After Mr. Pennell comes Mr. Herbert Railton. No architectural drawings
are more popular than his, and no style is better known or more
generally 'adopted' by the illustrators of little guide-books or of
magazine articles. An architect's training and knowledge of structure
underlies the picturesque dilapidation prevalent in his version of
Anglo-gothic architecture. His first traceable book-illustrations
belong to 1888, though in 'The English Illustrated,' in 'The
Portfolio,' and elsewhere, he had begun before then to formulate the
style that has served him so admirably in later work with the pen. The
illustrations to Mr. Loftie's 'Westminster Abbey' (1890) show his
manner much as it is in his latest pen drawings. There is a lack of
repose. One would like to undecorate some of the masonry, to reveal the
austere lines under the prevalence of pattern. At the same time one
realizes that here is the style needed in illustration of picturesquely
written books about picturesque places, and that the stone tracery of
Westminster, or the old brick and tiles of the Inns of Court, are more
interesting to many people in drawings such as these than in actuality.
But Rico's 'broken line' is responsible for much, and not every
draughtsman who adopts it direct, or through a mixed tradition, has
the architectural knowledge of Mr. Railton to support his deviations
from stability. Mr. Railton is the artist of the Cathedral Guide; he
has drawn Westminster, St. Paul's, Winchester, Gloucester,
Peterborough, and many more cathedrals, inside and out, within the last
ten years. In illustrations to books where a thread of story runs
through historical fact, books such as those written by Miss Manning
concerning Mary Powell, and the household of Sir Thomas More, the
artist has collaborated with Mr. Jellicoe, who has put figures in the
streets and country lanes.
There are so many names in the list of those who, in the beginning,
profited by the initiative of Mr. Pennell or of Mr. Railton that
generally they may be set aside. Of artists who have made some position
for themselves, there are enough to fill this chapter. Mr. Holland
Tringham and Mr. Hedley Fitton were at one time unmistakable in their
Railtonism. Mr. Fitton has illustrated cathedral books, and in later
drawings by Mr. Tringham exaggeration of his copy has given place to a
more direct record of beautiful buildings. Miss Nelly Erichsen and Miss
Helen James[1] are two artists whose work is much in request for
illustrated series, such as Dent's 'Mediaeval Towns.' Miss James'
drawings to 'Rambles in Dickens' Land' (1899) showed study of Mr.
Railton, which is also observable in other books, such as 'The Story of
Rouen.' At the same time, she carries out her work from individual
observation, and gets an effect that belongs to study of the subject,
whether from actuality or from photographs. Miss James and Miss
Erichsen have collaborated in certain books on Italian towns, but
architectural drawing is only part of Miss Erichsen's illustrative
work, though an important part, as the illustrations to the
recently-published 'Florentine Villas' of Mrs. Ross show. Illustrating
stories, she works with graceful distinctness, and many of the drawings
in the 'Story of Rome'--though one remembers that Rome is in Mr.
Pennell's province--show what she can do.
Mr. C. G. Harper and Mr. C. R. B. Barrett are the most prominent among
those writers of travel-books who are also their own illustrators. They
belong, though with all the difference of time and development, to the
succession of Mr. Augustus Hare. Mr. Hissey also has made many books
out of his driving tours through England, and may be said to have first
specialized the subject that Mr. Harper and Mr. Barrett have made their
own. It is plain that the kind of book has nothing to do with the kind
of art that is used in its making. Mr. Hare's famous 'Walks' may be the
prototypes of later books, but each man makes what he can out of an
idea that has obvious possibilities in it. Mr. Harper has taken to the
ancient high-roads of England, and has studied their historical and
legendary, past, present, and imagined aspects. Of these he has
written; while his illustrations rank him rather among illustrators who
write than among writers who illustrate. Since 1889 he has published a
dozen books and more. In 'Royal Winchester'--the first of these--he is
illustrator only. 'The Brighton Road' of 1892 is the first of the
road-books, and the illustrations of the road as it was and is, of town
and of country, have colour and open air in their black-and-white.
Since then Mr. Harper has been from Paddington to Penzance, has
followed Dick Turpin along the Exeter road, and bygone fashion from
London to Bath, while accounts of the Dover road from Southwark Bridge
to Dover Castle, by way of Dickens' country and hop-gardens, and of the
Great North Road of which Stevenson longed to write, are written and
drawn with spirited observation. His drawing is not so picturesque as
his writing. It has reticence and justness of expression that would not
serve in relating tales of the road, but which, together with a sense
of colour and of what is pictorial, combine to form an effective and
frequently distinctive style of illustration. The drawing reproduced,
chosen by the artist, is from Mr. Harper's recent book on the Holyhead
road.
[Illustration: DUNCHURCH. BY C. G. HARPER.