would-be iconographer appalled. So many thousand designs--and all so
good--deserve a lengthened and exhaustive eulogy. But space absolutely
forbids it, and as a large number cater for older children than most of
the books here noticed, on that ground one may be forgiven the
inadequate notice. If an illustrator deserved to attract the attention
of collectors it is surely this one, and so fertile has he been that a
complete set of all his work would take no little time to get together.
Here are the titles of a few jotted at random: "Bonnie Prince Charlie,"
"For Freedom's Cause," "St. George for England," "Orange and Green,"
"With Clive in India," "With Wolfe in Canada," "True to the Old Flag,"
"By Sheer Pluck," "Held Fast for England," "For Name and Fame," "With
Lee in Virginia," "Facing Death," "Devon Boys," "Nat the Naturalist,"
"Bunyip Land," "The Lion of St. Mark," "Under Drake's Flag," "The Golden
Magnet," "The Log of the Flying Fish," "In the King's Name," "Margery
Merton's Girlhood," "Down the Snow Stairs," "Stories of Old Renown,"
"Seven Wise Scholars," "Chirp and Chatter," "Gulliver's Travels,"
"Robinson Crusoe," "Hetty Gray," "A Golden Age," "Muir Fenwick's
Failure," "Winnie's Secret" (all so far are published by Blackie and
Son). "National Nursery Rhymes," "Fairy Tales from Grimm," "Sintram, and
Undine," "Sweetheart Travellers," "Five, Ten and Fifteen," "Gilly
Flower," "Prince Boohoo," "A Sister's Bye-hours," "Jim," and "A Flock of
Four," are all published by Gardner, Darton & Co., and "Effie," by
Griffith & Farran. When one realises that not a few of these books
contain a hundred illustrations, and that the list is almost entirely
from two publishers' catalogues, some idea of the fecundity of Mr.
Gordon Browne's output is gained. But only a vague idea, as his
"Shakespeare," with hundreds of drawings and a whole host of other
books, cannot be even mentioned. It is sufficient to name but one--say
the example from "Robinson Crusoe" (Blackie), reproduced on page 32--to
realise Mr. Gordon Browne's vivid and picturesque interpretation of
fact, or "Down the Snow Stairs" (Blackie), also illustrated, with a
grotesque owl-like creature, to find that in pure fantasy his exuberant
imagination is no less equal to the task. In "Chirp and Chatter"
(Blackie), fifty-four illustrations of animals masquerading as human
show delicious humour. At times his technique appears somewhat hasty,
but, as a rule, the method he adopts is as good as the composition he
depicts. He is in his own way the leader of juvenile illustration of the
non-Duerer school.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "KATAWAMPUS." BY ARCHIE MACGREGOR.
(DAVID NUTT)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "TO TELL THE KING THE SKY IS FALLING."
BY ALICE WOODWARD (BLACKIE AND SON. 1896)]
Mr. Harry Furniss's coloured toy-books--"Romps"--are too well known to
need description, and many another juvenile volume owes its attraction
to his facile pencil. Of these, the two later "Lewis Caroll's"--"Sylvia
and Bruno," and "Sylvia and Bruno, Concluded," are perhaps most
important. As a curious narrative, "Travels in the Interior" (of a human
body) must not be forgotten. It certainly called forth much ingenuity on
the part of the artist. In "Romps," and in all his work for children,
there is an irrepressible sense of movement and of exuberant vitality in
his figures; but, all the same, they are more like Fred Walker's idyllic
youngsters having romps than like real everyday children.
Mr. Linley Sambourne's most ingenious pen has been all too seldom
employed on children's books. Indeed, one that comes first to memory,
the "New Sandford and Merton" (1872), is hardly entitled to be classed
among them, but the travesty of the somewhat pedantic narrative,
interspersed with fairly amusing anecdotes, that Thomas Day published in
1783, is superb. No matter how familiar it may be, it is simply
impossible to avoid laughing anew at the smug little Harry, the
sanctimonious tutor, or the naughty Tommy, as Mr. Sambourne has realised
them. The "Anecdotes of the Crocodile" and "The Presumptuous Dentist"
are no less good. The way he has turned a prosaic hat-rack into an
instrument of torture would alone mark Mr. Sambourne as a comic
draughtsman of the highest type. Nothing he has done in political
cartoons seems so likely to live as these burlesques. A little known
book, "The Royal Umbrella" (1888), which contains the delightful "Cat
Gardeners" here reproduced, and the very well-known edition of Charles
Kingsley's "Water Babies" (1886), are two other volumes which well
display his moods of less unrestrained humour. "The Real Robinson
Crusoe" (1893) and Lord Brabourne's (Knatchbull-Hugessen's) "Friends and
Foes of Fairyland" (1886), well-nigh exhaust the list of his efforts in
this direction.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES" BY C. M. GERE
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1893)]
[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON No. 1. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY A.
NOBODY]
Prince of all foreign illustrators for babyland is M. Boutet de Monvel,
whose works deserve an exhaustive monograph. Although comparatively few
of his books are really well known in England, "Little Folks" contains a
goodly number of his designs. La Fontaine's "Fables" (an English edition
of which is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
is (so far as I have discovered) the only important volume reprinted
with English text. Possibly his "Jeanne d'Arc" ought not to be named
among children's books, yet the exquisite drawing of its children and
the unique splendour the artist has imparted to simple colour-printing,
endear it to little ones no less than adults. But it would be absurd to
suppose that readers of THE STUDIO do not know this masterpiece of its
class, a book no artistic household can possibly afford to be
without. Earlier books by M. de Monvel, which show him in his most
engaging mood (the mood in the illustration from "Little Folks" here
reproduced), are "Vieilles Chansons et Rondes," by Ch. M. Widor, "La
Civilite Puerile et Honnete," and "Chansons de France pour les Petits
Francais." Despite their entirely different characterisation of the
child, and a much stronger grasp of the principles of decorative
composition, these delightful designs are more nearly akin to those of
Miss Kate Greenaway than are any others published in Europe or America.
Yet M. de Monvel is not only absolutely French in his types and costumes
but in the movement and expression of his serious little people, who
play with a certain demure gaiety that those who have watched French
children in the Gardens of the Luxembourg or Tuileries, or a French
seaside resort, know to be absolutely truthful. For the Gallic _bebe_
certainly seems less "rampageous" than the English urchin. A certain
daintiness of movement and timidity in the boys especially adds a grace
of its own to the games of French children which is not without its
peculiar charm. This is singularly well caught in M. de Monvel's
delicious drawings, where naively symmetrical arrangement and a most
admirable simplicity of colour are combined. Indeed, of all non-English
artists who address the little people, he alone has the inmost secret of
combining realistic drawing with sumptuous effects in conventional
decoration.
[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON--No. 2. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY
A. NOBODY]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ADVENTURES IN TOY LAND" BY ALICE B.
WOODWARD (BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "PRINCE BOOHOO" BY GORDON BROWNE
(GARDNER, DARTON AND CO. 1897)]
The work of the Danish illustrator, Lorenz Froelich, is almost as
familiar in English as in Continental nurseries, yet his name is often
absent from the title-pages of books containing his drawings. Perhaps
those attributed to him formally that are most likely to be known by
British readers are in "When I was a Little Girl" and "Nine Years Old"
(Macmillan), but, unless memory is treacherous, one remembers toy-books
in colours (published by Messrs. Nelson and others), that were obviously
from his designs. A little known French book, "Le Royaume des
Gourmands," exhibits the artist in a more fanciful aspect, where he
makes a far better show than in some of his ultra-pretty realistic
studies. Other French volumes, "Histoire d'un Bouchee de Pain," "Lili a
la Campagne," "La Journee de Mademoiselle Lili," and the "Alphabet de
Mademoiselle Lili," may possibly be the original sources whence the
blocks were borrowed and adapted to English text. But the veteran
illustrator has done far too large a number of designs to be catalogued
here. For grace and truth, and at times real mastery of his material, no
notice of children's artists could abstain from placing him very high in
their ranks.
Oscar Pletsch is another artist--presumably a German--whose work has
been widely republished in England. In many respects it resembles that
of Froelich, and is almost entirely devoted to the daily life of the
inmates of the nursery, with their tiny festivals and brief tragedies.
It would seem to appeal more to children than their elders, because the
realistic transcript of their doings by his hand often lacks the touch
of pathos, or of grown-up humour that finds favour with adults.
The mass of children's toy-books published by Messrs. Dean, Darton,
Routledge, Warne, Marcus Ward, Isbister, Hildesheimer and many others
cannot be considered exhaustively, if only from the fact that the names
of the designers are frequently omitted. Probably Messrs. Kronheim &
Co., and other colour-printers, often supplied pictures designed by
their own staff. Mr. Edmund Evans, to whom is due a very large share of
the success of the Crane, Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway (Routledge)
books, more frequently reproduced the work of artists whose names were
considered sufficiently important to be given upon the books themselves.
A few others of Routledge's toy-books besides those mentioned are worth
naming. Mr. H.S. Marks, R.A., designed two early numbers of their
shilling series: "Nursery Rhymes" and "Nursery Songs;" and to J. D.
Watson may be attributed the "Cinderella" in the same series. Other
sixpenny and shilling illustrated books were by C. H. Bennett, C. W.
Cope, A. W. Bayes, Julian Portch, Warwick Reynolds, F. Keyl, and
Harrison Weir.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "NONSENSE" BY A. NOBODY
(GARDNER, DARTON AND CO.)]
The "Greedy Jim," by Bennett, is only second to "Struwwlpeter" itself,
in its lasting power to delight little ones. If out of print it deserves
to be revived.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION (REDUCED) FROM "THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL." BY
MRS. R. HALLWARD (S.P.C.K.)]
Although Mr. William de Morgan appears to have illustrated but a single
volume, "On a Pincushion," by Mary de Morgan (Seeley, 1877), yet that is
so interesting that it must be noticed. Its interest is double--first in
the very "decorative" quality of its pictures, which are full of
"colour" and look like woodcuts more than process blocks; and next in
the process itself, which was the artist's own invention. So far as I
gather from Mr. de Morgan's own explanation, the drawings were made on
glass coated with some yielding substance, through which a knife or
graver cut the "line." Then an electro was taken. This process, it is
clear, is almost exactly parallel with that of wood-cutting--_i.e._, the
"whites" are taken out, and the sweep of the tool can be guided by the
worker in an absolutely untrammelled way. Those who love the qualities
of a woodcut, and have not time to master the technique of wood-cutting
or engraving, might do worse than experiment with Mr. de Morgan's
process. A quantity of proofs of designs he executed--but never
published--show that it has many possibilities worth developing.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "A, B, C" BY MRS. GASKIN (ELKIN
MATHEWS)]
The work of Reginald Hallward deserves to be discussed at greater length
than is possible here. His most important book (printed finely in gold
and colours by Edmund Evans), is "Flowers of Paradise," issued by
Macmillan some years ago. The drawings for this beautiful quarto were
shown at one of the early Arts and Crafts Exhibitions. Some designs,
purely decorative, are interspersed among the figure subjects. "Quick
March," a toy-book (Warne), is also full of the peculiar "quality" which
distinguishes Mr. Hallward's work, and is less austere than certain
later examples. The very notable magazine, _The Child's Pictorial_,
illustrated almost entirely in colours, which the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge published for ten years, contains work by this
artist, and a great many illustrations by Mrs. Hallward, which alone
would serve to impart value to a publication that has (as we have
pointed out elsewhere) very many early examples by Charles Robinson, and
capital work by W. J. Morgan. Mrs. Hallward's work is marked by strong
Pre-Raphaelite feeling, although she does not, as a rule, select
old-world themes, but depicts children of to-day. Both Mr. and Mrs.
Hallward eschew the "pretty-pretty" type, and are bent on producing
really "decorative" pages. So that to-day, when the ideal they so long
championed has become popular, it is strange to find that their work is
not better known.
[Illustration: "KING LOVE. A CHRISTMAS GREETING." BY H. GRANVILLE FELL]
The books illustrated by past or present students of the Birmingham
School will be best noticed in a group, as, notwithstanding some
distinct individuality shown by many of the artists, especially in their
later works, the idea that links the group together is sufficiently
similar to impart to all a certain resemblance. In other words, you can
nearly always pick out a "Birmingham" illustration at a glance, even if
it would be impossible to confuse the work of Mr. Gaskin with that of
Miss Levetus.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE STORY OF BLUEBEARD" BY E. SOUTHALL
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1895)]
Arthur Gaskin's illustrations to Andersen's "Stories and Fairy Tales"
(George Allen) are beyond doubt the most important volumes in any way
connected with the school. Mr. William Morris ranked them so highly that
Mr. Gaskin was commissioned to design illustrations for some of the
Kelmscott Press books, and Mr. Walter Crane has borne public witness to
their excellence. This alone is sufficient to prove that they rise far
above the average level. "Good King Wenceslas" (Cornish Bros.) is
another of Mr. Gaskin's books--his best in many ways. He it is also who
illustrated and decorated Mr. Baring-Gould's "A Book of Fairy Tales"
(Methuen).
Mrs. Gaskin (Georgie Cave France) is also familiar to readers of THE
STUDIO. Perhaps her "A, B, C." (published by Elkin Mathews), and "Horn
Book Jingles" (The Leadenhall Press), a unique book in shape and style,
contain the best of her work so far.
Miss Levetus has contributed many illustrations to books. Among the best
are "Turkish Fairy Tales" (Lawrence and Bullen), and "Verse Fancies"
(Chapman and Hall).
"Russian Fairy Tales" (Lawrence and Bullen) is distinguished by the
designs of C. M. Gere, who has done comparatively little illustration;
hence the book has more than usual interest, and takes a far higher
artistic rank than its title might lead one to expect.
Miss Bradley has illustrated one of Messrs. Blackie's happiest volumes
this year. "Just Forty Winks" (from which one picture is reproduced
here), shows that the artist has steered clear of the "Alice in
Wonderland" model, which the author can hardly be said to have avoided.
Miss Bradley has also illustrated the prettily decorated book of poems,
"Songs for Somebody," by Dollie Radford (Nutt). The two series of
"Children's Singing Games" (Nutt) are among the most pleasant volumes
the Birmingham school has produced. Both are decorated by Winifred
Smith, who shows considerable humour as well as ingenuity.
Among volumes illustrated, each by the members of the Birmingham school,
are "A Book of Pictured Carols" (George Allen), and Mr. Baring-Gould's
"Nursery Rhymes" (Methuen). Both these volumes contain some of the most
representative work of Birmingham, and the latter, with its rich borders
and many pictures, is a book that consistently maintains a very fine
ideal, rare at any time, and perhaps never before applied to a book for
the nursery. Indeed were it needful to choose a single book to represent
the school, this one would stand the test of selection.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "NURSERY RHYMES" BY PAUL WOODROFFE
(GEORGE ALLEN. 1897)]
In Messrs. Dent's "Banbury Cross" series, the Misses Violet and Evelyn
Holden illustrated "The House that Jack Built"; Sidney Heath was
responsible for "Aladdin," and Mrs. H. T. Adams decorated "Tom Thumb,
&c."
Mr. Laurence Housman is more than an illustrator of fairy tales; he is
himself a rare creator of such fancies, and has, moreover, an almost
unique power of conveying his ideas in the medium. His "Farm in
Fairyland" and "A House of Joy" (both published by Kegan Paul and Co.)
have often been referred to in THE STUDIO. Yet, at the risk of
reiterating what nobody of taste doubts, one must place his work in this
direction head and shoulders above the crowd--even the crowd of
excellent illustrators--because its amazing fantasy and caprice are
supported by cunning technique that makes the whole work a "picture,"
not merely a decoration or an interpretation of the text. As a spinner
of entirely bewitching stories, that hold a child spell-bound, and can
be read and re-read by adults, he is a near rival of Andersen himself.
H. Granville Fell, better known perhaps from his decorations to "The
Book of Job," and certain decorated pages in the _English Illustrated
Magazine_, illustrated three of Messrs. Dent's "Banbury Cross"
series--"Cinderella, &c.," "Ali Baba," and "Tom Hickathrift." His work
in these is full of pleasant fancy and charming types.
A very sumptuous setting of the old fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast,"
in this case entitled "Zelinda and the Monster" (Dent, 1895), with ten
photogravures after paintings by the Countess of Lovelace, must not be
forgotten, as its text may bring it into our present category.
Miss Rosie Pitman, in "Maurice and the Red Jar" (Macmillan), shows much
elaborate effort and a distinct fantasy in design. "Undine" (Macmillan,
1897) is a still more successful achievement.
Richard Heighway is one of the "Banbury Cross" illustrators in "Blue
Beard," &c. (Dent), and has also pictured AEsop's "Fables," with 300
designs (in Macmillan's Cranford series).
Mr. J. F. Sullivan--who must not be confused with his namesake--is one
who has rarely illustrated works for little children, but in the famous
"British Workman" series in _Fun_, in dozens of Tom Hood's "Comic
Annuals," and elsewhere, has provoked as many hearty laughs from the
nursery as from the drawing-room. In "The Flame Flower" (Dent) we find a
side-splitting volume, illustrated with 100 drawings by the author. For
this only Mr. J. F. Sullivan has plunged readers deep in debt, and when
one recalls the amazing number of his delicious absurdities in the
periodical literature of at least twenty years past, it seems astounding
to find that the name of so entirely well-equipped a draughtsman is yet
not the household word it should be.
E. J. Sullivan, with eighty illustrations to the Cranford edition of
"Tom Brown's Schooldays," comes for once within our present limit.
J. D. Batten is responsible for the illustration of so many important
collections of fairy tales that it is vexing not to be able to reproduce
a selection of his drawings, to show the fertility of his invention and
his consistent improvement in technique. The series, "Fairy Tales of the
British Empire," collected and edited by Mr. Jacobs, already include
five volumes--English, More English, Celtic, More Celtic, and Indian,
all liberally illustrated by J. D. Batten, as are "The Book of Wonder
Voyages," by J. Jacobs (Nutt), and "Fairy Tales from the Arabian
Nights," edited by E. Dixon, and a second series, both published by
Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. "A Masque of Dead Florentines" (Dent) can
hardly be brought into our subject.
Louis Davis has illustrated far too few children's books. His Fitzroy
pictures show how delightfully he can appeal to little people, and in
"Good Night Verses," by Dollie Radford (Nutt), we have forty pages of
his designs that are peculiarly dainty in their quality, and tender in
their poetic interpretation of child-life.
"Wymps" (Lane, 1896), with illustrations by Mrs. Percy Dearmer, has a
quaint straightforwardness, of a sort that exactly wins a critic of the
nursery.
J. C. Sowerby, a designer for stained glass, in "Afternoon Tea" (Warne,
1880), set a new fashion for "aesthetic" little quartos costing five or
six shillings each. This was followed by "At Home" (1881), and "At Home
Again" (1886, Marcus Ward), and later by "Young Maids and Old China."
These, despite their popularity, display no particular invention. For
the real fancy and "conceit" of the books you have to turn to their
decorative borders by Thomas Crane. This artist, collaborating with
Ellen Houghton, contributed two other volumes to the same series,
"Abroad" (1882), and "London Town" (1883), both prime favourites of
their day.
Lizzie Lawson, in many contributions for _Little Folks_ and a volume in
colours, "Old Proverbs" (Cassell), displayed much grace in depicting
children's themes.
Nor among coloured books of the "eighties" must we overlook "Under the
Mistletoe" (Griffith and Farran, 1886), and "When all is Young"
(Christmas Roses, 1886); "Punch and Judy," by F. E. Weatherley,
illustrated by Patty Townsend (1885); "The Parables of Our Lord," really
dignified pictures compared with most of their class, by W. Morgan;
"Puss in Boots," illustrated by S. Caldwell; "Pets and Playmates"
(1888); "Three Fairy Princesses," illustrated by Paterson (1885);
"Picture Books of the Fables of AEsop," another series of quaintly
designed picture books, modelled on Struwwlpeter; "The Robbers' Cave,"
illustrated by A. M. Lockyer, and "Nursery Numbers" (1884), illustrated
by an amateur named Bell, all these being published by Messrs. Marcus
Ward and Co., who issued later, "Where Lilies Grow," a very popular
volume, illustrated in the "over-pretty" style by Mrs. Stanley Berkeley.
The attractive series of toy-books in colours, published in the form of
a Japanese folding album, were probably designed by Percy Macquoid, and
published by the same firm, who issued an oblong folio, "Herrick's
Content," very pleasantly decorated by Mrs. Houghton. R. Andre was (and
for all I know is still) a very prolific illustrator of children's
coloured books. "The Cruise of the Walnut Shell" (Dean, 1881); "A Week
Spent in a Glass Pond" (Gardner, Darton and Co.); "Grandmother's
Thimble" (Warne, 1882); "Pictures and Stories" (Warne, 1882); "Up
Stream" (Low, 1884); "A Lilliputian Opera" (Day, 1885); the Oakleaf
Library (six shilling volumes, Warne); and Mrs. Ewing's Verse Books (six
vols. S.P.C.K.) are some of the best known. T. Pym, far less
well-equipped as a draughtsman, shows a certain childish naivete in his
(or was it her?) "Pictures from the Poets" (Gardner, Darton and Co.);
"A, B, C" (Gardner, Darton and Co.); "Land of Little People"
(Hildesheimer, 1886); "We are Seven" (1880); "Children Busy" (1881);
"Snow Queen" (Gardner, Darton and Co.); "Child's Own Story Book"
(Gardner, Darton and Co.).