"BRETON FOLK," ETC.
For Mr. Frederick Locker-Lampson, the poet, Caldecott made in the years
1877-8, twelve drawings to illustrate _Bramble Rise_, _A Winter
Phantasy_, _My Neighbour Rose_, and other verses. These illustrations,
most delicately drawn in pen and ink, have not yet been published. One
was used in 1881 in a privately printed edition of the _London Lyrics_,
and three in 1883, in a little volume of the _Lyrics_ printed by the
"Book Fellows Club" in New York. Caldecott afterwards made four
illustrations for Mrs. Locker-Lampson's child's book, _What the
Blackbird Said_, and two years afterwards, in 1882, an illustration to
her _Greystoke Hall_. These two books are published by Messrs.
Routledge.
In 1878 he exhibited his picture of "The Three Huntsmen" riding home in
evening light. It was hung rather high in Gallery VII. at the Royal
Academy Exhibition, and technically could hardly be pronounced a
success; but it was a distinct advance on previous exhibited work, and
drew the serious attention of critics to Caldecott as a painter. The
sketch appeared in an article on the Academy in _L'Art_, vol. xx. p.
211. Of this oil painting, Mr. Mundella, the late President of the
Board of Trade writes:--
"The picture was bought by me of poor Caldecott in 1878. I
think it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year,
but I bought it from his easel. It is an oil painting, 3 ft.
6 in. by 2 ft. 9 in., and the subject is the 'Three
Huntsmen.' I remember his bringing the song to my house
after the purchase, and reading the song with great
enjoyment, pointing out to us how he had illustrated the
verse, 'We hunted and we holloed till the setting of the
sun.' My little granddaughter (Millais' 'Dorothy Thorpe')
was his model for several of his Christmas books. She is the
little girl in _Sing a Song of Sixpence_ and several others,
and possesses copies sent by him with little sketches and
dedications. He is indeed a national loss."
[Illustration: THE THREE HUNTSMEN (OIL PAINTING).
Royal Academy, 1878.]
In the Grosvenor Gallery of the same year Caldecott exhibited a small
metal bas-relief of "A Boar Hunt," of which he made the following
sketch in _Grosvenor Notes_.
[Illustration: "A BOAR HUNT" (BAS-RELIEF). Grosvenor Gallery, 1878.
No. 232. 8 in. × 18 in.]
Special interest attaches to this design, also to "The Horse Fair in
Brittany," reproduced on page 137, for the insight it gives of
Caldecott's varied artistic powers, which, by force of circumstances,
were always held in reserve. If, as a writer remarks, "The treatment of
reliefs is a test of the state of a school of sculpture," these
examples may help to "place" Caldecott amongst contemporary artists.
Early in 1878, Mr. Edmund Evans, the wood engraver, came to him with a
proposal that he should illustrate some books for children to be
printed in colours. The plan was soon decided upon, and the first of
the _Picture Books_ was begun. In the summer of the same year,
Caldecott went with the writer for a second time to Brittany.
It was at first intended to take a gig and drive through and through
the country, giving an account of adventures from day to day, and
Caldecott (who was more at home perhaps, in a gig than in any other
position of life) favoured the idea; but time and other circumstances
prevented.
The next proposal was to give a general description of the country and
its people, its churches and ruined castles, as they exist to-day. But
Caldecott did not take to this idea; he never in his lifetime drew
buildings with the same facility as figures, and, at that time, to
attempt to make drawings of chateaux, cathedrals and the like, would
have been unsuccessful. So the book, _Brittany Picturesque_, which had
already been partly written, was laid aside to give space for sketches
of _Breton Folk_.[10]
[Illustration: "THE TRAP."]
"We obtained a trap in a few days"--not the gig, independent of a
driver, which Caldecott always sighed for. His delight and high spirits
on the first journey, in 1874, are seen in the sketch where he is
waving farewell to some astonished peasantry. To be "on the road" was
always a pleasure to Caldecott, from the "old Whitchurch days," which
he often described to his friends--driving home in the dark at reckless
speed after a late supper, in a dog-cart full of rather uproarious
company--down to 1885 at Frensham, when as host, he would drive his
friends in the lanes of Surrey.
At least 200 sketches must have been made in these journeys; besides
jottings of heads, figures and the like, and several drawings in water
colours.
[Illustration: SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.]
The summer fêtes and "pardons," all through the country, furnished
capital material for his pencil, the women's caps of different
districts were each recorded, and here and there a solemn suggestive
landscape noted for a picture which was never to be completed.
[Illustration: BRETON FARMER AND CATTLE.]
The circumstances under which some of the sketches were made is
indicated on page 171.
One of the first drawings made in Brittany, both in colour and black
and white (a scene of which Caldecott was always desirous of making a
finished picture), was the buckwheat harvest, with the women at work in
the fields. Many similar scenes were put down in note-books, many were
the studies of clouds careering over the wind-blown land, which were
never engraved or published.
[Illustration: A WAYSIDE CROSS.]
Two of the principal events in these journeys were visits to a horse
fair at Le Folgoet, and to a cattle fair at Carhaix, where Caldecott
made the following sketches:--
"Le Folgoet is in the north of Finisterre, in the north-west corner of
Brittany. The country is for the most part flat and dreary in aspect;
a few fields of buckwheat, corn, and rye are passed on the road,
protected by banked-up hedges, and skirted by pollard trees.
[Illustration: AT THE HORSE FAIR, LE FOLGOET.]
"On the road as we approach the fair, a mile and a half from the town,
is a characteristic figure, a barefooted _gamin_ with red cap and grey
jersey trotting out an old chestnut mare." As he stops and turns to
look back, he is thus rapidly recorded in a sketch.
[Illustration: TROTTING OUT HORSES AT CARHAIX.]
Apart from the artistic material so abundant everywhere, Caldecott's
love for animals and knowledge of them, his interest in everything
connected with farming, markets, country life and surroundings, roused
him to exertions at Carhaix which none but the most hardy "special
artist" would have attempted.
It was an exciting time for Caldecott, both on the road and at the
fair; materials for his pencil were everywhere, and for three days
there was little rest.
[Illustration: CATTLE FAIR AT CARHAIX.]
Carhaix being in the centre of Brittany, far remote from railways, had
special attractions in the variety of character and costume. Here, weak
in health as Caldecott then was, he stood and worked all day, being
especially interested in the trotting out and sale of horses. Turning
to our diary:--
"The horse fair was held in a large square or _place_. Under
the trees was a crowd of men and women in the dust and heat;
horses, cattle, pigs and dogs, in confused movement; with
much drinking and shouting at the booths which lined one
side of the enclosure."
[Illustration: A TYPICAL BRETON.]
[Illustration: A BRETONNE.]
It was in this year (1878) that he made some extraordinarily rapid
sketches in colour with the brush direct, without a touch of the pencil
or anything to guide him on the paper. Few sketches of this kind exist,
excepting rough notes in books not intended for publication. In the
evening the figures in the streets and at the inns had to be noted
down.
The next day, which Caldecott called "a rest," was devoted to visiting
two farms in the neighbourhood, seeing as much as possible of the
interiors of the old houses near Carhaix, with their carved bedsteads,
cabinets and clocks, old brasswork and embroideries. It was a rather
anxious time for his travelling companion, for there was no restraining
Caldecott with such material before him, and he was overworked.
It was in this district that he made one of his most successful
sketches; a typical Breton (p. 177), in ancient costume with long
hair and knee breeches; a figure rarely met with in these days.
In the south-west corner of Brittany, a few miles south of Quimperlé,
at a point where the river spreads out into a narrow estuary four miles
from the sea, is the primitive little village called appropriately Pont
Aven.
Caldecott was much amused, and scandalised at the aspect of the village
on our arrival one afternoon; a scene which he thus records on a
letter, and afterwards drew for _Breton Folk_.
[Illustration]
Writing from Pont Aven and recounting "the places which we have
visited, done, sketched, interviewed and memorandumed"--he adds:--
"On this journey I have seen more pleasing types of Bretons
(and Bretonnes, especially) than in my former rambles in the
Côtes du Nord; but there is generally something wrong about
each hotel. This particular inn is comfortable. Seven
Americans, two or three of them ladies, and about four French
people dined with us, mostly of the artist persuasion.
[Illustration: A CAP OF FINISTERRE.]
"The village and the river sides, the meadows and the valleys
reek with artists. A large gang pensions at another inn here.
"On approaching Pont Aven the traveller notices a curious
noise rising from the ground and from the woods around him.
It is the flicking of the paint brushes on the canvasses of
the hardworking painters who come into view seated in leafy
nooks and shady corners. These artists go not far from the
town where is cider, billiards and tobacco."
[Illustration: RETURNING FROM LABOUR--PONT AVEN, 1878.]
One of the best of Caldecott's sketches here was "Returning from
Labour," a quiet spot on the banks of the Aven where he made several
studies.
"Here we feel inclined for the first time to stay and
sketch, wandering along the coast to the fishing villages,
and visiting farms and homesteads."
From another inn, in an "out of the way" part of Finisterre, he
writes:--
"The Hotel du Midi where we put up is conducted in a simple
manner; ladies would not like its arrangements. Several
inhabitants, and a visitor or two, dine at the table d'hôte,
but all are unable to carve a duck excepting the English
visitor, who is accordingly put down as a cook."
Many works, such as the frieze of a horse fair (p. 137), models in
terra cotta and paintings, were the outcome of the Brittany journeys in
1874 and 1878; but Caldecott did not give himself a chance to do what
he wished in France; other work crowded upon him in 1878, and before he
had time to finish the sketches for _Breton Folk_, he had to return to
London to complete drawings for his _Picture Books_, and other work in
hand for the _Graphic_ newspaper.
[Illustration: A BRETON.]
In a letter from London, received at the Abbey of St. Jacut in Brittany
on the 29th August, 1878, he says:--
"I have not been able to settle well down to work yet.
Sitting about on hotel benches for a month with Mr.
Blackburn is unhinging. * * * "I fancied somehow that, after
the wild career of dissipation in other parts of Brittany,
he might find the calm of a cloister insufficiently
exciting, and consequently might drag you round to more
lively places. I am glad that I am wrong."
The drawings of the "Family Horse," (of "Cleopatra" on page 165,)
the sketch in Woburn Park, and several others, were made when on a
visit in the neighbourhood in October 1878. A letter referring to his
visit to Woburn says:--"On the last evening of Mr. Caldecott's visit
here, he was sitting at the dining-room table with the two little boys
on his knees, and the rest of the family standing round him. We asked
him to draw us each something, and he made us choose our own subjects.
The sketch of himself riding in the park is one of them; it amused him
very much to see the deer standing gazing at us."
[Illustration: "A FAMILY HORSE."]
[Illustration: SKETCH IN WOBURN PARK]
At another time there comes a coloured birthday card to a child in
London who was fond of flowers; a dark red carnation the size of life,
presented by a Lilliputian figure in old-fashioned green coat, with
white frill and periwig.
[Illustration: A CARNATION.]
Side by side with Caldecott's missives to little children might be
printed many a kindly letter to a young author who had sent him
manuscripts to read. These letters had to be read and answered always
in the evenings. A long letter of this kind was written to a lady at
Didsbury, near Manchester, in 1878, from which the following extracts
are taken[11]:--
"DEAR MISS M.,--Your packet reached me safely, and as I call
to mind very readily my feelings in times gone by, after I
had posted a piece of literary or artistic composition to
some friend acquainted with the dread editor of some
magazine, or even to the dread editor himself, I think it
only your due that I should write to you without delay about
the sketches of country life which you have kindly allowed
me to read, and my opinion of which you flatter me by
desiring to know. You asked me for my candid opinion; in
these cases I always try to be candid.... I think that your
papers are, as they stand, hardly interesting enough for the
mass of readers, though to me they draw out pictures which
please, and also revive old associations.... Their fault,
however, if I may speak of faults, is not so much in subject
as in style. You have chosen simple subjects, in which is no
harm of course; but simple subjects in all kinds of art
require a masterly hand to delineate them. The slightest
awkwardness of execution is noticed, and mars the simplicity
of the whole. When a thrilling story is told, or a very
interesting and novel operation described, faults of style
are overlooked during the excitement of hearing or reading.
Is it not so?...
"R. C."
In another letter some remarks on the misuse of old English words (a
subject on which he says, "I am very ignorant") are worth recording.
"As regards the misuse of certain words, I consult the
authorities when a doubt crosses my mind, and I find with
sorrow, in which I am joined by other anxious spirits, that
the English language is being ruined, chiefly by journalists,
English and American. Words of good old nervous meaning,
because common, are discarded for words of less force but
finer sound, borrowed from other tongues. The use of these
new words is often a difficulty to all but classical
scholars, for the pronunciation, the accent, the quantities,
are varied even amongst equally educated people.
"On the introduction of a new word there is always a halo of
pedantry about it. Some admire the halo and adopt the word.
The journalists cuddle it. The readers ask what it means,
think it sounds rather fine--perhaps genteel--throw over the
humble friend who has done them and their conservative
forefathers such good service.
"The poor ill-used old fellow of a word then only finds
friends amongst the lowly and the loyal; and if in course of
time the usurping word, as he rolls by in his carriage and
footmen, hears the former wearer of his honours come out from
the passing pedestrians, he curls his proud lip, pulls up his
haughty collar, distends his Grecian nose, and wonders where
vulgar people will go to--albeit this vulgar word is better
born, and has a higher instep than the carriage word."
In the late Autumn of 1878 Caldecott is again in the south of France,
sending home letters--one with a portrait of himself (back view),
seated next to a young lady, "whose father is rather deaf."
[Illustration: Hôtel Gray et d'Albion Cannes, 15 Nov. 1878.]
"I have come here," he says, "in order that rheumatism may forget me
and not recognise me on return to Albion's shores. * * *
"I open my bag and take out your letter of 20th November, 1877, which
has been ready at hand for reply ever since I received it with a
welcome. Letters ought always to be replied to within the twelve
months."
[Illustration: AT MENTONE.]