Other book-illustrators whose connection with 'Punch' is a fact in the
record of their work are Mr. A. S. Boyd and Mr. Arthur Hopkins. Mr.
Jalland, too, in drawings to Whyte-Melville used his sporting knowledge
on a congenial subject. Mr. A. S. Boyd's 'Daily Graphic' sketches
prepared the way for 'canny' drawings of Scottish types in Stevenson's
'Lowden Sabbath Morn,' in 'Days of Auld Lang Syne,' and in 'Horace in
Homespun,' and for other observant illustrations to books of pleasant
experiences written by Mrs. Boyd. Mr. Arthur Hopkins, and his brother
Mr. Everard Hopkins, are careful draughtsmen of some distinction.
Without much spontaneity or charm of manner, the pretty girls of Mr.
Arthur Hopkins, and his well-mannered men, fill a place in the pages of
'Punch,' while illustrations to James Payn's 'By Proxy,' as far back as
1878, show that the unelaborate style of his recent work is founded on
past practice that has the earlier and truer Du Maurier technique as
its standard of thoroughness. Mr. E. J. Wheeler, a regular contributor
to 'Punch' since 1880, has illustrated editions of Sterne and of
'Masterman Ready,' other books also containing characteristic examples
of his rather precise, but not uninteresting, work.
Save by stringing names of artists together on the thread of their
connection with some one of the illustrated papers or magazines, it
would be impossible to include in this chapter mention of the enormous
amount of capable black-and-white art produced in illustration of
'serial' fiction. Such name-stringing, on the connection--say--of 'The
Illustrated London News,' 'The Graphic,' or 'The Pall Mall Magazine,'
would fill a page or two, and represent nothing of the quality of the
work, the attainment of the artist. Neither is it practicable to
summarize the illustration of current fiction. One can only attempt to
give some account of illustrated literature, except where the current
illustrations of an artist come into the subject 'by the way.' Mr.
Frank Brangwyn may be isolated from the group of notable painters,
including Mr. Jacomb Hood, Mr. Seymour Lucas and Mr. R. W. Macbeth, who
illustrate for 'The Graphic,' by reason of his illustrations to
classics of fiction such as 'Don Quixote' and 'The Arabian Nights,' as
well as to Michael Scott's two famous sea-stories. To some extent his
illustrations are representative of the large-phrased construction of
Mr. Brangwyn's painting, especially in the drawings of the opulent
orientalism of 'The Arabian Nights,' with its thousand and one
opportunities for vivid art. Mr. Brangwyn's east is not the vague east
of the stay-at-home artist, nor of the conventional traveller; his
imagination works on facts of memory, and both memory and imagination
have strong colour and concentration in a mind bent towards adventure.
One should not, however, narrow the scope of Mr. Brangwyn's art within
the limits of his work in black and white, and what is no more than an
aside in the expression of his individuality, cannot, with justice to
the artist, be considered by itself. Other 'Graphic' illustrators--Mr.
Frank Dadd, Mr. John Charlton, Mr. William Small, and Mr. H. M. Paget,
to name a few only--represent the various qualities of their art in
black-and-white drawings of events and of fiction, and the
'Illustrated,' with artists including Mr. Caton Woodville, Mr. Seppings
Wright, Mr. S. Begg, M. Amedee Forestier and Mr. Ralph Cleaver, fills a
place in current art to which few of the more recently established
journals can pretend. Mr. Frank Dadd and Mr. H. M. Paget made drawings
for the 'Dryburgh' edition of the Waverleys. In this edition, too, is
the work of well-known artists such as Mr. William Hole, whose Scott
and Stevenson illustrations show his inbred understanding of northern
romance, and together with the character etchings to Barrie, shrewd and
valuable, represent with some justice the vigour of his art; of Mr.
Walter Paget, an excellent illustrator of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and of
many boys' books and books of adventure, of Mr. Lockhart Bogle, and of
Mr. Gordon Browne. In the same edition Mr. Paul Hardy, Mr. John
Williamson and Mr. Overend, showed the more serious purpose of black
and white that has earned the appreciation of a public critical of any
failure in vigour and in realization--the public that follows the
tremendous activity of Mr. Henty's pen, and for whom Dr. Gordon
Stables, Mr. Manville Fenn and Mr. Sydney Pickering write. Of M. Amedee
Forestier, whose illustrations are as popular with readers of the
'Illustrated' and with the larger public of novel-readers as they are
with students of technique, one cannot justly speak as an English
illustrator. He, and Mr. Robert Sauber, contributed to Ward Lock's
edition of Scott illustrated by French artists. Their work, M.
Forestier's so admirable in realization of episode and romance, Mr.
Sauber's, vivacious up to the pitch of 'The Impudent Comedian'--as his
illustrations to Mr. Frankfort Moore's version of Nell Gwynn's
fascinations showed--needs no introduction to an English public. The
black and white of Mr. Sauber and of Mr. Dudley Hardy--when Mr. Hardy
is in the vein that culminated in his theatrical posters--has many
imitators, but it is not a style that is likely to influence
illustrators of literature. Mr. Hal Hurst shows something of it, though
he, and in greater measure Mr. Max Cowper, also suggest the
unforgettable technique of Charles Dana Gibson.