corner!"
[Here follows a grotesque sketch of a man on a winter's day,
with an umbrella, hurrying off to the "Nag and Nosebag."]
At the beginning of 1875, in the intervals of book illustration,
Caldecott was busy "working on a cartoon of storks." This was a design
for a picture in oils, painted in March and afterwards bought by Mr. F.
Pennington, late M. P. for Stockport.
[Illustration: SUNRISE.]
On the 7th of January he enters in his diary, "Painted some storks on
the wing for a panel for a wardrobe." The rendering of dawn on the
upmost clouds, the storks rising from the dark earth to greet the sun,
can hardly be indicated without colour, but the design is given
accurately. It was a poetic fancy which he had had in his mind for some
time; one of many half developed designs which, if his health had
permitted, the world might have seen more of.
[Illustration: STUDY IN LINE.]
On the 25th of January he "made a dry point sketch of a Quimperlé
Brittany woman," and in February he was busy modelling as usual.
On the 5th of February, "took to Lucchesi (moulder) wax bas-relief of
horse fair, and small 'sketch of brewers' waggon."
[Illustration: STUDY IN LINE.]
The advance of the art of reproducing drawings in facsimile in a cheap
form, suitable for printing at the type press like wood engravings, was
attracting much attention in England in 1875, and at the writer's
request Caldecott made a series of diagrams suggestive of the power of
line and of effects to be obtained by simple methods, to illustrate a
paper read before the Society of Arts in London in March, 1875, on "The
Art of Illustration."
[Illustration: DIAGRAM. DESIGN FOR A PICTURE, 1875.]
With his usual kindness and enthusiasm he put aside his work--some
modelling in clay which he had been studying under his friend M. Dalou,
the French sculptor--and at once began a diagram, about seven feet by
five feet, to suggest a picture in the simplest way. Without much
consideration, without models, and in the limited area of his little
studio in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, he set to work with a brush
on the broad white sheet, and in about an hour produced the drawing in
line of "Youth and Age" on the last page.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM.]
The horses were not quite satisfactory to himself; but the sentiment of
the picture, the open air effect of early spring, the crisp grass, the
birds' nests forming in the almost leafless trees, the effect of
distance indicated in a few lines--and above all, the feeling of sky
produced by the _untouched_ background--were skilfully suggested in the
large diagram.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM. "THE LECTURER."]
On other occasions, and for the same lecture, he made several other
diagrams, including one of the pursuit of a dog in a village, another
of a lecturer and various heads in an audience. The reproductions are
interesting to examine together as early work in a style in which he
afterwards was famous--a style, which was _not outline_ in the strict
sense of the word, and which to a great extent was his own. It had
little in common with Flaxman, it was not in the manner of Gillray,
Cruikshank, Doyle, or Leech; nor in the more academic manner of his
friend--and predecessor in children's books--Walter Crane.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM.]
To these somewhat tentative drawings he afterwards added to the series
a diagram, six feet high, of the famous mad dog from one of his Picture
Books, and another of the figure of a child running, reproduced above.
The discovery of a process by which a drawing on paper in line, could
be photographed and brought into relief, like a wood-block for printing
at the type press, was not perfected in England until 1875, and did not
come into general use until 1876; had it come a year or two earlier it
would have had an important influence upon Caldecott's work.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM.]
Without going too far into technicalities, it may be interesting to
illustrators to mention here that all Caldecott's best drawings in his
Picture Books, _John Gilpin_, _The House that Jack Built_, &c.; in the
_Graphic_ newspaper, and in Washington Irving's _Old Christmas_, &c.,
were photographed on to wood-blocks and have passed through the hands
of the engraver.
The system of photographic engraving (by which the drawings are
reproduced on pp. 124 and 125) bids fair to supersede wood-engraving
for rapid journalistic purposes. It naturally attracted Caldecott in
the first instance; but with increased knowledge and perception of
"values," and of the quality to be obtained in a good wood-engraving
above any mechanical reproduction in relief, Caldecott was glad to
avail himself of the help of the engraver. He drew with greater
freedom, as he expressed it, preferring, as so many illustrators do, to
put in tints with a brush, to be rendered in line by skilful engravers.
But at the same time he delighted in shewing the _power of line_ in
drawing, studying "the art of leaving out as a science"; doing nothing
hastily but thinking long and seriously before putting pen to paper,
remembering, as he always said, "the fewer the lines, the less error
committed."
In the spring of 1875 he sends this lively picture of himself from
Dodington, near Whitchurch, in Shropshire, where he had been working,
staying with friends, in the full enjoyment of country life.
[Illustration]
Writing on the 27th of April, 1875, he says:--
"I feel I owe somebody an apology for staying in the country
so long, but don't quite see to whom it is due, so I shall
stay two or three days longer, and then I shall indeed hang
my harp on a willow tree. It is difficult to screw up the
proper amount of courage for leaving the lambkins, the
piglets, the foals, the goslings, the calves, and the
puppies. We want rain, and then things will grow with
exceeding speed; as it is, the earth is dry and the buds are
slow to display their hidden beauties. A little of 'something
to drink' will cheer them, and then, like some human beings,
they will look pleasant and cheerful and 'come out.'"
Next, from a letter to an intimate friend, dated 5th March, 1875, on
being asked to become a trustee:--
"The event is of a pleasing nature because it shows that
somebody still believes in the continuance of that
uprightness of principle, rectitude of conduct, and general
respectability of mind and heart which for so many years
endeared me to the nobility, clergy, gentry, gasmen, and
fowl stealers of W----."
Life in the country with Caldecott was "worth living," and he chafed
much at this period if he had to be with his "nose to the grindstone,"
as he expressed it, in Bloomsbury. Whilst in the country his letters
to town were full of sketches, but in letters from London he hardly
ever pictured life out of doors.
[Illustration: "SHOWS HIS TERRA COTTAS."]
In June 1875, he shows the bas-relief of "A Boar Hunt," and some small
groups in terra cotta, to his friends.[8]
Before the favourable verdict of the press was pronounced on _Old
Christmas_, Caldecott was commissioned to illustrate a second volume;
and, in May 1875, he was already at work making studies and drawings
for _Bracebridge Hall_, which did not appear until the end of 1876.
About this time the first number of _Academy Notes_ was published, and
in a postscript to a letter to the writer (of too private a nature to
be printed) Caldecott pictures its "first appearance in a family
circle."
[Illustration: THE FIRST YEAR OF ACADEMY NOTES.]
In June 1875, Caldecott had "three drawings in sepia, badly hung, in
the 'black and white' exhibition at the Dudley Gallery."
On the 4th of August he was "making designs for pelican picture;" and
afterwards studying this subject at the Zoological Gardens. Two
pictures of pelicans were eventually painted; the second, in the
possession of Mr. W. Phipson Beale, is sketched below.
[Illustration: THREE PELICANS AND TORTOISE (OIL PAINTING).]
Writing on the 10th August, 1875, respecting some Cretan embroideries
just arrived in England, he sends the sketch overleaf.
"In accordance with your letter about the embroideries," he says, "I
have placed the address of the importer in the hands of Mr. N., a man
well-skilled in detecting that which is good in a crowd of works of
art. He is great in pottery, embroidery and decoration; but he has a
mind great in forgetting, and a fine talent for losing addresses."
[Illustration: INSPECTING EMBROIDERIES.]
[Illustration]
In October, whilst at the seaside, he "made six drawings;" and, later
in the year, was "modelling panels for Lord Monteagle's chimney-piece."
In November 1875 he received the first copy of _Old Christmas_ from the
publishers, and already favourable notices of the illustrations had
begun to appear in the newspapers.
[Illustration: A CHRISTMAS CARD TO K. E. B.]
[Illustration: READING "OPINIONS OF THE PRESS" ON "OLD CHRISTMAS."]