Mr. C. E. Brock and Mr. H. M. Brock are two artists who to some extent
may be considered as followers of Mr. Thomson's methods, though Mr. C.
E. Brock's work in 'Punch,' and humorous characterizations by Mr. H. M.
Brock in 'Living London,' show how distinct from the elegant fancy of
Mr. Thomson's art are the latest developments of their artistic
individuality. Mr. C. E. Brock's illustrations to Hood's 'Humorous
Poems' (1893) proved his indebtedness to Mr. Thomson, and his ability
to carry out Caldecott-Thomson ideas with spirit and with invention. An
active sense of fun, and facility in arranging and expressing his
subject, made him an addition to the school he represented, and, as in
later work, his own qualities and the qualities he has adopted combined
to produce spirited and graceful art. But in work preceding the
pen-drawing of 1893, and in many books illustrated since then, Mr.
Brock at times has shown himself an illustrator to whom matter rather
than a particular charm of manner seems of paramount interest. In the
illustrated Gulliver of 1894 there is little trace of the daintiness
and sprightliness of Caldecott's illustrative art. He gives many
particulars, and is never at a loss for forms and details, representing
with equal matter-of-factness the crowds, cities and fleets of
Lilliput, the large details of Brobdingnagian existence, and the
ceremonies and spectacles of Laputa. In books of more actual adventure,
such as 'Robinson Crusoe' or 'Westward Ho,' or of quiet particularity,
such as Galt's 'Annals of the Parish,' the same directness and
unmannered expression are used, a directness which has more of the
journalistic than of the playful-inventive quality. The Jane Austen
drawings, those to 'The Vicar of Wakefield,' and to a recent edition of
the 'Essays of Elia,' show the graceful eighteenth-centuryist, while,
whether he reports or adorns, whether action or behaviour, adventure or
sentiment, is his theme, Mr. Brock is always an illustrator who
realizes opportunities in the text, and works from a ready and
observant intelligence.
[Illustration: FROM MR. C. E. BROCK'S 'THE ESSAYS OF ELIA.'