But whatever the subject, how strong soever his artistic admirations,
he is always Walter Crane, unmistakable at a glance. Knights and
ladies, fairies and fairy people, allegorical figures, nursery and
school-room children, fulfil his decorative purpose without swerving,
though not always without injury to their comfort and freedom and the
life in their limbs. An individual apprehension that sees every
situation as a conventional 'arrangement' is occasionally beside the
mark in rendering real life. But when his theme touches imagination,
and is not a supreme expression of it--for then, as in the
illustrations to 'The Faerie Queene,' an unusual sense of subservience
appears to dull his spirit--his humorous fancy knows no weariness nor
sameness of device.
The work of most of Mr. Crane's followers belongs to 'the nineties,'
when the 'Arts and Crafts' movement, the 'Century Guild,' the
Birmingham and other schools had attracted or produced artists working
according to the canons of Kelmscott. Mr. Heywood Sumner was earlier in
the field. The drawings to 'Sintram' (1883) and to 'Undine' (1888) show
his art as an illustrator. Undine--spirit of wind and water,
flower-like in gladness--seeking to win an immortal soul by submission
to the forms of life, is realized in the gracefully designed figures of
frontispiece and title-page. Where Mr. Sumner illustrates incident he
is 'factual' without being matter-of-fact. The small drawing
reproduced is hardly representative of his art, but most of his work is
adapted to a squarer page than this, and has had to be rejected on that
account. Some of the most apt decorations in 'The English Illustrated'
were by Mr. Sumner, and during the time when art was represented in the
magazine Mr. Ryland and Mr. Louis Davis were also frequent
contributors. The graceful figures of Mr. Ryland, uninterested in
activity, a garden-world set with statues around them, and the
carol-like grace of Mr. Davis's designs in that magazine, represent
them better than the one or two books they have illustrated.
[Illustration: FROM MR. HEYWOOD SUMNER'S 'UNDINE.'