instructions respecting a "Dombey" illustration, the novelist made an
interesting allusion to an early incident in his own life. "I wish you
_had_ been at poor Hall's[28] funeral, and I am sure they would have
been glad.... He lies in Highgate Cemetery, which is beautiful....Is it
not a curious coincidence, remembering our connection afterwards, that I
bought the magazine [_The Monthly Magazine_, Dec. 1833] in which the
first thing I ever wrote was published ["A Dinner at Poplar Walk"] from
poor Hall's hands? I have been thinking all day of that, and of that
time when the Queen went into the City, and we drank claret (it was in
their [Chapman & Hall's] earlier days) in the counting-house. You
remember?"
Footnote 28: Partner in the firm of Chapman & Hall.
"Phiz" received fifteen guineas each for his early plates, but sometimes
agreed to accept smaller fees; he estimated that it took him ten days to
prepare and etch four designs. Being a bad business man, he never raised
his prices, the consequence being that his income was not what it should
have been for one who so long held a unique position as an illustrator
of popular books. During the first ten or twelve years of his
professional life he was comparatively prosperous, but when etching as a
means of illustrating went out of favour, and he became somewhat
indifferent concerning this method of work, his income suffered
considerably. The artist did not actually experience financial
difficulties, however, until he was seized with a serious illness in
1867, said to have been partly caused by his having slept in a draught
at a seaside house. After five months of great suffering he again
essayed to use his pencil, but it soon became obvious to his friends
that his health was completely shattered, and that, in less than six
months, he had become a broken-down old man. The worst trouble of all
was a partial paralysis of the right arm and leg, which he persisted in
calling "rheumatism," and in consequence of which his hand lost its
cunning. Then it was that the demand for his work practically ceased. "I
don't know where to turn or what to do," he wrote in 1879. "I have at
last come to a full stop, and don't see my way just yet to get on again.
My occupation seems gone, extinct; I suppose I am thought to be used up,
and I have been long enough before the public. I have not had a single
thing to do this year, nor for some months previous in the past year."
In 1878, at the suggestion of his friend Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., "Phiz"
applied to Government for a pension. The petition was prepared by Mr.
Robert Young, but the result was unfavourable. Happily he received
unexpected assistance from another quarter, in the shape of a
well-deserved annuity from the Royal Academy, awarded in recognition of
his distinguished services to Art. Ever hopeful of being restored to
health, he began on his recovery to again use his pencil, but the
crippled condition of his right hand, together with the rapid decline of
his fanciful imagination and power of invention, made it impossible for
him to produce anything worthy of his past reputation. At length his
affliction became so pronounced that all hope of recovery was abandoned,
and on the 8th of July 1882 the famous "Phiz" breathed his last, in his
sixty-seventh year. He spent the end of his busy life in the quiet
seclusion of Hove, and his last resting-place is on the summit of a hill
on the northern side of the extra-mural cemetery at Brighton.
"Phiz's" many excellent qualities far outweighed any defects in his
character. A life-long friend of the artist, Mr. John Greville Fennell,
writes thus to me: "No man knew more of Hablôt Browne than I did, for
though he was very reticent to most, he never, I believe, concealed
anything from me. We used to wander together in the country for two or
three weeks or more at a time, and a man more full of fun, when he had
thrown off the 'harness,' I have not known in my large acquaintance."
His naturally modest disposition eventually developed into a remarkable
shyness, and this, when coupled with a dislike of publicity, was often
misconstrued as pride. Even Dickens had considerable difficulty in
persuading him to meet a few friends and spend a pleasant evening. When
he did accept such invitations, he invariably tried to seclude himself
in a corner of the room or behind a curtain. In former years he was
occasionally prevailed upon to attend certain dinners given by Dickens
to celebrate the completion of his stories; and the novelist sometimes
succeeded in inducing him to accept invitations to join him for a brief
holiday by the sea, as we learn from a communication addressed to
Forster, and dated from Bonchurch during the "Copperfield" days, in
which Dickens said: "Browne is coming down when he has done his month's
work." Eventually, all desire for social intercourse ceased, "Phiz"
preferring to lead the life of a recluse in his country home.
A short time prior to his severe illness in 1867, Hablôt Browne received
an extraordinary commission from Mr. F. W. Cosens, one of his most
liberal patrons, who solicited the artist to make coloured _replicas_ of
the entire series of his published designs for the works of the great
novelist. In a letter to me on this subject in 1882, Mr. Cosens said: "I
remember to have had only two or three interviews with him, and, as a
stranger, found him shy and nervous. I desired to secure any sketches he
might have of the illustrations to Dickens, but understood him to say he
had none, as he drew them on the blocks [plates]. He evidently did not
like the drudgery of reproduction, and named such terms as he thought
would deter me; but finding the honorarium was of great importance to
him, the bargain was struck. The work extended over some years, and the
later productions evince haste and inferiority. The work can hardly be
called water-colour drawing, as it is simply sketching, slightly
heightened by colour-washing." Strange to say, "Phiz" did not possess
copies of Dickens's novels, so he borrowed Mr. Cosen's set, and from
these he executed the tinted _replicas_. At the sale of Mr. Cosen's
library at Sotheby's in 1890, this interesting collection, numbering 405
drawings, was disposed of for the aggregate sum of £671.
It should be mentioned in conclusion, that, besides the vignettes
already described as having been prepared by "Phiz" for the Library
Edition (1858-59), he also designed for that edition the following
subjects, which were executed in water-colours and, like the rest,
engraved on steel:--Mr. Trott and the "Boots," illustrating "The Great
Winglebury Duel" in "Sketches by Boz;" Mr. Bumble and Oliver, for
"Oliver Twist;" Scrooge and Marley, for the series of Christmas Books;
and a Vineyard Scene, which appropriately decorates the title-page of
"Pictures from Italy."
* * * * *
Although, as already stated, Hablôt Browne was quite capable of
biting-in his own designs upon the steel plates, he had not sufficient
time to devote to this part of his work. From the "Pickwick" days onward
the artist was fortunate in securing the services of his
fellow-apprentice in Finden's studio, Mr. Robert Young, who was
afterwards his partner in many artistic ventures, and always his most
intimate friend and admirer. When at Finden's, Mr. Young acquired the
art of biting-in, a process which, although to some extent a mechanical
one, requires a considerable amount of artistic knowledge and
manipulative skill, for there is nothing to guide the etcher as to the
required effect, except in some cases a rough indication on paper. It
was Mr. Young's duty, after each plate was bitten-in, to go over it with
a graver and join any lines which in the etching had become broken or
rotten. For biting-in and finishing the two subjects on one plate he
received from Chapman & Hall (with whom he had a separate account) the
sum of three guineas. Browne's ruling-machine for producing the
mezzotint effects was kept in his colleague's room at Furnival's Inn,
where, more than half-a-century ago, he and the artist took chambers for
business purposes and to be near the publishers. These quarters, which
were situated in the south-west corner of the Inn, have been lately
demolished, together with the chambers at No. 15, rendered famous by the
fact that the earlier portion of "Pickwick" was there written.
Mr. Young acted as Browne's assistant in the manner described during the
greater part of the years of "Phiz's" popularity, and his co-operation
extended not only to the Dickens illustrations, but to the
thousand-and-one designs that embellished the works of other writers.
The following brief note (quoted from Mr. Thomson's Memoir) is a
specimen of the many communications which constantly passed between the
artist and his coadjutor:--
[_Circa 1845._]
"MY DEAR 'CO,'--Pray help me in an emergency. Put a bottle
of aquafortis in your pockets, wax and all other useful
adjuncts, and come to me to-morrow about one or two o'clock,
and bite in an etching for me, ferociously and
expeditiously. Can you?--will you?--oblige, Yours sincerely,
"H. K. BROWNE."
* * * * *
Mr. Robert Young, who is now in his eighty-second year, has recently
favoured me with a few facts concerning himself, which are not devoid of
interest in the present record. Writing from Norham-upon-Tweed, he says:
"I was born in Dalkeith in 1816, educated in France, and, on leaving
school, was apprenticed to Finden, the engraver, where my friendship
with 'Phiz' commenced, which closed with his death. Some years ago I was
presented with a clerkship in the Admiralty, and retired on a pension in
1878, which enables me to pass my last days in this humdrum village. I
am, as you see, very old, have many infirmities, and cannot always
remember past events."
[Illustration]
PLATE XXXVIII
GEORGE CATTERMOLE
From an Unpublished Photograph by
LAKE PRICE
_Lent by the Artist's Daughter, Mrs. Edward Franks._
GEORGE CATTERMOLE
First Acquaintance with Dickens--Declines Offer of
Knighthood--Favourite Subjects for Pictures--"MASTER
HUMPHREY'S CLOCK"--A Letter from Dickens respecting the
Illustrations--Cattermole's Designs Copied on Wood by "Phiz"
and Samuel Williams--Some Dickens Correspondence--Minute
Directions to the Artist--Design for Frontispiece--Useful
Hints and Suggestions--The "Maypole" Inn--"Grip," the
Raven--Subjects for "Barnaby Rudge"--An Unpublished Letter
from Cattermole to Dickens--Closing Chapters of the
Story--The Novelist Approves of the
Illustrations--Frontispiece for the First Cheap Edition of
"The Old Curiosity Shop"--Water-colour Drawings of "Little
Nell's Home" and "Little Nell's Grave"--Dickens's Gratitude
to Cattermole--Death of the Artist--His Vivacity and
Good-fellowship.
Born at Dickleburgh, Norfolk, in the year 1800, George Cattermole was a
dozen years the senior of Charles Dickens. His acquaintance with the
novelist began in 1838, and when, in the following year, he married Miss
Elderton, a distant connection of the author of "Pickwick," the
friendship subsisting between the two men ripened into sincere
affection. George Cattermole had been elected a member of the Society of
Painters in Water-Colours as early as 1833, which indicates that his
reputation was already well established, and in 1839 he had achieved
such distinction in Art that he received the offer of knighthood,--an
honour he modestly declined. The subjects he loved to portray were
scenes from mediæval history, fiction, or ballad literature, and he
revelled in depicting incidents of bygone times, with their manners and
customs, their architecture and costumes, in the representation of which
he has been considered the chief exponent. It was this antiquarian
feeling, as well as his powerful imagination and vivid fancy, which
excited the admiration of John Ruskin, whose favourable criticisms of
the artist's early productions proved of infinite service.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: =Master Humphrey's Clock, 1840-41.=]
George Cattermole had already enjoyed considerable experience as an
illustrator of books, and had made drawings of buildings and scenery
described in Scott's novels, when, in 1840, Dickens invited him to
collaborate with D. Maclise, R.A., and Hablôt K. Browne ("Phiz") in
designing the woodcuts for "Master Humphrey's Clock." The earliest
intimation received by the artist respecting the projected publication
was contained in the following letter, dated January 13, 1840:--
"MY DEAR CATTERMOLE,--I am going to propound a mightily
grave matter to you. My new periodical work appears--or I
should rather say the first number does--on Saturday, the
28th of March.... The title is 'Master Humphrey's Clock.'
Now, among other improvements, I have turned my attention to
the illustrations, meaning to have woodcuts dropped into the
text, and no separate plates. I want to know whether you
would object to make me a little sketch for a woodcut--in
indian-ink would be quite sufficient--about the size of the
enclosed scrap; the subject, an old quaint room with antique
Elizabethan furniture, and in the chimney-corner an
extraordinary old clock--the clock belonging to Master
Humphrey, in fact, and no figures. This I should drop into
the text at the head of my opening page.
"I want to know, besides--as Chapman & Hall are my partners
in the matter, there need be no delicacy about my asking or
your answering the question--what would be your charge for
such a thing, and whether (if the work answers our
expectations) you would like to repeat the joke at
intervals, and if so, on what terms? I should tell you that
I intend to ask Maclise to join me likewise, and that the
copying, the drawing on wood, and the cutting will be done
in first-rate style.... I want to talk the matter over with
you, and wish you would fix your own time and
place....--Faithfully yours
"CHARLES DICKENS."
We gather from this letter that Cattermole was then unaccustomed to
drawing upon the wood block, and therefore executed his designs upon
paper, to be afterwards copied upon wood by a practical hand. In the
next communication, dated a few days later, it will be seen that the
artist agreed to Dickens's proposals (preferring, however, to select his
own subjects), and that "Phiz's" pencil was made available for copying
purposes; the drawing here referred to being that of the "old quaint
room" which forms the heading of the first chapter of "Master Humphrey's
Clock." The novelist wrote:--
"I think the drawing most famous, and so do the publishers, to whom I
sent it to-day. If Browne should suggest anything for the future which
may enable him to do you justice in copying (on which point he is very
anxious), I will communicate with you. It has occurred to me that
perhaps you will like to see his copy on the block before it is cut, and
I have therefore told Chapman & Hall to forward it to you.
"In future, I will take care that you have the number to choose your
subject from. I ought to have done so, perhaps, in this case; but I was
very anxious that you should do the room...."
The artistic skill of the eminent draughtsman and engraver, Samuel
Williams, was at first similarly requisitioned for copying purposes, as
proved by the signature appended to the illustration of Little Nell's
room in the initial chapter of "The Old Curiosity Shop," the original
drawing of which was undoubtedly supplied by Cattermole, who, before
very long, was enabled to dispense with these professional services.
Judging from the amount of correspondence still extant, Dickens was
constantly in communication with Cattermole respecting the illustrations
for "Master Humphrey's Clock." In a letter dated March 9, 1840, he
said:--
"I have been induced, on looking over the works of the 'Clock,' to make
a slight alteration in their disposal, by virtue of which the story
about 'John Podgers' will stand over for some little time, and that
short tale will occupy its place which you have already by you, and
which treats of the assassination of a young gentleman under
circumstances of peculiar aggravation.[29] I shall be greatly obliged to
you if you will turn your attention to this last morsel as the feature
of No. 3, and still more if you can stretch a point with regard to time
(which is of the last importance just now), and make a subject out of
it, rather than find one in it. I would neither have made this
alteration nor have troubled you about it, but for weighty and cogent
reasons which I feel very strongly, and into the composition of which
caprice or fastidiousness has no part....
Footnote 29: "Mr. Pickwick's Tale," in the first chapter.
"I cannot tell you how admirably I think Master Humphrey's room comes
out, or what glowing accounts I hear of the second design you have
done.[30] I had not the faintest anticipation of anything so good,
taking into account the material and the despatch."
Footnote 30: See headpiece to "First Night of the Giant
Chronicles."
The text of "Master Humphrey's Clock" afforded the artist many congenial
themes for his pencil. The story of Little Nell evidently fascinated
him, and the various subjects selected for illustration were lovingly
dealt with. An interval of several months elapsed before the following
instructions were received by him respecting future designs:--
"I sent the MS. of the enclosed proof, marked 2, up to Chapman & Hall
from Devonshire, mentioning a subject of an old gateway,[31] which I had
put in expressly with a view to your illustrious pencil. By a mistake,
however, it went to Browne instead.
Footnote 31: See illustration in "The Old Curiosity Shop,"
chap, xxvii.
PLATE XXXIX
QUILP'S WHARF
_Facsimile_ of the Original Sketch for "The Old Curiosity Shop" by
GEORGE CATTERMOLE
_Lent by Mrs. Edward Franks._
[Illustration]
"The subject to which I wish to call your attention is in an unwritten
number to follow this one, but it is a mere echo of what you will find
at the conclusion of this proof marked 2. I want the cart, gaily
decorated, going through the street of the old town with the wax brigand
displayed to fierce advantage, and the child seated in it also
dispersing bills. As many flags and inscriptions about Jarley's Wax
Work fluttering from the cart as you please. You know the wax brigands,
and how they contemplate small oval miniatures? That's the figure I
want. I send you the scrap of MS. which contains the subject.
"Will you, when you have done this, send it with all speed to Chapman &
Hall, as we are mortally pressed for time...."
For some reason, the drawing of Mrs. Jarley's cart was not executed by
Cattermole; perhaps he was otherwise occupied at the moment, so that the
work fell to Browne, whose initials are appended. Concerning the
frontispiece the novelist offered some valuable suggestions, of which
the artist readily availed himself:--
"Will you turn your attention to a frontispiece for our first volume, to
come upon the left-hand side of the book as you open it, and to face a
plain printed title? My idea is, some scene from 'The Curiosity Shop,'
in a pretty border, or scroll-work, or architectural device; it matters
not what, so that it be pretty. The scene even might be a fanciful
thing, partaking of the character of the story, but not reproducing any
particular passage in it, if you thought that better for the effect.
"I ask you to think of this, because, although the volume is not
published until the end of September, there is no time to lose. We wish
to have it engraved with great care and worked very skilfully; and this
cannot be done unless we get it on the stocks soon. They will give you
every opportunity of correction, alteration, revision, and all other
-ations and -isions connected with the fine arts."
In this design will be found Cattermole's only representations of Mr.
Pickwick and the two Wellers. In the following letter (dated December 21
[1840]), some hints were given as to the treatment of one of the most
charming illustrations in the series, viz., the picturesque
parsonage-house which was the temporary home of Little Nell and her
Grandfather. The lanthorn here referred to is not only omitted from the
drawing, but we fail to find it mentioned in the text:--
"Kit, the single gentleman, and Mr. Garland go down to the place where
the child is, and arrive there at night. There has been a fall of snow.
Kit, leaving them behind, runs to the old house, and, with a lanthorn in
one hand and the bird in its cage in the other, stops for a moment at a
little distance with a natural hesitation before he goes up to make his
presence known. In a window--supposed to be that of the child's little
room--a light is burning, and in that room the child (unknown, of
course, to her visitors, who are full of hope) lies dead.
"If you have any difficulty about Kit, never mind about putting him
in...."
The next letter contained useful suggestions for the delineation of the
most pathetic scenes in "The Old Curiosity Shop."
(1.) The child lying dead in the little sleeping-room, which is behind
the open screen. It is winter-time, so there are no flowers; but upon
her breast and pillow, and about her bed, there may be strips of holly
and berries, and such free green things. Window overgrown with ivy. The
little boy who had that talk with her about angels may be by the
bedside, if you like it so; but I think it will be quieter and more
peaceful if she is quite alone. I want it to express the most beautiful
repose and tranquillity, and to have something of a happy look, if death
can.
(2.) The child has been buried inside the church, and the old man, who
cannot be made to understand that she is dead, repairs to the grave and
sits there all day long, waiting for her arrival, to begin another
journey. His staff and knapsack, her little bonnet and basket, &c., lie
beside him. 'She'll come to-morrow,' he says when it gets dark, and goes
sorrowfully home. I think an hour-glass running out would help the
notion; perhaps her little things upon his knee or in his hand.
"I am breaking my heart over this story, and cannot bear to finish it."
PLATE XL
TWO STUDIES FOR
"THE DEATH-BED OF LITTLE NELL"
_Facsimile_ of the Original Drawings for "The Old Curiosity Shop" by
GEORGE CATTERMOLE
_Lent by Mr. S. J. Davey and Mrs. Edward Franks._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
In the first of these two delightful drawings the artist rightly omitted
the figure of the boy, and in order to emphasise the sense of
repose in that humble death-chamber, he introduced a bird, which is seen
perched upon the window-ledge, while the hour-glass (suggested for the
second picture) seemed to him more appropriate here. Cattermole made two
or three sketches of No. 1 before he quite satisfied the author, who had
asked him to carry out certain alterations, these resulting in such a
marked improvement that Dickens wrote: "I cannot tell you how much
obliged I am to you for altering the child, or how much I hope that my
wish in that respect didn't go greatly against the grain."[32] "Will you
do me," he asks, in the same letter, "a little tailpiece for the
'Curiosity' story?--only one figure if you like--giving some notion of
the etherealised spirit of the child; something like those little
figures in the frontispiece." This little allegory formed the closing
illustration.
Footnote 32: Macready, upon whom the death of Little Nell had
a painful effect, was much impressed by this illustration, as
an entry in his diary testifies: "Found at home ... an onward
number of 'Master Humphrey's Clock.' I saw one print in it of
the dear dead child that gave a dead chill through my blood.
I dread to read it, but must get it over."
"Barnaby Rudge" immediately followed "The Old Curiosity Shop," under the
collective title of "Master Humphrey's Clock." For the first chapter of
this stirring romance Cattermole provided a charming illustration,
depicting the old "Maypole" Inn, which, however, was not intended to
portray the "delicious old inn" opposite Chigwell churchyard, referred
to by Dickens in a letter to Forster at this time, it being an entirely
fanciful design. When the novelist saw the drawing on wood of this
subject he was delighted. "Words cannot say how good it is," he wrote to
the artist. "I can't bear the thought of its being cut, and should like
to frame and glaze it in _statu quo_ for ever and ever." On January 28,
1841, he queried:--