Once a Week.--On the second of July 1859 appeared the first number of
_Once a Week_, 'an illustrated miscellany of Literature, Art, Science,
and Popular Information.' Despite the choice of an extraordinary time
of year, as we should now consider it, to float a new venture, the
result proved fortunate. Not merely does the first series of this
notable magazine deserve recognition as the pioneer of its class; its
superiority is no less provable than its priority. The earliest attempt
to provide a magazine with original illustrations by the chief artists
of its time was not merely a bold and well-considered experiment
but, as the thirteen volumes of its first series show, an instant
and admirably sustained triumph. No other thirteen volumes of an
English magazine, at any period, contain so much first-class work. The
invention and knowledge, the mastery of the methods employed, and the
superb achievements of some of its contributors entitle it to be ranked
as one of the few artistic enterprises of which England may be justly
proud.
When the connection of Dickens with his old publishers was severed,
and _All the Year Round_ issued from its own office, Messrs. Bradbury
and Evans projected a rival paper that was in no sense an imitation of
the former. The reasons for its success lie on the surface. Started by
the proprietors of _Punch_, with the co-operation of an artistic staff
that has been singularly fortunate in enlisting always the services
of the best men of their day, it is obvious that few periodicals have
ever been launched under happier auspices. Its aim was obviously to
do for fiction, light literature, and _belles-lettres_, what _Punch_
had accomplished so admirably for satire and caricature. At that time,
with no rivals worth consideration, a fixed intention to obtain for a
new magazine the active co-operation of the best men of all schools
was within the bounds of possibility. To-day a millionaire with a
blank cheque-book could not even hope to succeed in such a project.
He would find many first-rate artists, whom no amount of money would
attract, and others with connections that would be imperilled if they
contributed to a rival enterprise. There are many who prefer the safety
of an established periodical to the risk which must needs attend any
'up-to-date' venture. Now _Once a Week_ was not merely 'up-to-date'
in its period, but far ahead of the popular taste. As we cannot rival
it to-day in its own line, even the most ardent defender of the
present at the expense of the past must own that the improvement in
process-engraving and the increased truth of facsimile reproductions
it offers have not inspired draughtsmen to higher efforts. Why so
excellent a magazine is not flourishing to-day is a mystery. It
would seem as if the public, faithful as they are to non-illustrated
periodicals, are fickle where pictures are concerned. But the memory
of the third series of _Once a Week_ relieves the public of the
responsibility; changes in the direction and aim of the periodical were
made, and all for the worse; so that it lost its high position and no
more interested the artist. _Punch_, its sponsor, seems to have the
secret of eternal youth, possibly because its original programme is
still consistently maintained.
In another feature it resembled _Punch_ more than any previous
periodical. In _The London Charivari_ many of the pictures have always
been inserted quite independently of the text. Some have a title,
and some a brief scrap of dialogue to explain their story; but the
picture is not there to elucidate the anecdote, so much as the title,
or fragment of conversation, helps to elucidate the picture. Unless
an engraving be from a painting, or a topographical view, the rule in
English magazines then, as now, is that it must illustrate the text.
This is not the place to record an appreciation of the thorough and
consistent way in which the older illustrators set about the work of
reiterating the obvious incident, depicting for all eyes to see what
the author had suggested in his text already, for it is evident that a
design untrammelled by any fixed programme ought to allow the artist
more play for his fancy. Nevertheless, the less frequent illustrations
to its serial fiction are well up to the level of those practically
independent of the text. In _Once a Week_ there are dozens of pictures
which are evidently purely the invention of the draughtsman. That a
modest little poem, written to order usually, satisfies the conventions
of established precedent, need not be taken as evidence that traverses
the argument. _Once a Week_ ranked its illustrators as important as its
authors, which is clearly an ideal method for an illustrated periodical
to observe. To write up to pictures has often been attempted; were not
_The Pickwick Papers_ begun in this way? But the author soon reversed
the situation, and once more put the artist in a subordinate place.
It is curious to observe that readers of light literature had been
satisfied previously with a very conventional type of illustration.
For, granting all sorts of qualities to those pictures by Cruikshank,
'Phiz,' and Thackeray, which illustrated the Dickens, Ainsworth,
Lever, and Thackeray novels, you can hardly refer the source of their
inspiration to nature, however remotely. Their purpose seems to have
been caricature rather than character-drawing, sentimentality in place
of sentiment, melodrama in lieu of mystery, broad farce instead of
humour. These aims were accomplished in masterly fashion, perhaps; but
is there a single illustration by Cruikshank, 'Phiz,' Thackeray, or
even John Leech, which tempts us to linger and return again and again
purely for its art? Its 'drawing' is often slipshod, and never infused
by the perception of physical beauty that the Greeks embodied as their
ideal, that ideal which the illustrators of _Once a Week_, especially
Walker, revived soon after this date. Nor are they inspired by the
symbolists' regard for nature, which attracted the 'primitives' of
the Middle Ages, and their legitimate followers the pre-Raphaelites.
Indeed, as you study the so-called 'immortal' designs which illustrate
the early Victorian novels, you feel that if many of the artists
were once considered to be as great as the authors whose ideas they
interpreted, time has wreaked revenge at last. If a boy happens to
read for the first time Thackeray's _Vanity Fair_ with its original
illustrations, the humour and pathos of the masterpiece lose half their
power when the ridiculously feeble drawings confront him throughout the
book. This is not the case with Millais' illustrations to Trollope, or
those by Fred Walker to Thackeray. The costume may appear grotesque,
but the men and women are vital, and as real in the picture as in the
literature.
Lacking the virility of Hogarth, or the coarse animal vigour of
Rowlandson, these caricaturists kept one eye on the fashion-book and
one on the grotesque. It was 'cumeelfo' to depict the English maiden a
colourless vapid nonentity, to make the villain look villainous, and
the benevolent middle-aged person imbecile. Accidental deformities
and vulgar personal defects were deemed worthy themes for laughter.
The fat boy in _Pickwick_, the fat Joe Sedley in _Vanity Fair_, the
_Marchioness and Dick Swiveller_, the _Quilps' Tea-Party_, and the
rest, all belong to the order of humour that survives to-day in the
'knockabout artists,' or the 'sketch' performances at second-rate
music-halls. Even the much-belauded _Fagin in the Condemned Cell_
appears a trite and ineffective bit of low melodrama to-day. We know
the oft-repeated story of the artist's despondency, his failure
to realise an attitude to express Fagin's despair, and how as he
caught sight of his own face in the glass he saw that he himself, a
draughtsman troubled by a subject, was the very model for one about
to be hanged. All the personality of anecdote and the sentimental
log-rolling which gathered round the pictures, that by chance were
associated with a series of masterpieces in fiction, no longer
fascinate us. We recognise the power of the writers, but wish in our
hearts that they had never been 'illustrated,' or if so, that they had
enjoyed the good fortune which belongs to the novelists of the sixties.
But to refuse to endorse the verdict of earlier critics does not
imply that there was no merit in these designs, but merely that their
illustrators must be classed for the most part (Leech least of all)
with the exaggerators--those who aimed at the grotesque--with Gilray or
Baxter, the creator of _Ally Sloper_, and not with true satirists like
Hogarth or Charles Keene, who worked in ways that are pre-eminently
masterly, even if you disregard the humorous element in their designs.
Without forcing the theory too far, it may be admitted that the
idea of _Once a Week_ owes more to these serial novels than to any
previous enterprise. Be that as it may, the plan of the magazine, as
we find in a postscript (to vol. i.), was at once 'ratified by popular
acceptance.' Further, its publishers admit that its circulation was
adequate and its commercial success established, after only thirty-six
numbers had appeared. It is no new thing for the early numbers of
magazines and papers to contain glowing accounts of their phenomenal
circulation; but, in this case, there can be no doubt that the
self-congratulation is both well deserved and genuine. To _Once a Week_
may be accorded the merit of initiating a new type of periodical which
has survived with trifling changes until to-day. Its recognition of
'fiction' and 'pictures,' as the chief items in its programme, has been
followed by a hundred others; but the editing, which made it readable
as well as artistic, is a secret that many of its imitators failed to
understand. Although _A Good Fight_ (afterwards rewritten and entitled
_The Cloister and the Hearth_) is the only novel within its pages that
has since assumed classic rank, yet the average of its art--good as
it was--is not as far above the standard of its literature, as the
illustrations of its predecessors fell below the text they professed to
adorn.
In sketching the life-history of other illustrated magazines it seemed
best to follow a chronological order, because the progress of the art
of illustration is reflected more or less faithfully in the advance and
retrogression they show. But the thirteen volumes which complete the
first series of _Once a Week_ may be considered better in a different
way. For to-day it is prized almost entirely for its pictures, and they
were contributed for the most part by the same artists year after year.
While in other periodicals you find, with every new volume, a fresh
relay of artists, _Once a Week_, during its palmy days, was supported
by the same brilliant group of draughtsmen, who admitted very few
recruits, and only those whose great early promise was followed almost
directly by ample fulfilment.
The very first illustration is a vignette by John Leech to a rhymed
programme of the magazine by Shirley Brooks. But Leech, who died in
1864, cannot be regarded as a typical illustrator of 'the sixties'--not
so much because his work extended only a few years into that decade, as
that he belonged emphatically to the earlier school, and represented
all that is _not_ characteristic of the period with which this book is
concerned.
It is unnecessary to belittle his art for the sake of glorifying
those who succeeded him in popularity. That he obtained a strong
hold upon English taste, lettered and unlettered, is undeniable. It
has become part and parcel of that English life, especially of the
insular middle-class, whose ideal permitted it to regard the exhibition
building of 1851 not as a big conservatory, but as a new and better
Parthenon, and to believe honestly enough that the millennium of
universal peace with art, no less than morals, perfected to the '_n_th'
degree (on purely British lines), was dawning upon humanity. That
the efforts of 1851 made much possible to-day which else had been
impossible may be granted.
The grace and truth of John Leech's designs may be recognised despite
their technical insufficiency, but at the same time we may own that, in
common with Cruikshank and the rest, he has received infinitely more
appreciation than his artistic achievement merited, and leave his share
unconsidered here, although no doubt it was a big commercial factor in
the success. To vol. i. of _Once a Week_ he contributed no less than
thirty-two designs, to vol. ii. forty-six, to vol. iii. seven, to vol.
iv. one, and to vol. v. four.
John Tenniel, although he began to work much earlier, and is still an
active contemporary, may be considered as belonging especially to the
sixties, wherein he represents the survival of an academic type in
sharply accentuated distinction to the pre-Raphaelism of one group or
to the romantic naturalism of a still larger section. On page 4 of vol.
i. we find his first drawing, a vignette, and page 5 a design, _Audun
and the White Bear_, no less typically 'a Tenniel' in every particular
than is the current cartoon in _Punch_. Those on pages 21, 30, 60,
90, 101, 103, and 170 are all relatively unimportant. _The King of
Thule_ (p. 250) is an illustration to Sir Theodore Martin's familiar
translation of Goethe's poems. Others are on pp. 285, 435, 446. To
vol. ii. he is a less frequent contributor. The designs, pp. 39, 98,
99, and 103 call for no comment. The one on p. 444 (not p. 404 as the
index has it), to Tom Taylor's ballad _Noménoë_, is reprinted in _Songs
and Ballads of Brittany_ (Macmillan, 1865). In vol. iii. there is one
(p. 52) of small value. On pp. 533, 561, 589, 617, 645, 673, and 701
are pictures to Shirley Brooks's _The Silver Cord_, showing the artist
in his less familiar aspect as an illustrator of fiction. The one on
p. 589 is irresistibly like a 'Wonderland' picture, while that on p.
225 (vol. iv.) suggests a _Punch_ cartoon; but, on the whole, they are
curiously free from undue mannerism in the types they depict. In vol.
iv. are more illustrations to _The Silver Cord_ (pp. 1, 29, 57, 85,
113, 141, 169, 197, 225, 253, 281, 309, 337, 365, 393, 421, 449, 477,
505, 533, 561, 589, 617, 645, 673, and 701), and illustrations to Owen
Meredith's poem, _Fair Rosamund_ (pp. 294, 295). In volume v. _The
Silver Cord_ is continued with ten more designs (pp. 1, 29, 57, 85,
113, 141, 169, 197, 225, 253), and there is one to _Mark Bozzari_ (p.
659), translated from Müller by Sir Theodore Martin.
In volume vi. Tenniel appears but four times: _At Crutchley Prior_ (p.
267), _The Fairies_ (p. 379), a very delicate fancy, _Prince Lulu_
(p. 490), and _Made to Order_ (p. 575). From the seventh and eighth
volumes he is absent, and reappears in the ninth with only one drawing,
_Clytè_ (p. 154), and in the tenth (Dec. 1863-June 1864) with one,
_Bacchus and the Water Thieves_ (p. 658). Nor does he appear again
in this magazine until 1867, with _Lord Aythan_, the frontispiece to
vol. iii. of the New Series. Sir John Tenniel, however, more than any
other of the _Punch_ staff, seems never thoroughly at home outside its
pages. The very idea of a Tenniel drawing has become a synonym for
a political cartoon; so that now you cannot avoid feeling that all
his illustrations to poetry, fiction, and fairy-tale must have some
satirical motive underlying their apparent purpose.
[Illustration: J. E. MILLAIS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. I. p. 241
GRANDMOTHER'S
APOLOGY]
[Illustration: J. E. MILLAIS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. I. p. 316
THE PLAGUE OF
ELLIANT]
It is difficult to record Sir John Everett Millais' contributions
to this magazine with level unbiassed comments. Notwithstanding the
palpable loss they suffered by translation under the hands of even
the most skilful of his engravers, the impressions belong to a higher
plane than is reached by their neighbours save in a very few instances.
The Millais wood-engravings deserve a deliberately ordered monograph
as fully as do the etchings by Rembrandt and Whistler, or Hokousaï's
prints. It is true that not quite all his many illustrations to
contemporary literature are as good as the best works of the great
artist just named; but if you search through the portfolios of the
past for that purpose, you will find that even the old masters were
not always adding to a cycle of masterpieces. The astounding fact
remains that Sir John Millais, dealing with the hair-net and the
Dundreary whiskers, the crinoline and peg-top trousers, imparted such
dignity to his men and women that even now they carry their grotesque
costumes with distinction, and fail to appear old-fashioned, but at
most as masqueraders in fancy dress. For in Millais' work you are face
to face with actual human beings, superbly drawn and fulfilling all
artistic requirements. They possess the immense individuality of a
Velasquez portrait, which, as a human being, appeals to you no less
surely, than its handling arouses your æsthetic appreciation. At this
period it seems as if the artist was overflowing with power and
mastery--everything he touched sprang into life. Whether he owed much
or little to his predecessors is unimportant--take away all, and still
a giant remains. It is so easy to accept the early drawings of Millais
as perfect of their kind, beyond praise or blame, and yet to fail to
realise that they possess the true vitality of those few classics which
are for all time. The term monumental must not be applied to them, for
it suggests something dead in fact, although living in sentiment and
admired by reason of conventional precedent. The Millais drawings have
still the power to excite an artist as keenly as a great Rembrandt
etching that he sees for the first time, or an early Whistler that
turns up unexpectedly in a loan collection, or an unknown Utamaro
colour print. The mood they provoke is almost deprived of critical
analysis by the overwhelming sense of fulfillment which is forced on
your notice. In place of gratified appreciation you feel appalled that
one man should have done over and over again, so easily and with such
certainty, what dozens of his fellows, accomplished and masterly in
their way, tried with by no means uniform success. If every canvas by
the artist were lost, he might still be proved to belong to the great
masters from his illustrations alone; even if these were available only
through the medium of wood-engraving.
The first volume of _Once a Week_ contains, as Millais' first
contribution, _Magenta_ (p. 10), a study of a girl who has just read a
paper with news of the great battle that gave its name to the terrible
colour which typifies the period. It is badly printed in the copy at my
side, and, although engraved by Dalziels, is not an instance of their
best work. In _Grandmother's Apology_ (p. 41) we have a most delightful
illustration to Tennyson, reproduced in his collected volume, but not
elsewhere. _On the Water_ (p. 70) and _La Fille bien gardée_ (p. 306)
may be passed without comment. But _The Plague of Elliant_ (p. 316), a
powerful drawing of a woman dragging a cart wherein are the bodies of
her nine dead children, has been selected, more than once, as a typical
example of the illustrator at his best. _Maude Clare_ (p. 382), _A Lost
Love_ (p. 482), and _St. Bartholomew_ (p. 514), complete the Millais'
in vol. i.
In the second volume we find _The Crown of Love_ (p. 10), a poem by
George Meredith. This was afterwards painted and exhibited under the
same title in the Royal Academy of 1875. _A Wife_ (p. 32), _The Head
of Bran_ (p. 132), _Practising_ (p. 242), (a girl at a piano), and
_Musa_ (p. 598), complete the list of the five in this volume. In vol.
iii. there are seven: _Master Olaf_ (p. 63), _Violet_ (p. 140), _Dark
Gordon's Bride_ (p. 238), _The Meeting_ (p. 276), _The Iceberg_ (pp.
407, 435), and _A Head of Hair for Sale_ (p. 519). In vol. iv. but two
appear, _Iphis and Anaxarete_ (p. 98) and _Thorr's Hunt for the Hammer_
(p. 126), both slighter in execution than most of the _Once a Week_
Millais'.
Volume v. also contains but two, _Tannhäuser_ (p. 211) and _Swing
Song_ (p. 434), a small boy in a Spanish turban swinging. Volume vi.
houses a dozen: _Schwerting of Saxony_ (p. 43), _The Battle of the
Thirty_ (p. 155), _The Child of Care_ (pp. 2, 39), five designs for
Miss Martineau's _Sister Anne's Probation_ (pp. 309, 337, 365, 393,
421), _Sir Tristem_ (p. 350), _The Crusader's Wife_ (p. 546), _The
Chase of the Siren_ (p. 630), and _The Drowning of Kaer-is_ (p. 687).
The seventh volume contains eleven examples by this artist: _Margaret
Wilson_ (p. 42), five to Miss Martineau's _Anglers of the Don_ (pp.
85, 113, 141, 169, 197), _Maid Avoraine_ (p. 98), _The Mite of Dorcas_
(p. 224), (which is the subject of the Academy picture, _The Widow's
Mite_ of 1876; although in the painting the widow turns her back on
the spectator), _The Parting of Ulysses_ (p. 658), _The Spirit of the
Vanished Island_ (p. 546), and _Limerick Bells_ (p. 710), a design of
which a eulogist of the artist says: 'the old monk might be expanded as
he stands into a full-sized picture.'
In the eighth volume _Endymion on Latmos_ (p. 42), a charming study
of the sleeping shepherd, is the only independent picture; the other
nine are by way of illustration to Miss Martineau's _The Hampdens_ (pp.
211, 239, 267, 281, 309, 337, 365, 393, 421, 449). These are delightful
examples of the use of costume by a great master. Neither pedantically
correct, nor too lax, they revivify the period so that the actors are
more important than the accessories.
[Illustration: J. E. MILLAIS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. V. p. 211
TANNHÄUSER]
[Illustration: J. E. MILLAIS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VI. p. 42
SISTER ANNE'S
PROBATION]
[Illustration: J. E. MILLAIS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VIII. p. 365
THE HAMPDENS]
[Illustration: J. E. MILLAIS
'ONCE A WEEK'
1868, Vol. I. p. 79
DEATH DEALING
ARROWS]
The ninth volume, like the eighth, has only one picture by Millais
not illustrating its serial. This is _Hacco the Dwarf_ (p. 504). The
others represent scenes in Miss Martineau's _Sir Christopher_ (pp.
491, 519, 547, 575, 603, 631, 659, 687), a seventeenth-century story.
The illustrators of to-day should study these and other pictures where
the artist was hampered by the story, and imitate his loyal
purpose to expound and amplify the text, accomplishing it the while
with most admirably dramatic composition and strong character-drawing.
In the remaining volume of the first series there are no other examples
by Millais; nor, with the exceptions _Death Dealing Arrows_ (Jan. 25,
1868, p. 79), one in the _Christmas Number for 1860_, and _Taking his
Ease_, 1868 (p. 65), does he appear as a contributor to the magazine.
It must not be forgotten that high prices are often responsible for the
desire, or rather the necessity, of using second-rate work. When an
artist attains a position that monopolises all his working hours, it is
obvious that he cannot afford to accept even the highest current rate
of payment for magazine illustration; nor, on the other hand, can an
editor, who conducts what is after all a commercial enterprise, afford
to pay enormous sums for its illustrations. For later drawings this
artist was paid at least five times as much as for his earlier efforts,
and possibly in some cases ten or twelve times as much.
Charles Keene, the great illustrator so little appreciated by his
contemporaries, whose fame is still growing daily, was a frequent
contributor to _Once a Week_ for many years. Starting with volume i. he
depicted, in quasi-mediæval fashion, Charles Reade's famous _Cloister
and the Hearth_, then called, in its first and shorter form, _A Good
Fight_ (pp. 11, 31, 51, 71, 91, 111, 131, 151, 171, 191, 211, 231, 251,
254, 273). Coincidently he illustrated also _Guests at the Red Lion_
(pp. 61, 65), _A Fatal Gift_ (p. 141), _Uncle Simkinson_ (pp. 201,
203), _Gentleman in the Plum-coloured Coat_ (p. 270), _Benjamin Harris_
(pp. 427, 449, 471), _My Picture Gallery_ (p. 483), and _A Merry
Christmas_ (p. 544). In volume ii. there are only five illustrations
by him (pp. 1, 5, 54, 111, and 451) to shorter tales; but to George
Meredith's _Evan Harrington_, running through this volume and the next,
he contributes thirty-nine drawings, some of them in his happiest vein,
all showing strongly and firmly marked types of character-drawing, in
which he excelled. Volume iii. contains also, on pages 20, 426, 608,
687, and 712, less important works: _The Emigrant Artist_ on p. 608 is
a return to the German manner which distinguished the _Good Fight_. The
drawings for _Sam Bentley's Christmas_ commence here in (pp. 687, 712),
and are continued (pp. 19, 45, 155, 158) in vol. iv., where we also
find _In re Mr. Brown_ (pp. 330, 332), _The Beggar's Soliloquy_ (p.
378), _A Model Strike_ (p. 466), _The Two Norse Kings_ (pp. 519, 547),
and _The Revenue Officer's Story_ (p. 713). In volume v. are: _The
Painter Alchemist_ (p. 43), _Business with Bokes_ (p. 251), _William's
Perplexities_ (pp. 281, 309, 337, 365, 393), also a romantic subject,
_Adalieta_ (p. 266): a poem by Edwin Arnold, and _The Patriot Engineer_
(p. 686). To the sixth volume, the illustrations for _The Woman I Loved
and The Woman who loved me_ (pp. 85, 113, 141, 169, 197, 225, 253, 281)
are by Keene, as are also those to _My Schoolfellow Friend_ (p. 334),
_A Legend of Carlisle_ (p. 407), a curiously Germanic _Page from the
History of Kleinundengreich_ (p. 531), _Nip's Daimon_ (p. 603), and _A
Mysterious Supper-Party_ (659). In vol. vii. and vol. viii. _Verner's
Pride_, by Mrs. Henry Wood, supplies motives for seventeen pictures.
In vol. viii. _The March of Arthur_ (p. 434), _The Bay of the Dead_
(p. 546), and _My Brother's Story_ (p. 617). In vol. ix. _The Viking's
Serf_ (p. 42), _The Station-master_ (pp. 1, 69), and _The Heirloom_
(pp. 435, 463) complete Charles Keene's share in the illustration of
the thirteen volumes of the first series.
Fred Walker is often supposed to have made his first appearance as an
illustrator in _Once a Week_, vol. ii. with _Peasant Proprietorship_
(p. 165); and, although an exception of earlier date may be discovered,
it is only in an obscure paper (of which the British Museum apparently
has no copy) barely a month before. For practical purposes, therefore,
_Once a Week_ may be credited with being the first-established
periodical to commission a young artist whose influence upon the art of
the sixties was great. This drawing was quickly followed by _God help
our Men at Sea_ (p. 198), _An honest Arab_ (p. 262), _Après_ (p. 330),
_Lost in the Fog_ (p. 370), _Spirit Painting_ (p. 424), and _Tenants at
No. 27_ (p. 481), and _The Lake at Yssbrooke_ (p. 538). Looking closely
at these, in two or three only can you discover indications of the
future creator of _Philip_. Those on pages 424 and 481 are obviously
the work of the Fred Walker as we know him now. But those on pp. 165,
198, 330, and 538 would pass unnoticed in any magazine of the period,
except that the full signature 'F. Walker' arouses one's curiosity, and
almost suggests, like Lewis Carroll's re-attribution of the _Iliad_,
'another man of the same name.'
[Illustration: CHARLES KEENE
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. I. p. 91
'A GOOD FIGHT']
In vol. iii. a poem, _Once upon a Time_, by Eliza Cook, has two
illustrations (pp. 24, 25), which, tentative as they are, and not
faultless in drawing, foreshadow the grace of his later work. In
_Markham's Revenge_ (pp. 182-184) the artist is himself, as also in
_Wanted a Diamond Ring_ (p. 210). _A Noctuary of Terror_ (pp. 294,
295), _First Love_ (p. 322), _The Unconscious Bodyguard_ (p. 359), are
unimportant. _The Herberts of Elfdale_ (pp. 449, 454, 477, 505, 508),
possibly the first serial Walker illustrated, is infinitely better.
_Black Venn_ (p. 583), _A Young Wife's Song_ (p. 668), and _Putting
up the Christmas_, a drawing group, complete the examples by this
artist in vol. iii. Volume iv. contains: _Under the Fir-trees_ (p.
43), _Voltaire at Ferney_ (p. 66), a very poor thing, _The Fan_ (p.
75), _Bring me a light_ (pp. 102-105), _The Parish Clerk's Story_ (p.
248), _The Magnolia_ (pp. 263, 267), _Dangerous_ (p. 416), _An Old
Boy's Tale_ (p. 499), _Romance of the Cab-rank_ (p. 585), and _The
Jewel Case_ (p. 631). In vol. v. we find _Jessie Cameron's Bairn_ (p.
15), _The Deserted Diggings_ (p. 83), _Pray, sir, are you a Gentleman_?
(pp. 127, 133), _A Run for Life_ (p. 306), _Cader Idris_ (p. 323), and
a series of illustrations to _The Settlers of Long Arrow: a Canadian
Story_ (pp. 421, 449, 477, 505, 533, 561, 589, 617, 645, 673, and
701). To volume vi. Walker contributes _Patty_ (pp. 126, 127), _A
Dreadful Ghost_ (p. 211), and nine to Dutton Cook's _The Prodigal
Son_ (pp. 449, 477, 505, 533, 561, 589, 617, 673, 701), which story,
running into volume vii., has further illustrations on pp. 1, 29, and
57. _The Deadly Affinity_ (pp. 421, 449, 477), and _Spirit-rapping
Extraordinary_ (p. 614) are the only others by the artist in this
volume. The eighth volume has but one, _After Ten Years_ (p. 378), and
_The Ghost in the Green Park_ (p. 309) is the only one in volume ix.,
and his last in the first series. Vol. i. of the New Series has the
famous _Vagrants_ (p. 112) for one of its special art supplements.
Amid contemporary notices you often find the work of M. J. Lawless
placed on the same level as that of Millais or Sandys; but, while few
of the men of the period have less deservedly dropped out of notice,
one feels that to repeat such an estimate were to do an injustice to a
very charming draughtsman. For the sake of his future reputation it is
wiser not to attempt to rank him with the greatest; but in the second
order he may be fitly placed. For fancy and feeling, no less than
for his loyal adherence to the Dürer line, at a time it found little
favour, Lawless deserves to be more studied by the younger artists
of to-day. A great number of decorative designers are too fond of
repeating certain mannerisms, and among others, Lawless in England and
Howard Pyle in America, two men inspired by similar purpose, should
receive more attention than they have done. _Once a Week_ contains
the largest number of his drawings. In vol. i., to _Sentiment from
the Shambles_, there are three illustrations attributed to him. Those
on pp. 505 and 509 are undoubtedly by Lawless, but that on p. 507 is
so unlike his method, and indeed so unimportant, that it matters not
whether the index be true or in error.
[Illustration: M. J. LAWLESS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. IV. p. 407
EFFIE GORDON]
[Illustration: M. J. LAWLESS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VI. p. 14
DR. JOHNSON'S PENANCE]
[Illustration: M. J. LAWLESS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. X. p. 71
JOHN OF PADUA]
In vol. ii. are ten examples, two on the same page to _The Bridal of
Galtrim_ (p. 88), _The Lay of the Lady and the Hound_ (p. 164), a very
pre-Raphaelite composition, _Florinda_ (p. 220), (more influenced by
the later Millais), _Only for something to say_ (p. 352), a study
of fashionable society, which (as Mr. Walter Crane's attempts show)
does not lend itself to the convention of the thick line, _The Head
Master's Sister_ (pp. 386, 389, 393), _The Secret_ (p. 430), and _A
Legend of Swaffham_ (p. 549). In vol. iii. _Oysters and Pearls_ (p. 79)
is attributed to Lawless, but one hopes wrongly; _The Betrayed_ (p.
155), Elfie Meadows (p. 304), _The Minstrel's Curse_ (p. 351), _The Two
Beauties_ (unsigned and not quite obviously a Lawless) (p. 462), and
_My Angel's Visit_ (p. 658) are the titles of the rest. In the fourth
volume there are: _The Death of OEnone_ (pp. 14, 15), _Valentine's Day_
(p. 208), _Effie Gordon_ (pp. 406, 407), and _The Cavalier's Escape_
(687), all much more typical. In vol. v. we find _High Elms_ (p. 420),
_Twilight_ (p. 532), _King Dyring_ (p. 575), and _Fleurette_ (p. 700).
In the sixth volume there are only three: _Dr. Johnson's Penance_
(one of the best drawings of the author), (p. 14), _What befel me at
the Assizes_ (p. 194), and _The Dead Bride_ (p. 462). In the seventh
volume there is one only to a story by A. C. Swinburne, _Dead Love_
(p. 434). Despite the name of Jacques d'Aspremont on the coffin, the
picture is used to a poem with quite a different theme, _The White
Witch_, in Thornbury's _Legendary Ballads_, which contains no less than
twenty of Lawless's _Once a Week_ designs. In vol. viii. are two, _The
Linden Trees_ (p. 644) and _Gifts_ (p. 712). In vol. ix. three only:
_Faint heart never won fair lady_ (p. 98), _Heinrich Frauenlob_
(p. 393), and _Broken Toys_ (p. 672). In vol. x. appears the last of
Lawless's contributions, and, as some think, his finest, _John of
Padua_ (p. 71).
The first work by Frederick Sandys in _Once a Week_ will be found in
vol. iv.: it is not, as the index tells you, _The Dying Hero_, on page
71, which is wrongly attributed to him; _Yet once more on the Organ
play_ (p. 350) is by Sandys, as is also _The Sailor's Bride_ (p. 434)
in the same volume. In vol. v. are three, _From my Window_ (p. 238),
_The three Statues of Ægina_ (p. 491), and _Rosamund, Queen of the
Lombards_ (p. 631). In vol. vi. we find _The Old Chartist_ (p. 183),
_The King at the Gate_ (p. 322), and _Jacques de Caumont_ (p. 614).
In vol. vii. _Harold Harfagr_ (p. 154), _The Death of King Warwolf_
(p. 266), and _The Boy Martyr_ (p. 602). Thence, with the exception of
_Helen and Cassandra_, published as a separate plate with the issue of
April 28, 1866 (p. 454), no more Sandys are to be found.
To _Once a Week_ Holman Hunt contributed but three illustrations:
_Witches and Witchcraft_ (ii. p. 438), _At Night_ (iii. p. 102), and
_Temujin_ (iii. p. 630); yet this very scanty representation is not
below the average proportion of the work of this artist in black and
white compared with his more fecund contemporaries.
A still more infrequent illustrator, J. M'Neill Whistler, is met with
four times in _Once a Week_, and, I believe, but twice elsewhere.
Speaking of the glamour shed upon the magazine by its Sandys drawings,
it is but just to own that to another school of artists these four
'Whistlers' were responsible for the peculiar veneration with which
they regarded an old magazine. The illustrations to _The Major's
Daughter_ (vi. p. 712), _The Relief Fund in Lancashire_ (vii. p. 140),
_The morning before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew_ (vii. p. 210), and
_Count Burckhardt_ (vii. p. 378), a nun by a window, are too well known
to need comment. That they show the exquisite sense of the value of a
line, and have much in common with the artist's etchings of the same
period, is evident enough.
G. J. Pinwell first makes his appearance in _Once a Week_, in the
eighth volume, with _The Saturnalia_ (p. 154), a powerful but entirely
untypical illustration of a classical subject by an artist who is
best known for pastoral and bucolic scenes, _The Old Man at D._ 8
(p. 197), _Seasonable Wooing_ (p. 322), _A Bad Egg_ (p. 392), and
_A Foggy Story_ (p. 477); but only in the latter do you find the
curiously personal manner which grew to a mannerism in much of his
later work. These, with _Blind_ (p. 645) and _Tidings_ (p. 700), are
all well-thought-out compositions. To volume ix. he contributes _The
Strong Heart_ (p. 29), _Not a Ripple on the Sea_ (p. 57) (a drawing
which belies its title), _Laying a Ghost_ (p. 85), _The Fisherman of
Lake Sunapee_ (p. 225), _Waiting for the Tide_ (p. 281), _Nutting_ (p.
378), and _The Sirens_ (p. 616). In volume x. he is represented by
_Bracken Hollow_ (pp. 57, 85), _The Expiation of Charles V._ (p. 99),
_The Blacksmith of Holsby_ (pp. 113, 154), _Calypso_ (p. 183), _Horace
Winston_ (p. 211), _Proserpine_ (p. 239), _A Stormy Night_ (p. 253),
_Mistaken Identity_ (p. 281), _Hero_ (p. 350), _The Vizier's Parrot_
(406), _A Pastoral_ (p. 490), _A' Beckett's Troth_ (p. 574), and _The
Stonemason's Yard_ (p. 701). The eleventh volume contains only four:
_Hettie's Trouble_ (p. 26), _Delsthorpe Sands_ (p. 586), _The Legend
of the Bleeding Cave_ (p. 699), and _Rosette_ (p. 713); and volume
xii. has three: _Followers not allowed_ (p. 71), _Homer_ (p. 127),
and _Dido_ (p. 527). The last volume of the first series (1866) has
but one, _Achilles_ (p. 239). Pinwell's work bulks so largely in the
sixties that a bare list of these must suffice; but this period, before
he developed the curiously immobile manner of his later years, is
perhaps the most interesting.
[Illustration: FREDERICK SANDYS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. V. p. 491
THE THREE STATUES
OF ÆGINA]
[Illustration: FREDERICK SANDYS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VI. p. 183
THE OLD CHARTIST]
[Illustration: FREDERICK SANDYS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VII. p. 154
HAROLD HARFAGR]
[Illustration: FREDERICK SANDYS
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. V. p. 631
ROSAMUND, QUEEN
OF THE LOMBARDS]
The index asserts that George Du Maurier is responsible for the
pictures in _Once a Week_, vol. iii. pp. 378-379, signed M.B., and
as you find others unmistakably Du Maurier's signed with various
monograms, its evidence must not be gainsaid; but neither these nor
others, to _My Adventures ... in Russia_ (pp. 553, 557), _The Two
Hands_ (p. 640), and _The Steady Students_ (pp. 691, 695), betray a
hint of his well-known style. But _Non Satis_ (p. 575) is signed in
full, and obviously his, as a glance would reveal. In vol. iv., _Indian
Juggling_ (p. 41), _The Black Spot_ (p. 134), _A Life Story_ (p. 165),
_In search of Garibaldi_ (p. 210), and _The Beggar's Soliloquy_ (p.
378, more like a Charles Keene) are from his hand. In the picture here
reproduced, _On her Deathbed_ (p. 603), the artist has found himself
completely, yet _A Portuguese Tragedy_ (p. 668) has no trace of his
manner. In vol. v. _Recollections of an English Gold Miner_ (p. 361),
_Monsieur the Governor_ (p. 445), _A man who fell among thieves_ (p.
463), _Sea-Bathing in France_ (p. 547), and _The Poisoned
Mind_, are his only contributions. In vol. vi. are three illustrations
to _The Admiral's Daughters_ (pp. 1, 29, 57), _The Hotel Garden_ (p.
24), _The Change of Heads_ (p. 71), _The latest thing in Ghosts_ (p.
99), _Metempsychosis_ (p. 294), _Per l'Amore d'una Donna_ (p. 390),
_A Parent by Proxy_ (p. 435), and _Threescore and Ten_ (p. 644). Vol.
vii. contains _Miss Simons_ (p. 166), _Santa_ (pp. 253, 281, 309,
337), _Only_ (p. 490), and the _Cannstatt Conspirators_ (p. 561). _A
Notting Hill Mystery_ is pictured on pages 617, 645, 673, and 701 of
the seventh volume, and in vol. viii. is continued on pages 1, 5, 7,
85; _Out of the Body_ (p. 701), is also here. _Eleanor's Victory_
is illustrated on pages 295, 351, 407, 463, 519, 575, 631, and 687,
and continued in vol. ix on pages 15, 71, 127, 183, 239, 295, 351,
407. Vol. x. contains _The Veiled Portrait_ (p. 225), _The Uninvited_
(p. 309), _My Aunt Tricksy_ (p. 393), _The Old Corporal_ (p. 462),
and _Detur Digniori_ (pp. 505 and 533). In vol. xi. we find two
illustrations only by this artist, _Philip Fraser's Fate_, and vols.
xii. and xiii. contain no single example.
A few illustrations by T. Morten appear, and these are scattered over
a wide space. The first, _Swift and the Mohawks_ (iv. p. 323), is to
a ballad by Walter Thornbury; _The Father of the Regiment_ (v. p.
71), _Wish Not_ (x. p. 421), _The Coastguardsman's Tale_ (x. p. 561),
_Late is not Never_ (xi. p. 141), _The Cumæan Sibyl_ (xi. p. 603), and
_Macdhonuil's Coronach_ (xii. p. 161), make one regret the infrequent
appearance of one who could do so well.
Edward J. Poynter (the present director of the National Gallery) is
also sparsely represented: _The Castle by the Sea_ (vi. p. 84), a very
pre-Raphaelite decoration to Uhland's ballad, _Wife and I_ (vi. p.
724), _The Broken Vow_ (vii. p. 322), _A Dream of Love_ (vii. pp. 365,
393), _A Fellow-Traveller's Story_ (vii. pp. 699, 722), _My Friend's
Wedding-day_ (viii. p. 113), _A haunted house in Mexico_ (viii. p.
141), _Ducie of the Dale_ (viii. p. 476), and _A Ballad of the Page
to the King's Daughter_ (viii. p. 658), are all the examples by this
artist in _Once a Week_.
Charles Green, of late known almost entirely as a painter, was a
fecund illustrator in the sixties. Beginning with vol. iii., in which
seven of his works appear (pp. 246, 327, 330, 375, 472, 612, 633), he
contributed freely for several years; in vol. iv. there are examples
on pp. 41, 52, 53, 357, 359, 361, and 529, and on pp. 518, 519 of the
fifth volume, and 206 and 255 of the sixth, on pp. 306, 505, 589, and
670 of the seventh. But not until the eighth volume, with _The Wrath
of Mistress Elizabeth Gwynne_ (p. 169), do we find one that is of any
importance. Whether spoilt by the engraver, or immature work, it is
impossible to say; but the earlier designs could scarcely be identified
except for the index. In the same volume _The Death of Winkelried_ (p.
224), _Milly Leslie's Story_ (p. 225), _The Countess Gabrielle_ (p.
253), _Corporal Pietro Micca_ (p. 364), _Damsel John_ (p. 490), _My
Golden Hill_ (p. 505), _Five Days in Prison_ (p. 533), _The Queen's
Messenger_ (p. 561), _The Centurion's Escape_ (p. 589), and _The Cry
in the Dark_ (p. 673), are so curiously unlike the earlier, and so
representative of the artist we all know, that if the 'C. Green' be the
same the sudden leap to a matured style is quite remarkable. In volume
ix. but three appear: _Paul Garrett_ (p. 1), _A Modern Idyll_ (p. 322),
and _My Affair with the Countess_ (p. 337); but in the tenth are nine:
_Norman's Visit_ (pp. 1, 43), _Legend of the Castle_ (p. 14), _A Long
Agony_ (p. 127), _The Lady of the Grange_ (p. 141), _The Gentleman with
the Lily_ (pp. 169, 197), _The Mermaid_ (p. 295), and _T' Runawaa Lass_
(p. 630). _The Hunt at Portskewitt_ (p. 126) is in vol. xi., the last
appearance of the artist I have met with in this magazine.
F. J. Shields, so far as I can trace his drawings, is represented
but three times: _An hour with the dead_ (iv. p. 491), _The Risen
Saint_ (v. p. 378), and _Turberville_ (x. p. 378). As reference to
this comparatively infrequent illustrator appears in another place no
more need be said of these, except that they do not show the artist
in so fine a mood as when he illustrated Defoe's _History of the
Plague_. Simeon Solomon contributes a couple only of drawings of Jewish
ceremonies (vii. pp. 192, 193). J. Luard, an artist, whose work floods
the cheaper publications of the time, shows, in an early drawing,
_Contrasts_ (iii. p. 84), a pre-Raphaelite manner, and a promise which
later years did not fulfil, if indeed this be by the Luard of the penny
dreadfuls.
[Illustration: J. M'NEILL WHISTLER
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VI. p. 712
THE MAJOR'S DAUGHTER]
[Illustration: J. M'NEILL WHISTLER
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VII. p. 140
THE RELIEF FUND
IN LANCASHIRE]
[Illustration: J. M'NEILL WHISTLER
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VII. p. 210
THE MORNING BEFORE THE
MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW]
[Illustration: J. M'NEILL WHISTLER
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VII. p. 378
COUNT BURCKHARDT]
M. E. Edwards, a most popular illustrator, appears in the last volume
of the first series, with _Found Drowned_ (xiii. pp. 14, 42, 70, 98,
253, 281, 309, 337, 365, 393, 442, 471), in which volume J. Lawson has
three: _Ondine_ (p. 351), _Narcissus_ (p. 463), and _Adonis_
(686). Of a number of more or less frequent contributors, including
F. Eltze, R. T. Pritchett, P. Skelton, F. J. Slinger, J. Wolf (the
admirable delineator of animals), space forbids even a complete list of
their names.
Among other occasional contributors to the first thirteen volumes are:
J. D. Watson with _The Cornish Wrecker's Hut_ (viii. p. 602), _No
Change_ (ix. p. 210), and _My Home_ (ix. 266); A. Boyd Houghton:--_The
Old King Dying_ (xii. p. 463), _The Portrait_ (xiii. p. 209), _King
Solomon_ (xiii. p. 603), _The Legend of the Lockharts_ (xiii. p. 715),
and _Leila and Hassan_ (xiii. p. 769); Walter Crane:--_Castle of Mont
Orgueil_ (ix. p. 713) and _The Conservatory_ (xiii. p. 763); J. W.
North:--_Bosgrove Church_ (ix. p. 447), _The River_ (xii. p. 15), and
_St. Martin's Church, Canterbury_ (xii. p. 713)--the two latter being
worthy to rank among his best work; Paul Gray with _Hans Euler_ (xii.
p. 322), _Moses_ (xiii. p. 55), _The Twins_ (xiii. pp. 378-406), _Two
Chapters of Life_ (xiii. p. 519), and _Quid Femina Possit_ (xii. pp.
491, 517, 547, 575); A. R. Fairfield (x. pp. 546, 589, 617, 686, 712);
W. S. Burton, _Romance of the Rose_ (x. p. 602), _The Executioner_ (xi.
p. 14), _Dame Eleanor's Return_ (xi. p. 210), and _The Whaler Fleet_
(xi. p. 638); T. White (viii. p. 98); F. W. Lawson, _Dr. Campany's
Courtship_ (xii. pp. 351, 390, 407, 446), and others on pp. 586, 631,
722; (xiii. pp. 127, 141, 169, _Lucy's Garland_, p. 516); C. Dobell
(vi. p. 420); _Our Secret Drawer_, by Miss Wells (v. p. 98); and four
by Miss L. Mearns, which are of genuine interest (xiii. pp. 85, 153,
657, 742).
The New Series of _Once a Week_, started on January 6, 1866, was
preceded by a Christmas number, wherein one of the most graceful
drawings by Paul Gray is to be found, _The Chest with the Silver
Mountings_ (p. 30). It contains also a full-page plate by G. B.
Goddard, _Up, up my hounds_ (p. 34), and designs by W. Small, _A Golden
Wedding_ (p. 37); G. Du Maurier, _The Ace of Hearts_ (p. 56); J.
Lawson, _A Fairy Tale_ (p. 44), and others of little moment.
The New Series announced, as a special attraction, 'extra illustrations
by eminent artists, printed separately on toned paper.' Those to
the first volume include _Little Bo Peep_, a delightful and typical
composition by G. Du Maurier (_Frontispiece_); _The Vagrants_ (p. 112),
by Fred Walker; _Helen and Cassandra_ (p. 454), by F. Sandys; _The
Servants' Hall_ (p. 560), by H. S. Marks; _Alonzo the Brave_ (p. 359),
by Sir John Gilbert, and _Caught by the tide_, by E. Duncan (p. 280).
[Illustration: G. DU MAURIER
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. IV. p. 603
ON HER
DEATHBED]
[Illustration: G. DU MAURIER
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. VI. p. 390
PER L'AMORE
D'UNA DONNA]
[Illustration: T. MORTEN
'ONCE A WEEK'
VOL. XI. p. 603
THE CUMÆAN SIBYL]
'A specimen of the most recent application of the versatile art of
lithography' which is also given, dates the popular introduction of
the coloured plate by which several magazines, _Nature and Art_,
_The Chromo-lithograph_, etc., were illustrated entirely; others,
especially _The Sunday at Home_, _Leisure Hour_, _People's Magazine_,
etc., from 1864 onwards issued monthly frontispieces in colours and
gold--a practice now confined almost wholly to boys' magazines. The
pictures by artists already associated with _Once a Week_ include (in
vol. i. p. 8) two by A. Boyd Houghton, _The Queen of the Rubies_ (p.
177) and _A Turkish Tragedy_ (p. 448); four by Paul Gray, _The Phantom
Ship_ (p. 43), _Blanche_ (pp. 291, 317), and _The Fight on Rhu Carn_
(p. 713); two by T. Morten, _The Dying Viking_ (p. 239), a drawing
curiously like Sandys's _Rosamunda_, and _King Eric_ (p. 435); six by
W. Small, _Billy Blake's Best Coffin_ (p. 15), _Kattie and the Deil_
(p. 99), _The King and the Bishop_ (p. 183), _The Staghound_ (p. 295),
_Thunnors Slip_ (p. 351), and _Larthon of Inis-Huna_ (p. 575); five by
J. Lawson: _The Watch-tower_ (p. 121), _Theocritus_ (p. 211), _In statu
quo_ (p. 463), _Ancient Clan Dirge_ (p. 491), and _Wait On_ (p. 631);
one by F. W. Lawson, _A Sunday a Century ago_ (p. 671), and others.
Among recruits we find R. Barnes with _Lost for Gold_ (p. 407), B.
Bradley with _A Raid_ (p. 659), eleven by Edward Hughes, and many by G.
Bowers, R. T. Pritchett, F. J. Slinger, and others. Altogether the New
Series started bravely. In vol. ii. New Series, the so-called 'extra
illustrations' include _The Suit of Armour (Frontispiece)_, by Sir John
Gilbert; _Evening_ (p. 97), by Basil Bradley; _Poor Christine_ (p.
245), by Edward Hughes; _Among the Breakers_ (p. 344), by E. Duncan;
_The Nymph's Lament_ (p. 476), by G. Du Maurier; and _The Huntress
of Armorica_ (p. 706), by Paul Gray. Of 'old hands' Du Maurier has
another of his graceful drawings, _Lady Julia_ (p. 239), and Paul Gray
has, besides the special plate, eleven to _Hobson's Choice_ (pp. 169,
197, 225, 253, 281, 309, 337, 365, 393, 421, and 449); three by A.
Boyd Houghton are _A Dead Man's Message_ (p. 211); and _The Mistaken
Ghost_ (pp. 687, 723); T. Morten has only a couple, _The Curse of the
Gudmunds_ (p. 155) and _On the Cliffs_ (p. 308); and G. J.
Pinwell one, _The Pastor and the Landgrave_ (p. 631); J. W North's
_Luther's Gardener_ (p. 99) is a curious drawing to a curious poem;
W. Small, with _Eldorado_ (p. 15), _Dorette_ (p. 379), _The Gift of
Clunnog Vawr_ (p. 463), _The Prize Maiden_ (pp. 491, 519, 560), and
_Tranquillity_ (p. 575), shows more and more that strong personality
which by and by influenced black and white art, so that men of the
seventies are far more disciples of Small than even were the men of
the sixties of Millais. M. E. Edwards's _Avice and her Lover_ (p.
141); six by Basil Bradley (pp. 140, 252, 279, 532, 603, and 659),
Charles Green's _Kunegunda_ (p. 71), _Hazeley Mill_ (p. 85), and
_Michael Considine's Daughter_ (p. 351); five by Edward Hughes (pp.
183, 407, 547, 585, and 599); three by J. Lawson: _Ariadne_ (p. 127),
_The Mulberry-tree_ (p. 323), and _Gabrielle's Cross_ (p. 699). F.
W. Lawson's _A Midshipman's Yarn_ (p. 113) and _Grandmother's Story_
(p. 223) deserve to be noted. Others by G. Bowers, F. Eltze, R. T.
Pritchett, P. J. Skelton, E. Wimpress (_sic_), and J. Wolf among the
rest, call for no comment. For the Christmas number for this year 1866,
W. Small has _The Brown Imp_ (p. 12); J. Lawson, _The Birth of the
Rose_ (p. 20); E. Hughes, _The Pension Latoque_ (p. 25); Ernest Griset,
_Boar Hunting_ (p. 57); G. B. Goddard, _Christmas Eve in the Country_
(p. 58); and Basil Bradley, _A Winter Piece_ (p. 62); John Leighton
contributes a frontispiece and illustrations to _St. George and the
Dragon_, a poem by the author of _John Halifax_.
In volume iii. 1867 the extra illustrations are still distinguished by
a special subject index; they include _Lord Aythan (Frontispiece)_, by
J. Tenniel; _Coming through the Fence_ (p. 112), by R. Ansdell, A.R.A.;
_Feeding the Sacred Ibis_ (p. 238), by E. J. Poynter; _Come, buy my
pretty windmills_ (p. 360), by G. J. Pinwell; _Hide a Stick_ (p. 569),
by F. J. Shields; and _Highland Sheep_ (p. 692), by Basil Bradley.
Another extra plate, a drawing by Helen J. Miles, 'given as an example
of graphotype,' is not without technical interest. In the accompanying
article we find that the possibilities of mechanical reproduction are
discussed, and the writer adds, as his highest flight of fancy, 'who
shall say that graphotype may not be the origin of a daily illustrated
paper?' It would be out of place to pursue this tempting theme, and
to discuss the _Daily Graphic_ of New York and succeeding illustrated
dailies, for all these things were but dreams in the sixties. Yet,
undoubtedly, graphotype set people on the track of process-work. By
and by the photographer came in as the welcome ally, who left the
draughtsman free to work upon familiar materials, instead of the block
itself, and presently supplanted the engraver also, and the great
rival of wood-cutting and wood-engraving sprang into life. Among the
ordinary illustrations A. Boyd Houghton is represented by _The Mistaken
Ghost_ (p. 15), _A Hindoo Legend_ (p. 273), and _The Bride of Rozelle_
(p. 663); G. J. Pinwell by _Joe Robertson's Folly_ (p. 225) and _The
Old Keeper's Story_ (p. 483); J. W. North by _The Lake_ (p. 303); W.
Small by _A Queer Story about Banditti_ (pp. 55, 83); S. L. Fildes by
a strongly-drawn design, _The Goldsmith's Apprentice_ (p. 723); Ernest
Griset by a slight yet distinctly grotesque _Tale of a Tiger_ (p. 7);
M. Ellen Edwards by _Wishes_ (p. 633) and Kate Edwards by _Cherry
Blossom_ (p. 543); J. Lawson by _The Legend of St. Katherine_ (p. 127),
_Sir Ralph de Blanc-Minster_ (p. 168), and _Hymn to Apollo_ (p. 406);
F. W. Lawson by _The Singer of the Sea_ (p. 603). The various examples
by F. A. Fraser, T. Green, T. Scott (a well-known portrait engraver),
E. M. Wimpress, and the rest may be dismissed with bare mention. In
vol. iv., New Series, we find Charles Keene with a frontispiece, _The
Old Shepherd_; _The Haymakers_ (p. 105), E. M. Wimpress; _Cassandra_
(p. 345), S. L. Fildes; _Fetching the Doctor_ (p. 494), H. S. Marks;
_Imma and Eginhart_ (p. 644), W. Small; and _The Christmas Choir_ (p.
762), F. A. Fraser, are the other separate plates. Those printed with
the text include _The Child Queen_ (p. 135) and _Feuilles d'Automne_
(p. 285), by S. L. Fildes; _Evening Tide_ (p. 255), a typical pastoral,
by G. J. Pinwell; _Zoë Fane_ (p. 705), by J. Mahoney; and others by B.
Bradley, E. F. Brewtnall, F. Eltze, T. Green, E. Hughes, F. W. Lawson,
E. Sheil, L. Straszinski, T. Sulman, E. M. Wimpress, etc. Despite the
presence of many of the old staff, the list of names shows that the
palmy days of the magazine are over. The Christmas number contains,
_inter alia_, a frontispiece by John Gilbert; _My Cousin Renie_ (p.
13), by J. Mahoney; _Scotch Cattle_, by Basil Bradley; and _The
Maiden's Test_, by M. E. Edwards (p. 49).
In 1868 another new series starts. A notable feature has disappeared:
the illustrations no longer figure in a separate list, but their
artists' names are tacked on to the few articles and stories which
are illustrated in the ordinary index. Yet the drawings by Du Maurier
to Charles Reade's _Foul Play_ (pp. 12, 57, 140, 247, 269, 312, 421,
464, 530) would alone make the year interesting. People, who regard
Du Maurier as a society draughtsman only, must be astonished at the
grim melodramatic force displayed in these. 'John Millais, R.A.,' also
appears as a contributor with _Death Dealing Arrows_ (p. 79); S. L.
Fildes has _The Orchard_ (p. 396); F. W. Lawson, _The Castaway_ (p.
242); Basil Bradley is well represented by _The Chillingham Cattle_
(p. 100), and _Another day's work done_ (p. 346); F. S. Walker appears
with _A Lazy Fellow_ (p. 211), John Gilbert with _The Armourer_ (p.
364), and M. E. Edwards with the society pictures, _The Royal Academy_
(p. 409) and _A Flower Show_ (p. 516). In the second volume for 1868
we find _Salmon Fishing_ (p. 292) and _Daphne_ (p. 397), both by S. L.
Fildes; _Found Out_ (p. 31), _A Town Cousin_ (p. 150), _Left in the
Lurch_ (p. 230), and _Blackberry Gatherers_ (p. 213), by H. Paterson;
_Sussex Oxen_ (p. 110) and _The Foxhound_ (p. 355), by Basil Bradley;
_The Picnic_ (p. 270), by F. W. Lawson, who has also _The Waits_, the
frontispiece of the Christmas number, which contains _Taking his ease_
(p. 264), the last Millais in the magazine; a clever gallery study;
_Boxing Night_, by S. L. Fildes, and a capital domestic group, _The Old
Dream_ (p. 48), by M. E. Edwards.
In 1869, vol. iii., New Series, contains a single example by G. J.
Pinwell, _A seat in the park_ (p. 518); five by S. L. Fildes; _The
Duet_ (p. 56), _The Juggler_ (p. 188), _Hours of Idleness_, the subject
of a later Academy picture (p. 475), _Led to Execution_ (p. 540), and
_Basking_ (p. 562); and others by Fred Barnard (pp. 166, 254, 346,
450), B. Bradley (pp. 78, 210, 496), Val Prinsep (p. 298), F. W. Lawson
(p. 34), and Ford Madox Brown, _The Traveller_ (p. 144). To state that
vol. iv., New Series, is absolutely without interest is to let it off
cheaply.
In the volume for 1870 the names of artists are omitted, and if we
follow the editor's example no injustice will be done, despite a few
clever drawings by R. M[acbeth]; the work, not merely in date but in
spirit, is of the new decade, and as it is exceptionally poor at that
for the most part, it no longer belongs to the subject with which this
volume is concerned.