illustrated by Mr. Crane:--"A Christmas Posy" (1888), "Carrots" (1876),
"A Christmas Child" (1886), "Christmas-tree Land" (1884), "The Cuckoo
Clock" (1877), "Four Winds Farm" (1887), "Grandmother Dear" (1878),
"Herr Baby" (1881), "Little Miss Peggy" (1887), "The Rectory Children"
(1889), "Rosy" (1882), "The Tapestry Room" (1879), "Tell me a Story,"
"Two Little Waifs," "Us" (1885), and "Children of the Castle" (1890).
Earlier in date are "Stories from Memel" (1864), "Stories of Old,"
"Children's Sayings" (1861), two series, "Poor Match" (1861), "The Merry
Heart," with eight coloured plates (Cassell); "King Gab's Story Bag"
(Cassell), "Magic of Kindness" (1869), "Queen of the Tournament,"
"History of Poor Match," "Our Uncle's Old Home" (1872), "Sunny Days"
(1871), "The Turtle Dove's Nest" (1890). Later come "The Necklace of
Princess Fiorimonde" (1880), the famous edition of Grimm's "Household
Stories" (1882), both published by Macmillan, and C. C. Harrison's "Folk
and Fairy Tales" (1885), "The Happy Prince" (Nutt, 1888). Of these the
"Grimm" and "Fiorimonde" are perhaps two of the most important
illustrated books noted in these pages.
Randolph Caldecott founded a school that still retains fresh hold of the
British public. But with all respect to his most loyal disciple, Mr.
Hugh Thomson, one doubts if any successor has equalled the master in the
peculiar subtlety of his pictured comment upon the bare text. You have
but to turn to any of his toy books to see that at times each word,
almost each syllable, inspired its own picture; and that the artist not
only conceived the scene which the text called into being, but each
successive step before and after the reported incident itself. In "The
House that Jack Built," "This is the Rat that Ate the Malt" supplies a
subject for five pictures. First the owner carrying in the malt, next
the rat driven away by the man, then the rat peeping up into the
deserted room, next the rat studying a placard upside down inscribed
"four measures of malt," and finally, the gorged animal sitting upon an
empty measure. So "This is the Cat that Killed the Rat" is expanded into
five pictures. The dog has four, the cat three, and the rest of the
story is amplified with its secondary incidents duly sought and
depicted. This literary expression is possibly the most marked
characteristic of a facile and able draughtsman. He studied his subject
as no one else ever studied it--he must have played with it, dreamed of
it, worried it night and day, until he knew it ten times better than its
author. Then he portrayed it simply and with irresistible vigour, with a
fine economy of line and colour; when colour is added, it is mainly as a
gay convention, and not closely imitative of nature. The sixteen toy
books which bear his name are too well known to make a list of their
titles necessary. A few other children's books--"What the Blackbird
Said" (Routledge, 1881), "Jackanapes," "Lob-lie-by-the-Fire," "Daddy
Darwin's Dovecot," all by Mrs. Ewing (S.P.C.K.), "Baron Bruno"
(Macmillan), "Some of AEsop's Fables" (Macmillan), and one or two others,
are of secondary importance from our point of view here.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE
(HARPER AND BROTHERS. 1894)]
It is no overt dispraise to say of Miss Kate Greenaway that few artists
made so great a reputation in so small a field. Inspired by the
children's books of 1820 (as a reference to a design, "Paths of
Learning," reproduced on p. 9 will show), and with a curious naivety
that was even more unconcerned in its dramatic effect than were the
"missal marge" pictures of the illuminators, by her simple presentation
of the childishness of childhood she won all hearts. Her little people
are the _beau-ideal_ of nursery propriety--clean, good-tempered, happy
small gentlefolk. For, though they assume peasants' garb, they never
betray boorish manners. Their very abandon is only that of nice little
people in play-hours, and in their wildest play the penalties that await
torn knickerbockers or soiled frocks are not absent from their minds.
Whether they really interested children as they delighted their elders
is a moot point. The verdict of many modern children is unanimous in
praise, and possibly because they represented the ideal every properly
educated child is supposed to cherish. The slight taint of priggishness
which occasionally is there did not reveal itself to a child's eye. Miss
Greenaway's art, however, is not one to analyse but to enjoy. That she
is a most careful and painstaking worker is a fact, but one that would
not in itself suffice to arouse one's praise. The absence of effort
which makes her work look happy and without effort is not its least
charm. Her gay yet "cultured" colour, her appreciation of green chairs
and formal gardens, all came at the right time. The houses by a Norman
Shaw found a Morris and a Liberty ready with furniture and fabrics, and
all sorts of manufacturers devoting themselves to the production of
pleasant objects, to fill them; and for its drawing-room tables Miss
Greenaway produced books that were in the same key. But as the
architecture and the fittings, at their best, proved to be no passing
whim, but the germ of a style, so her illustration is not a trifling
sport, but a very real, if small, item in the history of the evolution
of picture-books. Good taste is the prominent feature of her work, and
good taste, if out of fashion for a time, always returns, and is
treasured by future generations, no matter whether it be in accord with
the expression of the hour or distinctly archaic. Time is a very
stringent critic, and much that passed as tolerably good taste when it
fell in with the fashion, looks hopelessly vulgar when the tide of
popularity has retreated. Miss Greenaway's work appears as refined ten
years after its "boom," as it did when it was at the flood. That in
itself is perhaps an evidence of its lasting power; for ten or a dozen
years impart a certain shabby and worn aspect that has no flavour of the
antique as a saving virtue to atone for its shortcomings.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE.
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE.
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
It seems almost superfluous to give a list of the principal books by
Miss Kate Greenaway, yet for the convenience of collectors the names of
the most noteworthy volumes may be set down. Those with coloured plates
are: "A, Apple Pie" (1886), "Alphabet" (1885), "Almanacs" (from 1882
yearly), "Birthday Book" (1880), "Book of Games" (1889), "A Day in a
Child's Life" (1885), "King Pepito" (1889), "Language of Flowers"
(1884), "Little Ann" (1883), "Marigold Garden" (1885), "Mavor's Spelling
Book" (1885), "Mother Goose" (1886), "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" (1889),
"Painting Books" (1879 and 1885), "Queen Victoria's Jubilee Garland"
(1887), "Queen of the Pirate Isle" (1886), "Under the Window" (1879).
Others with black-and-white illustrations include "Child of the
Parsonage" (1874), "Fairy Gifts" (1875), "Seven Birthdays" (1876),
"Starlight Stories" (1877), "Topo" (1878), "Dame Wiggins of Lee" (Allen,
1885), "Stories from the Eddas" (1883).
Many designs, some in colour, are to be found in volumes of _Little
Folks_, _Little Wideawake_, _Every Girl's Magazine_, _Girl's Own Paper_,
and elsewhere.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES" BY WINIFRED
SMITH (DAVID NUTT. 1894)]
The art of Miss Greenaway is part of the legend of the aesthetic craze,
and while its storks and sunflowers have faded, and some of its
eccentricities are forgotten, the quaint little pictures on Christmas
cards, in toy books, and elsewhere, are safely installed as items of the
art product of the century. Indeed, many a popular Royal Academy picture
is likely to be forgotten before the illustrations from her hand.
_Bric-a-brac_ they were, but more than that, for they gave infinite
pleasure to thousands of children of all ages, and if they do not rise
up and call her blessed, they retain a very warm memory of one who gave
them so much innocent pleasure.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "UNDINE" BY HEYWOOD SUMNER (CHAPMAN AND
HALL)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK" BY L. SPEED
(LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 1895)]
Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, beginning as they do with "Undine"
(1845), already mentioned, include others in volumes for young people
that need not be quoted. But with his designs for "Alice in Wonderland"
(Macmillan, 1866), and "Through the Looking Glass" (1872), we touch
_the_ two most notable children's books of the century. To say less
would be inadequate and to say more needless. For every one knows the
incomparable inventions which "Lewis Carroll" imagined and Sir John
Tenniel depicted. They are veritable classics, of which, as it is too
late to praise them, no more need be said.
Certain coloured picture books by J. E. Rogers were greeted with
extravagant eulogy at the time they appeared "in the seventies." "Worthy
to be hung at the Academy beside the best pictures of Millais or
Sandys," one fatuous critic observed. Looking over their pages again, it
seems strange that their very weak drawing and crude colour could have
satisfied people familiar with Mr. Walter Crane's masterly work in a not
dissimiliar style. "Ridicula Rediviva" and "Mores Ridiculi" (both
Macmillan), were illustrations of nursery rhymes. To "The Fairy Book"
(1870), a selection of old stories re-told by the author of "John
Halifax," Mr. Rogers contributed many full pages in colour, and also to
Mr. F. C. Burnand's "Present Pastimes of Merrie England" (1872). They
are interesting as documents, but not as art; for their lack of academic
knowledge is not counterbalanced by peculiar "feeling" or ingenious
conceit. They are merely attempts to do again what Mr. H. S. Marks had
done better previously. It seems ungrateful to condemn books that but
for renewed acquaintance might have kept the glamour of the past; and
yet, realising how much feeble effort has been praised since it was
"only for children," it is impossible to keep silence when the truth is
so evident.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "KATAWAMPUS" BY ARCHIE MACGREGOR (DAVID
NUTT)]
Alfred Crowquill most probably contributed all the pictures to "Robinson
Crusoe," "Blue Beard," and "Red Riding Hood" told in rhyme by F. W. N.
Bayley, which have been noticed among his books of the "forties." One of
the full pages, which appear to be lithographs, is clearly signed. He
also illustrated the adventures of "Master Tyll Owlglass," an edition of
"Baron Munchausen," "Picture Fables," "The Careless Chicken," "Funny
Leaves for the Younger Branches," "Laugh and Grow Thin," and a host of
other volumes. Yet the pictures in these, amusing as they are in their
way, do not seem likely to attract an audience again at any future time.
E. V. B., initials which stand for the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, are found on
many volumes of the past twenty-five years which have enjoyed a special
reputation. Certainly her drawings, if at times showing much of the
amateur, have also a curious "quality," which accounts for the very high
praise they have won from critics of some standing. "The Story without
an End," "Child's Play" (1858), "The New Child's Play," "The Magic
Valley," "Andersen Fairy Tales" (Low, 1882), "Beauty and the Beast" (a
quarto with colour-prints by Leighton Bros.), are the most important.
Looking at them dispassionately now, there is yet a trace of some of the
charm that provoked applause a little more than they deserve.
In British art this curious fascination exerted by the amateur is always
confronting us. The work of E. V. B. has great qualities, yet any pupil
of a board school would draw better. Nevertheless it pleases more than
academic technique of high merit that lacks just that one quality which,
for want of a better word, we call "culture." In the designs by Louisa,
Marchioness of Waterford, one encounters genius with absolutely
faltering technique; and many who know how rare is the slightest touch
of genius, forgive the equally important mastery of material which must
accompany it to produce work of lasting value.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY." BY R. ANNING
BELL (DENT AND CO.)]
Mr. H. S. Marks designed two nursery books for Messrs. Routledge, and
contributed to many others, including J. W. Elliott's "National Nursery
Rhymes" (Novello), whence our illustration has been taken. Two series of
picture books containing mediaeval figures with gold background, by J.
Moyr Smith, if somewhat lacking in the qualities which appeal to
children, may have played a good part in educating them to admire
conventional flat treatment, with a decorative purpose that was unusual
in the "seventies," when most of them appeared.
In later years, Miss Alice Havers in "The White Swans," and "Cape Town
Dicky" (Hildesheimer), and many lady artists of less conspicuous
ability, have done a quantity of graceful and elaborate pictures _of_
children rather than _for_ children. The art of this later period shows
better drawing, better colour, better composition than had been the
popular average before; but it generally lacks humour, and a certain
vivacity of expression which children appreciate.
In the "sixties" and "seventies" were many illustrators of children's
books who left no great mark except on the memories of those who were
young enough at the time to enjoy their work thoroughly, if not very
critically. Among these may be placed William Brunton, who illustrated
several of the Right Hon. G. Knatchbull-Hugessen's fairy stories, "Tales
at Tea Time" for instance, and was frequent among the illustrators of
Hood's Annuals. Charles H. Ross (at one time editor of _Judy_) and
creator of "Ally Sloper," the British Punchinello, produced at least one
memorable book for children. "Queens and Kings and other Things," a
folio volume printed in gold and colour, with nonsense rhymes and
pictures, almost as funny as those of Edward Lear himself. "The Boy
Crusoe," and many other books of somewhat ephemeral character are his,
and Routledge's "Every Boy's Magazine" contains many of his designs.
Just as these pages are being corrected the news of his death is
announced.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "FAIRY GIFTS." BY H. GRANVILLE FELL
(DENT AND CO.)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND RHYMES" BY
MARY J. NEWILL (METHUEN AND CO. 1895)]
Others, like George Du Maurier, so rarely touched the subject that they
can hardly be regarded as wholly belonging to our theme. Yet
"Misunderstood," by Florence Montgomery (1879), illustrated by Du
Maurier, is too popular to leave unnoticed. Mr. A. W. Bayes, who has
deservedly won fame in other fields, illustrated "Andersen's Tales"
(Warne, 1865), probably his earliest work, as a contemporary review
speaks of the admirable designs "by an artist whose name is new to us."
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE ELF-ERRANT" BY W. E. F. BRITTEN
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1895)]
It is a matter for surprise and regret that Mr. Howard Pyle's
illustrated books are not as well known in England as they deserve to
be. And this is the more vexing when you find that any one with artistic
sympathy is completely converted to be a staunch admirer of Mr. Pyle's
work by a sight of "The Wonder Clock," a portly quarto, published by
Harper Brothers in 1894. It seems to be the only book conceived in
purely Duereresque line, which can be placed in rivalry with Mr. Walter
Crane's illustrated "Grimm," and wise people will be only too delighted
to admire both without attempting to compare them. Mr. Pyle is evidently
influenced by Duerer--with a strong trace of Rossetti--but he carries
both influences easily, and betrays a strong personality throughout all
the designs. The "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Otto of the
Silver Hand" are two others of about the same period, and the delightful
volume collected from _Harper's Young People_ for the most part,
entitled "Pepper and Salt," may be placed with them. All the
illustrations to these are in pure line, and have the appearance of
being drawn not greatly in excess of the reproduced size. Of all these
books Mr. Howard Pyle is author as well as illustrator.
Of late he has changed his manner in line, showing at times, especially
in "Twilight Land" (Osgood, McIlvaine, 1896), the influence of Vierge,
but even in that book the frontispiece and many other designs keep to
his earlier manner.
In "The Garden behind the Moon" (issued in London by Messrs. Lawrence
and Bullen) the chief drawings are entirely in wash, and yet are
singularly decorative in their effect. The "Story of Jack Bannister's
Fortunes" shows the artist's "colonial" style, "Men of Iron," "A Modern
Aladdin," Oliver Wendell Holmes' "One-Horse Shay," are other fairly
recent volumes. His illustrations have not been confined to his own
stories as "In the Valley," by Harold Frederic, "Stops of Various
Quills" (poems by W. D. Howells), go to prove.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "SINBAD THE SAILOR" BY WILLIAM STRANG
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ALI BABA" BY J. B. CLARK (LAWRENCE AND
BULLEN. 1896)]
It is strange that Mr. Heywood Sumner, who, as his notable "Fitzroy
Pictures" would alone suffice to prove, is peculiarly well equipped for
the illustration of children's books, has done but few, and of these
none are in colour. "Cinderella" (1882), rhymes by H. S. Leigh, set to
music by J. Farmer, contains very pleasant decoration by Mr. Sumner.
Next comes "Sintram" (1883), a notable edition of De la Motte Fouque's
romance, followed by "Undine" (in 1885). With a book on the "Parables,"
by A.L.O.E., published about 1884; "The Besom Maker" (1880), a volume of
country ditties with the old music, and "Jacob and the Raven," with
thirty-nine illustrations (Allen, 1896), the best example of his later
manner, and a book which all admirers of the more severe order of
"decorative illustration" will do well to preserve, the list is
complete. Whether a certain austerity of line has made publishers timid,
or whether the artist has declined commissions, the fact remains that
the literature of the nursery has not yet had its full share from Mr.
Heywood Sumner. Luckily, if its shelves are the less full, its walls are
gayer by the many Fitzroy pictures he has made so effectively, which
readers of THE STUDIO have seen reproduced from time to time in these
pages.
Mr. H. J. Ford's work occupies so much space in the library of a modern
child, that it seems less necessary to discuss it at length here, for he
is found either alone or co-operating with Mr. Jacomb Hood and Mr.
Lancelot Speed, in each of the nine volumes of fairy tales and true
stories (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, and the rest), edited by Mr.
Andrew Lang, and published by Longmans. More than that, at the Fine Art
Society in May 1895, Mr. Ford exhibited seventy-one original drawings,
chiefly those for the "Yellow Fairy Book," so that his work is not only
familiar to the inmates of the nursery, but to modern critics who
disdain mere printed pictures and care for nothing but autograph work.
Certainly his designs have often lost much by their great reduction, for
many of the originals were almost as large as four of these pages. His
work is full of imagination, full of detail; perhaps at times a little
overcrowded, to the extent of confusion. But children are not averse
from a picture that requires much careful inspection to reveal all its
story; and Mr. Ford's accessories all help to reiterate the main theme.
As these eight volumes have an average of 100 pictures in each, and Mr.
Ford has designed the majority, it is evident that, although his work is
almost entirely confined to one series, it takes a very prominent place
in current juvenile literature. That he must by this time have
established his position as a prime favourite with the small people goes
without saying.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE FLAME FLOWER." BY J. F. SULLIVAN
(DENT AND CO. 1896)]
Mr. Leslie Brooke has also a long catalogue of notable work in this
class. For since Mr. Walter Crane ceased to illustrate the long series
of Mrs. Molesworth's stories, he has carried on the record. "Sheila's
Mystery," "The Carved Lions," "Mary," "My New Home," "Nurse Heathcote's
Story," "The Girls and I," "The Oriel Window," and "Miss Mouse and her
Boys" (all Macmillan), are the titles of these books to which he has
contributed. A very charming frontispiece and title to John Oliver
Hobbs' "Prince Toto," which appeared in "The Parade," must not be
forgotten. The most fanciful of his designs are undoubtedly the hundred
illustrations to Mr. Andrew Lang's delightful collection of "Nursery
Rhymes," just published by F. Warne & Co. These reveal a store of humour
that the less boisterous fun of Mrs. Molesworth had denied him the
opportunity of expressing.
Mr. C. E. Brock, whose delightful compositions, somewhat in the "Hugh
Thomson" manner, embellish several volumes of Messrs. Macmillan's
Cranford series, has illustrated also "The Parachute," and "English
Fairy and Folk Tales," by E. S. Hartland (1893), and also supplied two
pictures to that most fascinating volume prized by all lovers of
children, "W. V., Her Book," by W. Canton. Perhaps "Westward Ho!" should
also be included in this list, for whatever its first intentions, it has
long been annexed by bolder spirits in the nursery.
A. B. Frost, by his cosmopolitan fun, "understanded of all people," has
probably aroused more hearty laughs by his inimitable books than even
Caldecott himself. "Stuff and Nonsense," and "The Bull Calf," T. B.
Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy," and many another volume of American
origin, that is now familiar to every Briton with a sense of humour, are
the most widely known. It is needless to praise the literally inimitable
humour of the tragic series "Our Cat took Rat Poison." In Lewis
Carroll's "Rhyme? and Reason?" (1883), Mr. Frost shared with Henry
Holiday the task of illustrating a larger edition of the book first
published under the title of "Phantasmagoria" (1869); he illustrated
also "A Tangled Tale" (1886), by the same author, and this is perhaps
the only volume of British origin of which he is sole artist. Mr. Henry
Holiday was responsible for the classic pictures to "The Hunting of the
Snark" by Lewis Carroll (1876).
Mr. R. Anning Bell does not appear to have illustrated many books for
children. Of these, the two which introduced Mr. Dent's "Banbury Cross"
series are no doubt the best known. In fact, to describe "Jack the Giant
Killer" and the "Sleeping Beauty" in these pages would be an insult to
"subscribers from the first." A story, "White Poppies," by May Kendall,
which ran through _Sylvia's Journal_, is a little too grown-up to be
included; nor can the "Heroines of the Poets," which appeared in the
same place, be dragged in to augment the scanty list, any more than the
"Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Keats's Poems." It is singular that the
fancy of Mr. Anning Bell, which seems exactly calculated to attract a
child and its parent at the same time, has not been more frequently
requisitioned for this purpose. In the two "Banbury Cross" volumes there
is evidence of real sympathy with the text, which is by no means as
usual in pictures to fairy tales as it should be; and a delightfully
harmonious sense of decoration rare in any book, and still more rare in
those expressly designed for small people.
[Illustration:
For them I'd climb, 'most all the Time
And never tear no Clothes!
ILLUSTRATION FROM "RED APPLE AND SILVER BELLS." BY ALICE B. WOODWARD.
(BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)]