_A BATCH OF BOOK ILLUSTRATORS:_
_KENNY MEADOWS; ROBERT WILLIAM BUSS; ALFRED CROWQUILL; CHARLES H.
BENNETT; W. M. THACKERAY._
In old and second-hand bookshops, and in booksellers' catalogues, may
often be found a book which is gradually becoming a literary rarity. It
dates from 1840, and is a curiosity in its way, not only on account of
the "portraits" which adorn its pages, but as a specimen of the literary
padding on which men of letters (some of them distinguished) were
content to employ their talents fifty years ago. It was published by
Robert Tyas, of 50, Cheapside; professed to give "Portraits of the
English" of the period, but served as a means of introducing certain
characteristic pictorial sketches, more or less true to nature, by Kenny
Meadows, an artist whose name and reputation, although he has been dead
scarcely ten years, are already forgotten. Connected with these
portraits are "original essays by distinguished writers," including,
amid names of lesser note, literary stars such as Douglas Jerrold, Leman
Rede, Percival Leigh, Laman Blanchard, Leigh Hunt, William Howitt, and
Samuel Lover. These essays, or rather letterpress descriptions, were
written to the pictures, which were not drawn (as is generally supposed)
in illustration of the text. The portraits are taken from almost every
grade in life: from the dressmaker to the draper's assistant, and from
the housekeeper to the hangman; the last, by the way, being perhaps the
most characteristic sketch of the series. The best of these forty-three
"pictures" is the one which faces the title-page, a gathering of the
company which individually take part in this "gallery of illustration."
The designs are characteristic of the artist's style, but possess little
power of attraction, being destitute of any claim to originality either
of conception or treatment. The artist's share of the work is by far the
best part of the somewhat lugubrious entertainment, which the
performances of his literary associates scarcely serve to enliven. The
book, however, was a success in its day, for, if we mistake not, it was
followed by a second series, is even now sought after by the "collector"
(not bibliomaniac), and possesses some historical value by reason of the
fact that national types, such as _The Diner-out_, _The Stockbroker_,
_The Lion of the Party_, _The Fashionable Physician_ (that is to say, of
1840), _The Linen Draper's Assistant_, _The Barmaid_, _The Family
Governess_, _The Postman_, _The Theatrical Manager_, _The Farmer's
Daughter_, and _The Young Lord_, no longer live and move and act their
part amongst us. A change comes over the people in the course of forty
years, and some years hence our grandchildren may well smile at the
extraordinary monstrosities (female) who figure in the graphic satires
of 1883-4.
Kenny Meadows was the son of a retired naval officer, and was born at
Cardigan on the first of November, 1790. You will look in vain for any
notice of him, or of his services in the cause of illustrative art, in
any of the biographical dictionaries of his own or a subsequent period;
and this appears to us an unaccountable omission, for he achieved in his
time considerable celebrity as an artistic illustrator of books. His
work will be found bound up with that of most of his artistic
_confreres_ in nearly all the illustrated periodicals of his day; he was
one of the first to introduce wood-engraving among English publishers as
a means of cheap and popular illustration; he was employed by the late
Mr. Ingram, in the designs for the early Christmas numbers of the
_Illustrated London News_; he will be found amongst the number of the
artists who illustrated the early volumes of _Punch_; he was in
universal request as a designer of drawings to fairy and fanciful
stories; among his intimate friends were men of mark; such as Leigh
Hunt, Douglas Jerrold, Charles Dickens, W. M. Thackeray, Clarkson
Stanfield, David Roberts, and the Landseers; he did as much for
illustrative art as, perhaps, any artist of his time; and yet, amongst
men whose abilities scarcely exceeded his own in the same particular
walk in art, no place is to be found in any biographical dictionary, so
far at least as we know, for any mention of poor, kindly, genial, Kenny
Meadows.
Besides the popular illustrated periodicals of his day, in most of which
his familiar initials may be recognised, Kenny Meadows was in almost
universal request both amongst authors and publishers of the time. We
find him in 1832 illustrating, with Isaac Robert Cruikshank, a
periodical bearing the somewhat unpromising title of "The Devil in
London." To an 1833 edition of "Gil Blas," illustrated by George
Cruikshank, he contributed a frontispiece; and we find his hand in the
following: the late J. B. Buckstone's dramas of "The Wreck Ashore,"
"Victorine," "May Queen," "Henriette," "Rural Felicity," "Pet of the
Petticoats," "Married Life," "The Rake and his Pupil," "The
Christening," "Isabella," "Second Thoughts," and "The Scholar" (1835,
1836); Whitehead's "Autobiography of Jack Ketch" (1835); "Heads of the
People, or Portraits of the English" (1841); Mr. S. C. Hall's "Book of
British Ballads" (1842-44); an 1842 edition of Moore's "Lalla Rookh";
Leigh Hunt's "Palfrey, a Love Story of Old Times" (1842); "The
Illuminated Magazine" (1843); Shakespeare (1843); "Whist, its History
and Practice"; "Backgammon, its History and Practice," by the same
author; "The Illustrated London Almanacks" (from 1845 upwards); Sir
Edward Lytton Bulwer's "Leila," and "Calderon" (1847); W. N. Bailey's
"Illustrated Musical Annual," "The Family Joe Miller, a Drawing-room
Jest Book" (1848); "Puck," (a comic serial, 1848); Laman Blanchard's
"Sketches from Life" (1849); Samuel Lover's "Metrical Tales and Poems;"
"The Magic of Kindness," by the brothers Mayhew; Mrs. S. C. Hall's
"Midsummer Eve;" "Punch," up to and including the seventh volume; and
(some time afterwards) its able opponent "The Man in the Moon" (now
exceedingly scarce).[177] In these and very many other works we find him
associated not only with George Cruikshank, John Leech, Hablot Knight
Browne, and Richard Doyle, but with artists occupying the position of
Sir John Gilbert, Frank Stone, Maclise, Clarkson Stanfield, Creswick, E.
M. Ward, Elmore, Frost, Sir J. Noel Paton, Frederick Goodall, Thomas
Landseer, F. W. Popham, Fairholt, Harrison Weir, Redgrave, Corbould, and
Stephanoff. He was a thoroughly useful man; and a thousand examples of
quaint imaginings--oftentimes of graceful workmanship--might be culled
from the various works and serials in which his hand may be readily
recognised.
But the merits of Kenny Meadows as an illustrator of books are very
unequal. His friend, Mr. Hodder, who gives us in his pleasant "Memories"
an occasional note of some of the artists with whom he was thrown in
contact, says of him: "The quiet, unostentatious way in which he worked
at his art, too often under the most adverse and discouraging
circumstances, and the pride which he displayed when he felt he had made
a 'happy hit,' was somewhat like the enthusiasm of a youth who had first
attained the honour of a prize. As a draughtsman he never cared to be
guided by those practical laws which regulate the academic exercise of
the pictorial art; for he contended that too strict an adherence to
nature only trammelled him, and he preferred relying upon the thought
conveyed in his illustrations, rather than upon the mechanical
correctness of his outline or perspective." George Cruikshank showed, as
we know, a tolerable contempt for nature when he undertook the
delineation of a horse, a woman, or a tree; but it was one of the
conditions of his _genius_ that it should be left free and untrammelled
to follow the dictates of its own inspiration, and the quaint effect
which somehow or other he managed to impart to a design which, in its
details might offend the educated taste of the art critic, made us
forget the contempt too often displayed for those "practical laws" to
which Mr. Hodder refers. To constitute a good comic artist, not only is
it necessary that he should be a good draughtsman, but certain special
gifts are indispensable,--a keen sense of the ridiculous, an inherent
appreciation of humour, a quick and ready invention, qualities which no
amount of artificial training will bestow. They were possessed in an
eminent degree by Gillray, by Cruikshank, by John Leech, but were wholly
wanting to Kenny Meadows. He could draw on occasion a queer face--for
that matter his faces, intentionally or otherwise, were generally
queer--and an eccentric figure, and so can many persons who have a
natural taste for drawing, and have learnt to handle the pencil; but the
caricaturist, like the poet, _nasciiur non fit_, and a hundred or even a
thousand queer faces or eccentric figures, without the gift of invention
or originality, will not of themselves constitute the designer a comic
artist. The truth is that with Kenny Meadows mannerism takes the place
of genius. You will recognise his hand anywhere without the familiar
"K.M." appended to it, for all his faces are chubby (not to say puffy),
and their arms and legs look for all the world as if the hand that
designed them had been guided by a ruler. The delusion which led him to
imagine that his "genius" would enable him to soar superior to nature is
no doubt responsible in some degree for this latter eccentricity, for
the artist who would be bold enough to despise the laws "which regulate
the exercise of the pictorial art," would be prepared to view Hogarth's
line of beauty with like indifference and contempt.
Kenny Meadows was one of the early illustrators of _Punch_, and
contributed moreover to the first volume some of the best of the
cartoons. Good specimens of his work will be found in _Young Loves to
Sell_, and _The Speculative Mama_ (_sic_), second vol.; in the third
volume he illustrated "Punch's Letters to His Son," and the first of the
almanacks contains six of his designs. In the fourth volume we find six
of his cartoons, among them _The Milk of Poor Law Kindness_, and _The
First Tooth_ (the Queen and infant Prince of Wales); the doctor's legs
and shoes are thoroughly characteristic of his style, and look for all
the world as if they had been drawn by a ruler. The cartoon, _Punch
Turned Out of France_ in this volume is, if we mistake not, the work of
Kenny Meadows. _The Christian Bayadere Worshipping the Idol Siva_, has
reference to the tolerance which "John Company" wisely conceded to
Hindoo religious ceremony, so long as its traditions were found
consistent with the ordinary dictates of humanity. "The Story of a
Feather" in this volume has five illustrations, two of which are very
clever. Among the other cartoons we find _The Modern Macheath_ (the
Captain being Sir Robert Peel). The fifth volume contains eight of his
illustrations, six being cartoons; among them, _The Irish Frankenstein_
(badly imagined and atrociously drawn), _The Water Drop_ and the _Gin
Drop_ are characterized by much poverty of invention, but the former is
the best of the two. _The Battle of the Alphabet_ (cartoon) is a better
specimen of his work, although the legs and arms look as usual, as if
drawn with a ruler. The sixth volume contains three of his cartoons,
while the almanack of the year (1844) has several of his illustrations.
To the seventh volume he contributed no less than thirty-one
illustrations, some very good, one of the best being that of the two
legal dogs quarrelling over a bone of litigation. _Punch_ at the outset
of his career had considerable difficulty in the selection of a graphic
satirist, and one of his "right hand men" in those early days was a Mr.
Henning, by whose side Kenny Meadows figures as an absolute genius.
After his seventh volume, however, he met with artists better fitted to
interpret his political and social views, and no trace of Meadows'
useful hand appears in succeeding volumes.
In stating that the merits of Kenny Meadows as an illustrator of books
are unequal, and in denying to him the possession of genius, we must not
be held to imply that he was deficient of talent. An excellent example
of the inequality of which we speak will be found in his Shakespeare
(Robert Tyas, 1843), a work selected by us for the reason that it was
considered by himself and his two favourable friends as his masterpiece.
Although we cannot stay to notice all the strange conceptions with which
he has enriched this book, we may be permitted to wonder whence he
derived his preposterous ideas of Caliban, of Malvolio, of Shylock, of
Juliet's nurse, of Launce's unhappy dog, of the Egpytian[ Sphynx in
"Antony and Cleopatra." The model of Shylock was evidently some "old
clo'" dealer in Petticoat Lane. The figure of Armado ("Love's Labour's
Lost") is so wonderfully put together that his anatomy must sooner or
later fall to pieces; the ghost of Hamlet's father is the ghost of some
colossal statue, certainly not the shade of one who had worn the guise
of ordinary humanity. The head of the gentle Juliet might derive benefit
from the application of a bottle of invigorating hair wash. The figure
of the monk in "Romeo and Juliet" literally cut out of wood, carries as
much expression in its face as a lay figure; while the walls of
Northampton Castle (in "King John") are so much out of the
perpendicular, that the courtiers seem less concerned at finding the
dead body of Arthur, than in seeking a place of shelter from the
impending downfall. Henry the Eighth, although acknowledged to be a
corpulent, was not, so far as we know, a deformed man; the preposterous
"beak" of Richard the Third occupies one half of his otherwise
remarkably short face, and its owner (in the well-known tent scene)
suffers from an attack of tetanus instead of an accession of mental
terror. These eccentric realizations, in which he has succeeded in
setting all the rules of drawing at defiance, are rendered the more
remarkable by reason of the circumstance that the work now under
consideration is interspersed with numerous charming drawings, the
effect of which is wholly marred by these erratic performances. Meadows
was an admirable water-colour artist, and a scarce edition of this work
contains some engravings of Shakespearian heroines after his designs.
The Germans fancy they understand Shakespeare better than ourselves (an
amiable and complimentary weakness), and the work was favourably
received in Germany, the artist's conception of Falstaff, in particular,
being so highly appreciated that a bronze statuette was modelled after
it, which enjoyed a large sale.
His ideas of female beauty were almost as eccentric as those of
Cruikshank. A couple of beauties of the Meadows type will be found at
page 3 of Henry Cockton's "Sisters" (Nodes, 1844), where one lady is
represented to us with a neck like that of a giraffe, whilst her sister
beauty is sensibly inconvenienced by a lock of hair which has strayed
into her eye,--a favourite device, by the way, of the artist. This book,
now scarce (in the illustration of which he was assisted by Alfred
Crowquill), is adorned with a portrait on steel, after a painting by
Childe, in which the author is presented to us in a white waistcoat and
dress coat, with a pen in his hand, leading us to the inference that his
clumsily constructed novels (one of which--"Valentine Vox," thanks
perhaps to the illustrator, Onwhyn--still holds its ground) were written
in evening costume.
But notwithstanding these failures, Kenny Meadows has happily left
behind him work of a very much better kind. His Christmas pictures in
particular are impressed with the kindly, genial humour which
characterized the man; the "Illuminated Magazine," a scarce and valuable
work, contains sixty-three very fine specimens of his pencillings,
including the illustrations to his friend Douglas Jerrold's "Chronicles
of Clovernook," admirable in every respect, probably the finest designs
he ever executed. The wood engravings in this charming serial have
probably never been surpassed; we seldom see woodcuts in these days
which equal the splendid workmanship of E. Landells.[178] After the
third volume, the "Illuminated Magazine" passed into other hands, and
although Kenny Meadows continued its mainstay for a time, the rest of
the excellent artists left, and the literary matter visibly declined.
To the famous "Gallery of Comicalities" Kenny Meadows contributed
_Sketches from Lavater_ and _Phisogs of the Traders of London_. During
the last decade of his life his services in the cause of illustrative
art were rewarded and recognised by a pension from the Civil List of L80
per annum. Like George Cruikshank he remained hale and vigorous to the
last, proud of his age, and fond of asserting there was "life in the old
dog yet." That this was no idle boast may be inferred from the fact that
within a few months of his death he was engaged in painting a subject
from his favourite Shakespeare. At the time of his death (in August,
1874) he had almost completed his eighty-fifth year.
* * * * *
In hunting up materials for the present work, we have come at various
times upon editions (specimens, perhaps, might be the better word) of
the "Pickwick Papers," which will possess an interest in the eyes of the
collector. The first issue, in the original green sporting covers
designed by Seymour, is of course exceedingly scarce; we have never
indeed seen a _perfect_ copy, which would probably be worth some ten
pounds, while the same edition bound may be purchased at prices varying
from twenty-four shillings to three guineas, according to the condition
of the volume. An Australian edition was published at Launceston, Van
Dieman's Land, in 1838, with plates after "Phiz" by "Tiz," facsimiles on
stone of the earliest issue of the parts in England. At a West of
England bookseller's we met with a first edition bound up with etchings
by Onwhyn,[179] "Peter Palette," and others. Then there are the
twenty-four etchings from remarkably clever original drawings by Mr. F.
W. Pailthorpe in illustration of scenes in "Pickwick," of which the
proofs before letters were published at three guineas; and lastly, there
is the rare first edition, containing all the plates by Seymour and
"Phiz," supplemented by the two "suppressed" etchings, which are
credited (wrongly) to the hand of Buss.
Among the etchers of book illustration after 1836, we may name ROBERT
WILLIAM BUSS, whose etchings will be found in Mrs. Trollope's "Widow
Married" (a sequel to her "Widow Barnaby"), which made its appearance in
the "New Monthly Magazine" of 1839, and whose hand will also be found in
Marryat's "Peter Simple," "Jacob Faithful," Harrison Ainsworth's "Court
of King James II.," etc. Although his designs lack the genius, the
artistic power, the finish and the comic invention of Leech or
Cruikshank, they show nevertheless that as an etcher and designer he was
possessed of exceptional talent and ability. The first experience,
however, of this able artist as an etcher was peculiarly unfortunate and
vexatious.
When poor Seymour shot himself in 1836, the draughtsman first called in
to supply his place was Robert William Buss. He had been recommended to
Messrs. Chapman and Hall by John Jackson, the wood-engraver, but does
not seem at that time to have had any practical experience of etching,
as he himself explained to the member of the firm who called upon him.
Mr. Buss, in fact, was decidedly indisposed to undertake the work, being
then engaged on a picture he was preparing for exhibition, and he
undertook it only after considerable pressure. He immediately began to
practise the various operations of etching and biting in, and produced a
plate with which the publishers expressed themselves satisfied. Two
subjects were then selected for illustration, _The Cricket Match_, and
_The Fat Boy Watching Mr. Tupman and Miss Wardle_. When, however, Mr.
Buss began to etch them on the plate, he found, having had little or no
experience in laying his ground, that it holed up under the etching
point; and as time was precious, he placed the plates in the hands of an
experienced engraver to be etched and bitten in. Had opportunity been
given him, his son (from whom we take this account) tells us he would
have cancelled these plates and issued fresh ones of his own etching.
Designs were prepared by him for the following number, when he received
an intimation that the work of illustrating the "Pickwick Papers" had
been placed in other hands. The illustrations referred to were
suppressed, and the collectors who are so anxious to secure an edition
with the two "Buss plates," will be pleased to learn that, although the
design was his, not one line of the etchings which bear his name are due
to the artist's point.[180]
The father of Robert William was an engraver and enameller, and under
his directions he acquired a knowledge of this technical branch of art;
but evincing a taste and preference for drawing and painting, he became
a pupil of George Clint, A.R.A., under whose direction he studied
subject and portrait painting. He painted fifteen theatrical portraits
for Mr. Cumberland in illustration of his "British Drama," and a
collection of these works was afterwards exhibited at that melancholy
monument to past exhibitions, the Colosseum in the Regent's Park. He was
employed by Charles Knight in the illustrations to his "Shakespeare,"
"London," "Old England," "Chaucer," and the now forgotten "Penny
Magazine," for all of which publications he executed many designs on
wood.
It must not be supposed because Robert William Buss was not considered
the right man to illustrate "Pickwick," that he was therefore an
indifferent draughtsman. His finest book etchings are probably those
which he executed for Harrison Ainsworth's novel of "The Court of James
II."; but in a higher and far more ambitious walk in art he was not only
more successful, but achieved in his time a considerable reputation.
Among his pictures may be mentioned one of _Christmas in the Olden
Time_, which, apart from its merits as a painting, showed that he
possessed considerable antiquarian knowledge. Other works of his are,
_The Frosty Morning_, purchased by Lord Charles Townshend; _The Stingy
Traveller_, bought by the Duchess of St. Albans; _The Wooden Walls of
Old England_, the property of Lord Coventry; _Soliciting a Vote_, and
_Chairing the Member_; _The Musical Bore_; _The Frosty Reception_;
_Master's Out_; _Time and Tide Wait for no Man_; _Shirking the Plate_;
_The First of September_; _The Introduction of Tobacco_; _The Biter
Bit_; _The Romance_; and _Satisfaction_. For Mr. Hogarth, of the
Haymarket, he painted four small subjects illustrative of Christmas,
entitled, _The Waits_; _Bringing in the Boar's Head_; _The Yule Log_,
and _The Wassail Bowl_; all afterwards engraved. For Mr. James Haywood,
M.P., he executed a series of drawings illustrative of student life at
Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, London, and Paris; while two vast subjects,
_The Origin of Music_ and _The Triumph of Music_ (each twenty feet wide
by nine feet high), were painted for the Earl of Hardwick, and are, or
lately were, in the music saloon at Wimpole, in Cambridgeshire. His
pictures were seventy-one in number, twenty-five of which were engraved.
On the whole, therefore, Robert William Buss might afford to bear the
refusal of Charles Dickens's patronage with equanimity.
The paintings and etchings of Robert William Buss evince a strong
leaning in the direction of comic art, a taste which prompted him, in
1853, to deliver at various towns in the United Kingdom a course of very
successful and interesting lectures on caricature and graphic satire,
illustrated by several hundred examples executed by himself. In 1874,
the year before his death, he published for the amusement of his
friends, and for private circulation only, the substance of these
lectures, under the title of "English Graphic Satire and its Relation to
Different Styles of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving." The numerous
illustrations to this work were those drawn for his lectures by the
artist, and reproduced for his book by the process of photo-lithography.
So far as comic art and caricaturists of the nineteenth century are
concerned, the author has comparatively little to say; but the work is
valuable as regards the subject generally, and might have been published
with advantage to the public. The artist delivered also lectures on "The
Beautiful and the Picturesque," as well as on "Fresco Painting."
Mr. Buss, if not very original as a comic designer, possessed
nevertheless a keen sense of humour. One of his pictures (engraved by H.
Rolls), entitled _Time and Tide Wait for no Man_, represents an artist,
sketching by the sea-shore, so absorbed in the contemplation of nature
that he remains unconscious of the fast inflowing tide, and deaf to the
warnings of the fisherman who is seen hailing him from the beach.
* * * * *
The comic publications which either preceded or ran side by side with
_Punch_ had for the most part a somewhat short and unsatisfactory
career. Perhaps the most successful of them was _Figaro in London_,
1831-36, which we have already noticed. _The Wag_, a long-forgotten
publication, enjoyed a very transient existence. In 1832 appeared
_Punchinello_, on the pages of which Isaac Robert Cruikshank was
engaged. _Punchinello_, however, ceased running after its tenth number.
_Asmodeus in London_, notwithstanding the support it derived from
Seymour's pencil, was by no means a commercial success. _The Devil in
London_ was a little more fortunate. This periodical commenced running
on the 29th of February, 1832, and the illustrations of Isaac Robert
Cruikshank and Kenny Meadows enabled it to reach its thirty-seventh
number. Tom Dibdin's _Penny Trumpet_ ignominiously blew itself out after
the fourth number. _The Schoolmaster at Home_, notwithstanding Seymour's
graphic exertions, collapsed at its sixth number. _The Whig Dresser_,
illustrated by Heath, enjoyed an existence exactly of twelve numbers.
_The Squib_ (1842) lasted for thirty weeks before it exploded and went
out. _Puck_ (1848), illustrated by W. Hine, Kenny Meadows, and Gilbert,
died the twenty-fifth week after its first publication. _Chat_ ran its
course in 1850 and 1851. _The Man in the Moon_, under the literary
guidance of Shirley Brooks, Albert Smith, G. A. Sala, and the Brothers
Brough, enjoyed a comparatively glorious career of two years and a half.
_Diogenes_ (started in 1853, under the literary conduct of Watts
Phillips, the Broughs, Halliday, and Angus Bethune Reach),
notwithstanding the graphic help rendered by McConnell[181] and Charles
H. Bennett, gave up the ghost in 1854. _Punchinello_ (second of the
name) flickered and went out at the seventh number. _Judy_ (the
predecessor of the present paper) appeared 1st February, 1843, but soon
died a natural death. _Town Talk_, edited by Halliday and illustrated by
McConnell, lasted a very limited time. _London_, started by George
Augustus Sala in rivalry of _Punch_, soon ceased running; while the
_Puppet Show_, notwithstanding the ability of Mr. Procter, enjoyed but
a very brief and transitory existence. The strong and healthy
constitution of _Punch_ enabled him not only to outlive all these, but
even a publication superior in some important respects to himself. We
allude to the _Tomahawk_, whose cartoons are certainly the most powerful
and outspoken satires which have appeared since the days of
Gillray.[182]
Among the draughtsmen whom _Punch_ called in to help him in his early
days was a useful and ingenious artist, inferior in many respects to
Kenny Meadows, his name was ALFRED HENRY FORRESTER, better known to most
of us under his _nom de guerre_ of "Alfred Crowquill." The scribes of
the "Catnach," or Seven Dials school, of literature are satirized by
Forrester (in the second volume), wherein we see a "Literary Gentleman"
hard at work at his vocation of a scribe of cheap and deleterious
literature, consulting his authorities--"The Annals of Crime," a "Last
Dying Speech and Confession," and the "Newgate Calendar." In _The
Footman_ we have a gorgeous figure, adorned with epaulets, lace, and a
cocked hat, reading (of all things in the world) the "Loves of the
Angels," over a bottle of hock and soda-water! _The Pursuit of Matrimony
under Difficulties_ is a more ambitious performance. "Punch's Guide to
the Watering Places" (vol. iii.) is illustrated with a number of
coarsely executed cuts, wholly destitute of merit; the fourth volume
contains a cartoon entitled _Private Opinions_. But the graphic humour
of Alfred Crowquill, although amusing and sometimes bright and
sparkling, was unsuited to the requirements of a periodical such as
_Punch_. As better men came forward, he gradually dropped out of its
pages, and we see nothing more of him after the fourth volume.
[Illustration:
ALFRED CROWQUILL. _From "The Book of Days."_
FROZEN OUT GARDENERS.
_Face p. 368._]
Alfred Crowquill was a sort of "general utility" man, essaying the
character of a _litterateur_ as well as that of an artist, and achieving
as a natural consequence no permanent success in either. In his literary
capacity, Alfred Henry Forrester made his first appearance (we believe)
in "The Hive," and "The Mirror," under the editorship of Mr. Timbs;
while as an artist he illustrated his own writings, besides those of a
host of other authors. An early effort of his pencil is entitled, _Der
Freyschutz Travestied_; this was followed by "Alfred Crowquill's Sketch
Books," which were dedicated to the (then) Princess Victoria, by command
of the Duchess of Kent. We find him afterwards employed on the pages of
the "New Monthly," but on the death of its editor, Mr. Theodore Hook,
his useful talents procured him an engagement on the staff of "Bentley's
Miscellany," to whose pages he was not only an indefatigable
contributor, but rendered it substantial assistance in its difficulties
with George Cruikshank. The best of his illustrative works (mostly
designs on wood) were executed for this periodical, and selections were
afterwards collected and published under the title of "The
Phantasmagoria of Fun."
[Illustration:
ALFRED CROWQUILL. _From "The Book of Days."_
"SWEARING THE HORNS" AT HIGHGATE.
"When any person passed through Highgate for the first time on his way
to London, he, being brought before the horns, had a mock oath
administered to him, to the effect that he would never drink small beer
when he could get strong, unless he liked it better; that he would
never eat brown bread when he could get white, or water-gruel, when he
could command turtle-soup; that he would never make love to the maid
when he might to the mistress; and so on . according to the wit of the
imposer of the oath, and simplicity of the oath-taker."
_Face p. 369._]
In these days a man like Forrester would be almost at a discount, but at
the time when he started there was less competition, and a useful,
clever man, like he undoubtedly was, was fortunately not lost. His
hands, in fact, were always full, and a list of some of the books to
which his pen and his pencil contributed will be found in the Appendix.
One of the best of his designs was a title-page he executed for a work
published by Kent & Co., under the title of "Merry Pictures by the Comic
Hands of Alfred Crowquill, Doyle, Meadows, Hine, and Others" (1857), a
_rechauffage_ of cuts and illustrations which had previously done duty
for books of an ephemeral character, such as "The Gent," "The Ballet
Girl," and even of the superior order of "Gavarni in London."[183] Some
excellent designs executed by him on wood will be found in Messrs.
Chambers' "Book of Days." In his dual character of a writer and comic
artist, Crowquill was an inveterate punster. Leaves from his "Memorandum
Book" (1834) will give us a good idea of his style. In "Tea Leaves for
Breakfast," _Strong Black_ is represented by a sturdy negro carrying a
heavy basket; a tall youth with a small father personating _Hyson_; a
housemaid shaking a hall mat, to the discomfort of herself and the
passers-by, is labelled _Fine dust_; a cockney accidentally discharging
his fowling-piece does duty for _Gunpowder_; while _Mixed_ is aptly
personified by a curious group of masqueraders. The vowels put in a
comical appearance: _A_ with his hands behind him listens to _E_, who
points to _I_ as the subject of his remarks, which must be of a
scandalous character, as the injured vowel looks the picture of anger
and astonishment. _E_ finds a ready listener in _O_, who opens his mouth
and extends his hands in real or simulated amazement and horror.
Crowquill was a clever caricaturist, and began work when he was only
eighteen. We have seen some able satires of his executed between the
years 1823 and 1826 inclusive. One of the best, published by S. Knight
in 1825, is entitled, _Paternal Pride_: "Dear Doctor, don't you think my
little Billy is like me?" "The very picture of you in every feature!"
_Ups and Downs_ (Knights, 1823), comprise "Take Up" (a Bow Street
runner); "Speak Up" (a barrister); "Hang Up" (a hangman); "Let-em-Down"
(a coachman); "Knock-em-Down" (an auctioneer); "Screw-em-Down" (an
undertaker). The following are given as _Four Specimens of the Reading
Public_ (Fairburn, 1826): "Romancing Molly," "Sir Lacey Luscious," a
"Political Dustman," and "French a la Mode." Two, in which he was
assisted by George Cruikshank, entitled, _Indigestion_, and _Jealousy_,
will be found in the volume published (and republished) under the name
of "Cruikshankiana." The latter shows on the face of it that, while
Crowquill was responsible for the design, the etching and a large share
of the invention are due to Cruikshank.
If not a genius, the man was talented and clever,--a universal
favourite. He could draw, he could write; he was an admirable vocalist,
setting the table in a roar with his medley of songs. Even as a painter
he was favourably known. _Temperance and Intemperance_ were engraved
from his painting in oils, and called forth a letter of thanks from
the great apostle of temperance, Father Mathew himself. Other works were
_The Ups and Downs of Life_, the well-known _President_ and _Vice
President_ (both engraved), and many others. A clever artist in "black
and white," two of his pen-and-ink sketches--_The Huntsman's Rest_ and
_The Solitary_--were honoured with a place among the drawings at the
Royal Academy Exhibition of 1846. His talents did not end here; most of
the Christmas pantomimes of his time were indebted to him for clever
designs, devices, and effects. The kindly, genial, gifted man died in
1872, in his sixty-eighth year.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
CHAS. H. BENNETT. _"Shadow and Substance."_
"... creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school."--AS YOU LIKE IT.
_Face p. 371._]
Some of our readers may possibly remember seeing in one of the comic
publications published concurrently with or shortly after the appearance
of Mr. Charles Darwin's work, a series of comical designs ridiculing the
theory of the "origin of species" in a manner which must have astonished
as well as amused the learned philosopher. The origin of the genus
_footman_, and of the dish he carries to his master's table, is traced
out as follows: The dish carries a bone, which eventually finds its way
into the jaws of a mongrel cur with a peculiarly short tail. The process
then goes merrily onwards; the dog gradually develops; his skin turns
into a suit of livery with buttons, the dog-collar gradually assumes the
form of a footman's tie, until the process is ended and the species
complete. In like manner, a cat develops into a spinster aunt; a monkey
into a mischievous urchin; a pig into a gourmand; a sheep into a country
bumpkin; a weasel into a lawyer; a dancing bear into a garrotter; a
shark into a money-lender; a snail into the schoolboy to which
Shakespeare likens him; a fish into a toper, and so on. These
"developments" (twenty in number), which were dedicated to Mr. Darwin,
are signed "C. H. B." and these are the initials of CHARLES H. BENNETT,
one of the gentlest, most promising, and withal most original graphic
humourists of the century.
Amongst the earliest of the serials which he illustrated was, we
believe, _Diogenes_, a sort of rival of _Punch_, which made its
appearance and ran a brief course in 1853-4. Associated with him in the
illustrations were McConnell and Watts Phillips, the latter of whom
contributed largely also to the literary matter. We find a clever design
of his (in Leech's style) in the second volume: "Now, gentlemen of the
jury," says a brazen-faced barrister, "I throw myself upon your
impartial judgment as husbands and fathers, and I confidently ask, Does
the prisoner [the most murderous-looking ruffian un-hung] look like a
man who would knock down and trample upon the wife of his bosom?
Gentlemen, I have done!"
There was considerable originality in the designs of Bennett, which is
more particularly manifested in the well-known series of humorous
sketches in which the effect intended to be produced is effected by
means of the _shadows_ of the figures represented, which are supposed to
indicate their distinguishing failings and characteristics. Among them
may be mentioned a tipsy woman amused at the _shadow_ cast by her own
figure of a gin bottle; an undertaker, in his garb of woe wrung from the
pockets of widows and orphans, casts the appropriate shadow of a
crocodile; a red-nosed old hospital nurse of a tea-pot; a worn-out
seamstress of a skeleton; a mischievous street boy of a monkey; an angry
wife sitting up for a truant husband of an extinguisher; a tall,
conceited-looking parson, with a long coat, of a pump; while a sweep,
with his "machine," to his mortal terror beholds his own shadow
preceding him in the guise of Beelzebub himself. The series is continued
in a work published by W. Kent & Co. in 1860, under the title of "Shadow
and Substance," the letterpress of which is contributed to Bennett's
pictures by Robert B. Brough. Literary work of this description, like
William Combe's "Doctor Syntax," is necessarily unsatisfactory; but the
pictures themselves are distinctly inferior to the series which preceded
them, the best being _Old Enough to Know Better_,--a bald-headed,
superannuated old sinner behind the scenes, presenting a bouquet to a
ballet girl, his figure casting a _shadow_ on the back of the scene of a
bearded, long-eared, horned old goat.
[Illustration:
CHAS. H. BENNETT. "_Shadow and Substance._"
"OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER."
_Face p. 372._]
We are in no position to give a detailed list of Charles Bennett's work,
which was of a very miscellaneous kind, comprising among others a series
of slight outline portraits of members of parliament, which appeared
in the _Illustrated Times_, an edition of the "Pilgrim's Progress,"
edited by the Rev. Charles Kingsley; "John Todd," a work by the Rev.
John Allen; "Shadows," and "Shadow and Substance," just spoken of;
"Proverbs, with Pictures by Charles H. Bennett," etc., etc. His talent
at last attracted the notice of the weekly _Punch_ council, and he
received the coveted distinction of being engaged on the permanent staff
of that periodical.
His life, however, was a brief one. The diary of Shirley Brooks, who
took much personal interest in him, refers with some anxiety to his
illness on the 30th of March, 1867. On the 31st of March the report was
somewhat more favourable; but the 2nd of April brought a letter from the
editor of _Punch_, Mark Lemon, which said that Charles Bennett had died
between the hours of eight and nine o'clock that morning. "I am very
sorry," adds Shirley Brooks in an autograph note appended beneath the
letter referred to. "B[ennett] was a man whom one could not help loving
for his gentleness, and a wonderful artist." The obituary notice by the
same hand which appears in _Punch_ records that "he was a very able
colleague, a very dear friend. None of our fellow-workers," it
continues, "ever entered more heartily into his work, or laboured with
more earnestness to promote our general purpose. His facile execution
and singular subtilty of fancy were, we hoped, destined to enrich these
pages for many a year. It has been willed otherwise, and we lament the
loss of a comrade of invaluable skill, and the death of one of the
kindliest and gentlest of our associates, the power of whose hand was
equalled by the goodness of his heart." Charles Bennett was only
thirty-seven when he died.
He left a widow and eight children unprovided for, for his health having
precluded it, no life insurance had been effected. The _Punch_ men,
however, with the unselfishness which so nobly characterizes them, put
their shoulders to the wheel for the family of their stricken comrade.
"We shall have to do something," said Shirley Brooks in his diary of the
3rd of April; and they did it accordingly. A committee was immediately
started, on which we find the names of Messrs. Arthur Lewis,[184]
Wilbert Beale, Mark Lemon, Du Maurier, John Tenniel, Arthur Sullivan,
and W. H. Bradbury. Then came rehearsals, and, on the 11th of May, a
performance at the Adelphi in aid of the Bennett fund. Mr. Arthur
Sullivan had, in conjunction with Mr. F. C. Burnand, converted the
well-known farce of "Box and Cox" into an operetta of the most ludicrous
description. This was the opening piece--the forerunner of "Pinafore,"
"Pirates," "Patience," and other triumphs. Arthur Sullivan himself
conducted, and the players were Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Quinton, and Mr.
Arthur Blunt. Then followed "A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing," in which
Mesdames Kate Terry, Florence Terry, Mrs. Stoker, Mrs. Watts (the
present Ellen Terry), and Messrs. Mark Lemon, Tom Taylor, Tenniel,
Burnand, Silver, Pritchett, and Horace Mayhew took part. This was
succeeded by Offenbach's "Blind Beggars," who were admirably personated
by Mr. Du Maurier and Mr. Harold Power. The evening concluded with a
number of part songs and madrigals sung by the Moray Minstrels--so
called from their chiefly performing at Moray Lodge, the residence of
Mr. Arthur Lewis. Between the two portions of their entertainment,
Shirley Brooks came on and delivered an address written by himself,
which contained the following allusion to him for whose family the
generous work had been undertaken:--
"Only some friends of a lost friend, whose name
Is all the inheritance his children claim
(Save memory of his goodness), think it due
To make some brief acknowledgment to you.
Brief but not cold; some thanks that you have come
And helped us to secure that saddened home,
Where eight young mourners round a mother weep
A fond and dear loved father's sleep.
Take it from us--and with this word we end
All sad allusion to our parted friend--
That for a better purpose generous hearts
Ne'er prompted liberal hands to do their parts.
You knew his power, his satire keen but fair,
And the rich fancy, served by skill as rare.
You did not know, except some friendly few,
That he was earnest, gentle, patient, true.
A better soldier doth life's battle lack,
And he has died with harness on his back."
[Illustration:
"RESULT OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM."
THACKERAY'S MARGINAL SKETCHES, MADE WHEN AT SCHOOL, IN HIS SCHOOL-BOOKS,
ETC.
_Back to p. 375._]
[Illustration:
THACKERAY'S MARGINAL SKETCHES, MADE WHEN AT SCHOOL, INHIS SCHOOL-BOOKS,
ETC.
_Back to p. 375._]
The last verse alludes to Kate Terry's approaching marriage:--
"Last, but not least, in your dear love and ours,
There is a head we'd crown with all our flowers.
Our kindest thanks to her whose smallest grace
Is the bewitchment of her fair young face.
Our own Kate Terry comes, to show how much
The truest art does with the lightest touch.
Make much of her while still before your eyes--
A star may glide away to other skies."
By this performance, a second which took place at Manchester on the 29th
of July, and the efforts of Shirley Brooks and the members of the
committee, a large sum was raised.
* * * * *
The _Punch_ volumes, prior to his withdrawal from its pages, are
interspersed with numerous mirth-provoking drawings on wood by the late
Mr. THACKERAY. Probably the best of these will be found in the "Novels
by Eminent Hands," in one of which (in amusing burlesque of _Phiz's_
spirited title-page to "Charles O'Malley") we see the hero flying over
the heads of the French army. Charles Lever was nervously sensitive to
ridicule, and, although he laughed at and enjoyed the clever _jeux
d'esprit_ in which "Phil Fogarty," "Harry Jolly-cur," "Harry Rollicker,"
etc., put in their respective appearances, he declared nevertheless,
with evident vexation, that he himself might just as well retire from
business altogether. This, indeed, he proceeded to do; and although we
miss from that time the rattling heroes of the Frank Webber and Charles
O'Malley school, we are indebted to Thackeray for the striking proof
which Charles Lever was thus enabled to afford us of the versatility of
a genius which enabled him to change front and alter his style with
manifest advantage to his literary reputation.
The fact of his waiting upon Dickens at his chambers in Furnival's Inn
"with two or three drawings in his hand, which strange to say he did not
find suitable" for "Pickwick," has been told so often that there is no
occasion for repeating it again; but the circumstances under which he
seems to have sought the interview not being, so far as we know, stated
anywhere, we shall now proceed to relate them. Thackeray was in London
when Seymour shot himself in 1836. The death of the latter caused a
vacancy in the post of illustrator to "Figaro in London," which at that
time Seymour was illustrating as well as "Pickwick," and such vacancy
was supplied by Thackeray, who, I think, continued to illustrate it
until the paper died a natural death. His designs for "Figaro in London"
were drawn in pen and ink on paper, and transferred to the wood by the
engravers, Messrs. Branstone and Wright, and the remuneration he
received for them was very trifling, at most a few shillings each. It
was probably this circumstance which put into his head the idea of
illustrating "Pickwick." From what we know of the graphic abilities of
Thackeray and the fastidious requirements of Dickens, we may readily
understand why the post rendered vacant by Seymour's suicide was given
to an abler artist.
We wish that from a work dealing with comic art in the nineteenth
century the name of Mr. Thackeray might be omitted; for no notice of
him, however short, would be just or complete which failed to refer to
his book illustrations. To do this we must separate Thackeray the artist
from Thackeray the man of letters. Regarding him simply in the character
of illustrator of the novels of W. M. Thackeray, we are bound in justice
to the memory of that great and sterling humourist, to say that he has
undertaken a task which is manifestly beyond his powers. While Thackeray
with his _pen_ could most effectively describe a fascinating woman, like
Becky Sharp, the illusion vanishes the moment his artist essays to draw
her portrait with his pencil. While Thackeray's women are pretty and
fascinating, well dressed and accomplished, the artist's women on the
contrary are hideous; their waists commence somewhere in the region of
their knees; and their clothes look as if they had been piled on their
back with a pitchfork. The same remarks apply to the men; while the
originals are witty or clever, handsome or well-dressed, those presented
to us by the artist are destitute of calf, and their limbs so curiously
constructed that the free use of them as nature intended would be a
matter of utter impossibility. Those defects are the more noticeable
because the artist has shown in his admirable essays on George
Cruikshank and John Leech how thoroughly he was alive to the possession
of artistic genius in others.
The admiration which we have for Thackeray the man of letters, and the
way in which we have already expressed that admiration, render it
unlikely that the drift of these remarks will be misunderstood. While
rejoicing that the admirable tales and satires of the humourist are
uninjured by illustrations which are altogether unworthy of them, we
venture to suggest how much better the result might have been had the
latter been entrusted, as in the case of "The Newcomes," to other hands,
and the artist contented himself with the initial letters and designs on
wood with which his writings are pleasantly interspersed. We have seen
it somewhere stated (we think in the volume entitled "Thackerayana")
that the author's rapid facility of sketching was the one great
impediment to his attainment of excellence in illustrative art. Some of
his designs indeed bear on their face evidence of the rapidity with
which they were thrown off; but no satisfactory explanation appears to
be possible of his contempt for what Mr. Hodder has termed the
"practical laws which regulate the academic exercise of the pictorial
art," and his apparent ignorance of the art of balancing his figures so
as to enable them to stand upright, to walk straight, or to move their
limbs with the grace and freedom assigned to them by nature. One of the
designs to "The Virginians" shows a horseman, who in the letterpress is
described as crossing a bridge at full gallop, whereas in the picture
both man and horse will inevitably leap over the parapet into the river
below. Nothing could possibly avert the catastrophe, and the effect thus
produced is due, not to the manifest carelessness and haste with which
the sketch is thrown off, but to a palpable defect in the artistic
powers of the designer himself. Yet in the face of defects so patent and
so palpable we have found it gravely stated, "The world which is loth to
admit high excellence in more than one direction, has never fitly
recognised _Thackeray's great gift as a comic draftsman_. Here [_i.e._
in a work edited by his daughter] he will be found advantageously
represented; inferior, it is true to the unjustly neglected Hablot
Browne ('Phiz'), _but often equalling if not sometimes surpassing the
greatly over-rated John Leech_."
[Illustration:
"GRUFFANUFF."
"PRINCE BULBO SEIZED BY THE GUARDS." "MONKS OF THE SEVEREST ORDER OF
FLAGELLANTS."
SKETCHES BY THACKERAY FROM HIS "ROSE AND THE RING."
_Back to p. 378._]
Ay! "the world _is_ loth to admit high excellence in more than one
direction," and experience has taught it that few men, however gifted,
are capable of exercising two different arts with an equal measure of
success. Thackeray was both a genius and an artist, but the world has
long recognised the fact that the former manifested itself only when he
laid down the pencil and took up the pen. If called on to _prove_ his
incapacity to illustrate his own work, we will refer the reader to his
admirable novel of "Vanity Fair." The time selected for the story is the
early part of the present century; and on the plea that he had "not the
heart to disfigure his heroes and heroines" by the correct but "hideous"
costumes of the period, Thackeray has actually habited these men and
women of 1815 in the dress of 1848! Cruikshank, Leech, "Phiz," or Doyle,
it is unnecessary to say, would have been guiltless of such an
absurdity; and the difficulty in which the gifted author found himself,
and the confession of his inability to cope with it, afford the clearest
possible evidence of his utter incapacity to illustrate the story
itself. If any further proof be wanted, look at the designs themselves.
Captain Dobbin would be laughed out of any European military service;
such a guardsman as Rawdon Crawley could find no place in her Majesty's
guards; "Jemima" (at p. 7), "Miss Sharp in the schoolroom" (p. 80), the
children waiting on Miss Crawley (p. 89), the figures in the fencing
scene (p. 207), "The Family Party at Brighton," "Gloriana" trying her
fascinations on the major, "Jos" (at p. 569), and "Becky's second
appearance as Clytemnestra," without meaning to be so, are caricatures
pure and simple; and yet these are admirable compared with the
designs to "The Virginians," which may safely be reckoned amongst the
worst in the entire range of English illustrative art. Contrast them
with illustrations confessedly not up to the severe standard of
excellence required by the art critic, but admirably adapted for their
purpose, Mr. Doyle's etchings to "The Newcomes," and remark the
immeasurable superiority of the latter.
[Illustration:
W. M. THACKERAY. "_The Rose and the Ring._"
"ANGELICA ARRIVES JUST IN TIME."
_Back to p. 379._]
And yet, in justice to the great humourist of the nineteenth century,
let us hear what another great writer has to say upon the very
illustrations which seem to us to call for such severe animadversion.
After telling us that Thackeray studied drawing at Paris, affecting
especially Bonnington (the young English artist who died in 1828), Mr.
Anthony Trollope goes on to say, "He never learned to draw,--perhaps
never could have learned. That he was idle and did not do his best, we
may take for granted. He was always idle, and only on some occasions,
when the spirit moved him thoroughly, did he do his best even in after
life. But with drawing--or rather without it--he did wonderfully well,
even when he did his worst. He did illustrate his own books, and every
one knows how incorrect were his delineations. But as illustrations they
were excellent. How often have I wished that characters of my creating
might be sketched as faultily, if with the same appreciation of the
intended purpose. Let any one look at the 'plates,' as they are called,
in 'Vanity Fair,' and compare each with the scenes and the characters
intended to be displayed, and then see whether the artist--if we may
call him so--has not managed to convey in the picture the exact feeling
which he has described in the text. I have a little sketch of his, in
which a cannon-ball is supposed to have just carried off the head of an
aide-de-camp,--messenger I had perhaps better say, lest I might affront
military feelings,--who is kneeling on the field of battle and
delivering a despatch to Marlborough on horseback. The graceful ease
with which the duke receives the message though the messenger's head be
gone, and the soldierlike precision with which the headless hero
finishes his last effort of military obedience, may not have been
portrayed with well-drawn figures, but no finished illustration ever
told its story better."[185] We read these remarks with profound
astonishment, and can only ask in reply: If, as Mr. Trollope has
admitted, Thackeray "never learned to draw,--perhaps never could have
learned," how he could manage "to convey" in any of his pictures "the
exact feeling he has described in the text"?--how, in the face of the
admitted incorrectness of "his delineations," he could be in any way
fitted to illustrate a novel of such transcendent excellence as "Vanity
Fair"?
It has been assumed, without any sort of authority, that it was only
when Thackeray found he could not succeed as an artist that he turned to
literature. The statement is altogether unwarranted. At or about the
very time he was engaged in drawing the cuts for "Figaro in London," he
was--if we are to judge of the sketch of "the Fraserians" in the
"Maclise Portrait Gallery," in which young Thackeray may easily be
recognised--writing for "Fraser's Magazine." Be this, however, as it
may, it seems tolerably certain that the rebuff he received from Dickens
had no hand in turning him into the path of letters, towards which his
genius and unerring judgment alone most fortunately guided him.
FOOTNOTES:
[177] There is a scarce edition of the "Bon Gaultier Ballads," which
contains some unacknowledged tailpieces, etc., by Kenny Meadows; in
all subsequent editions these are omitted--why, we know not.
[178] So great was the scarcity of good engravers in 1880, that in
September of that year the proprietors of the _Graphic_ newspaper
acknowledged the difficulty they experienced in obtaining the
assistance of high-class engravers, and stated their intention to
found a school of engraving on wood. Specimens of a new style of
illustration have lately come from America, which appear in
illustrated serials; some are good, but the majority, notwithstanding
the song of praise with which they were first received, are nothing
less than _abominable_.
[179] Onwhyn's name occurs frequently in illustrative literature. He
etched a set of designs for "Pickwick" and "Nicholas Nickleby;" for
Mr. Henry Cockton's "George St. Julian," and a translation of Eugene
Sue's "Mysteries of Paris." He is well known as the illustrator of
"Valentine Vox," "Fanny the Little Milliner," and other works. Some
of his best designs will be found in Mrs. Trollope's "Michael
Armstrong." He occasionally displays some ability, but his
performances are very unequal.
[180] See Mr. Alfred G. Buss, in "Notes and Queries," April 24th, 1875.
[181] A very clever and promising artist, who died early, of
consumption.
[182] As the _Tomahawk_ appeared in 1867, it does not come within the
scope of the present work.
[183] A work produced by David Bogue, in 1849, and illustrated by the
celebrated French caricaturist, which professes to give sketches of
"London Life and Character." Allowing for the unfaithfulness of the
portraits, which are wholly Parisian, these designs possess
unquestionable merit. The literary contributors were Albert Smith,
Shirley Brooks, Angus B. Reach, Oxenford, J. Hannay, Sterling Coyne,
and others.
[184] Afterwards married Kate Terry.
[185] "Thackeray," by Anthony Trollope, in "English Men of Letters,"
p. 7.