CHAPTER I. A GENERAL SURVEY. "CHRIST AND PETER." BY CARACCI. Wood-engraving by the Linnells. "THE HOLY FAMILY." BY PERUGINO. Wood-engraving by the Linnells.

Nowhere were the conditions of illustration more deplorable than in England when Bewick, and Stothard, and Blake appeared upon the scene. There was a decided revolution when Gay's "Fables," the "General History of Quadrupeds," "British Land and Water Birds," all illustrated by Bewick's wood-engravings, were issued. Bewick, as has been said before, and cannot be repeated too often, was an artist who happened to engrave his designs on wood, instead of drawing them on paper or painting them on canvas; he was not a mere wood-engraver, interpreting other men's work which he only half understood or appreciated; and this is a distinction to be borne in mind. Bewick, virtually, did for himself what the new mechanical processes almost succeed in doing for contemporary illustrators. For him were none of the difficulties and miseries of the draughtsman who made his designs on the block, saw them ruthlessly ruined by an incompetent, or unscrupulous engraver, and then had but the print, which could not prove the reproduction to be the wretched caricature of the original that it really was. This was the chief reason for Bewick's success. He invented wood-engraving; he showed what good work ought to be; in a word, he revolutionized the art of illustration in England.[6]

Whatever may have brought about this sudden activity and revival of excellence, Bewick's books were far from being its sole outcome. "The Songs of Innocence and Experience," the "Inventions to the Book of Job," Blair's "Grave," Mary Wollstonecraft's stories, with Blake's illustrations, belong to the same period, though this was but a chance. The illustrations were mostly done on metal, and Blake had his own peculiar methods. He belongs to no special time or group.

Book after book with Stothard's illustrations, the "Pilgrim's Progress," Richardson's novels, tales now forgotten, above all, Rogers' "Poems," with the engravings by Clennell, helped to prove the possibilities of good illustration, and emphasize, by force of contrast, the inappropriateness of work done by some of the most popular Academicians of the day for Boydell's "Shakespeare," immortalized by Thackeray as that "black and ghastly gallery of murky Opies, glum Northcotes, straddling Fuselis."

But the most important outcome of Bewick's work was the appearance of an excellent school of wood-engravers in England: Clennell, Branston, Harvey and Nesbit, the Thompsons, the Williamses, and Orrinsmith. These engravers tried, in the beginning, to produce exactly the same sort of work that is being done by the so-called school of American wood-engravers to-day. One has only to look at Stothard's illustrations to Rogers' "Poems," engraved by Clennell, to see an example of facsimile engraving after pen drawing. But, as a general thing, these men all endeavoured to imitate the qualities of steel engraving or etching. First, because steel or metal engraving was the prevailing form of illustration, enjoying, for a while, tremendous popularity in the long series of "Keepsakes," "Forget-Me-Nots," and "Albums;" and, secondly, because they were forced mainly to copy old metal engravings, since scarcely any artist, always excepting Stothard and a few others, knew how to draw on the wood. So great was the rage for popularizing engravings on metal, that John Thompson projected an edition of Hogarth on wood, about two inches by three, showing that, instead of being able to produce new work done specially for the wood, engravers were continually thrown back upon the copying of steel or copper-plates, or the work of their predecessors. Another notable instance, though published much later, is that of the first illustrated catalogue of the National Gallery by the Linnells.[7]

In France, however, there were plenty of artists, willing to draw on the wood, who could not get their designs engraved, at the very time that in England there were plenty of engravers who could find no artists to draw for them.

In 1816 Charles Thompson went to Paris, partly for pleasure and partly in search of work. He was at once successful. He arrived at the right moment: already a Society for the Encouragement of National Industry in France had offered a prize of two thousand francs for wood-engravings done in that country, so impressed had Frenchmen been with the excellence of the work produced in England.

A little later on, Lavoignat and other engravers came over and worked in London with the Williamses. The result was, that, within ten years of their return, a school of wood-engravers, nearly as good as the English, arose in France, together with a number of draughtsmen, greatly superior to those of England. Among the engravers who should be mentioned are Best, BrÉviÈre, Leveille, Lavoignat, Piaud, Pisan, and Poirret. They worked after Gigoux, the Johannots, Isabey, Paul Huet, Jacque, Meissonier, Charlet, Daubigny, Daumier, Gavarni, Monnier, and Raffet.

In both countries this new illustration began to make its mark about 1835. Although, in its own way, Bewick's engraving was unsurpassed, still a refinement, a freedom, was introduced by the French artists, and a faithfulness of facsimile by their engravers, many of whom, as I have said, were English, quite unknown at that time in work published in England. So great was the reputation of these illustrators, artists and engravers both, that two Germans, Braun and Roehle, came to Paris to work with BrÉviÈre. This international exchange of engravers has kept up, in a measure, till the present time; M. LepÈre, for instance, studied in England with Smeeton, while it is well known that the director of the "Graphic" was working in Paris almost up to 1870.

In 1830 I think one may safely say that the first really important modern illustrated book, in which wood was substituted for metal engraving, appeared in France. This was the "Histoire du Roi de BohÈme," by Johannot. Though published twenty years later than Rogers' "Poems," with Stothard's illustrations, as an example of engraving it was scarcely any better. But the designs—little head and tail-pieces—were so good that they were used over and over again by "L'Artiste," the organ of the Romanticists, in which they were accepted as the perfection of illustration.

At this date there is to be noted in England, among the best work done, the beautiful alphabet by Stothard, published by Pickering.

If, up to 1830, England and France were in equal rank, so far as illustration went, for the next ten or fifteen years France utterly eclipsed her earlier rival. In 1833 appeared the "Gil Blas"[8] of Gigoux, containing hundreds of drawings, which all Frenchmen, I believe, consider to be the illustrated book of the period. To Gigoux, Daniel Vierge owes more probably than he would care to acknowledge; while Gigoux himself is founded on Goya. In 1838, however, was issued a book which, in drawing, engraving, and printing, completely outdistanced anything that had heretofore appeared in England or in France: Curmer's edition of "Paul et Virginie," dedicated by a grateful publisher, "Aux artistes qui ont ÉlevÉ ce monument typographique À la mÉmoire de J. H. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre." These artists include the names of nearly everyone who was then, or soon became famous in French art. The book contains marines by Isabey, beautiful landscapes by Paul Huet, animals and figures by Jacque, and, above all, drawings by Meissonier, who contributed over a hundred to this story and to the "ChaumiÈre Indienne," published under the same cover. All the best French and English engravers collaborated. Even the printing was excellent, for the use of overlays, made by Aristide Derniame, had begun to be fully understood.[9] The printers' name deserves to be remembered: Everal et Cie.

After this, for some ten years, there was a perfect deluge of finely illustrated books. The "Vicar of Wakefield," with Jacque's drawings, MoliÈre, "Don Quixote," "Le Diable Boiteux." Magazines, too, were brought out; the "Magazin Pittoresque," which had started in 1833, published in 1848 Meissonier's "Deux Joueurs," engraved by Lavoignat; in many ways this remains, even to-day, one of the best pieces of facsimile wood-engraving ever made. At that time it was simply unapproached anywhere. In "L'Artiste" and "Gazette des Entants," 1840, will be found many remarkable lithographs by Gavarni; but most of Daumier's works must be looked for in the cheaper prints, notably in "La Caricature," where also may be found, from 1830, in lithography the work of Delacroix, Monnier, Lami, and others.

In England, too, very good work was being done, though it was not so absolutely artistic as the French. Among the men who were working were Thurston, Stothard, Harvey, Landseer, Wilkie, Calcott, and Mulready. The "Penny Magazine" was started in 1832 by Charles Knight. Gray's "Elegy" appeared in 1836, the "Arabian Nights" in 1838, and, about the same time the "Solace of Song," both containing much of Harvey's best work; while later came those drawings by Cruikshank, which mainly owe their claim to notice to the marvellous interpretations of them made by the Thompsons and the Williamses. In England, however, the engravers were seeking more and more to imitate steel, the artist's simplest washes being turned into the most elaborate cross-hatching, which made each block look as if it were a mass of pen-and-ink or pencil detail, when no such work was ever put on it by the draughtsman. The artist was ignored by the engraver, until finally the latter became absolutely supreme, that is to say, his shop became supreme, while the artist who, when he had the chance, could give on a piece of wood an inch or two square, most beautiful, even great, effects of landscape, was subordinated wholly to his interpreter. For an accurate account of this inartistic triumph I would recommend the works of Mr. W. J. Linton.

In France the art of illustration continued to improve. It culminated in 1858 in the "Contes RÉmois," with Meissonier for draughtsman and Lavoignat and Leveille for engravers. These illustrations are absolutely equal to Menzel's best work, and are by far the finest ever produced in France.

I had always supposed Menzel to occupy a position quite as original as Bewick's. But I find that he was really a follower of Meissonier. His "Life of Frederick the Great" was not published until 1842, while the "Paul et Virginie" had appeared in 1835. Besides, the first of his drawings for the "Frederick" Menzel confided to French engravers,[10] especially to the men who had reproduced Tony Johannot. But this artist's illustrations, though in point of size the most important, in point of excellence are the worst in the French book, being not unlike characterless steel engravings. It is therefore not surprising that Menzel was dissatisfied with the results, and that he proceeded at once to train a number of Germans to produce engravings of his work in facsimile. The best of these men were Bentworth, Unzelmann, the Vogels, Kreitzschmar, who engraved the drawings for the "Works of Frederick the Great," and the "Heroes of War and Peace," those monuments to Menzel's art and German illustration. Indeed, it seems to me that, until the introduction of photography, there is little to be said of German illustration that does not relate entirely to Menzel and Dietz, and some of the artists on "Fliegende BlÄtter," which was founded in 1844.

But in England it is just before the invention of photographing on wood that some of the most marvellous drawings were produced; really the most marvellous that have ever been done in the country. It is true that Sir John Gilbert had been making his striking and powerful designs, Mr. Birket Foster his exquisite drawings, while much good facsimile work was done after Mr. Harrison Weir; the Abbotsford edition of Scott was appearing, and the "Liber Studiorum;" true, also, that the "Illustrated London News," started in 1842, had done much to raise the general standard; "Punch," also, was commenced in 1842; much, too, had been accomplished in lithography. Still, it is with the appearance of Frederick Sandys, Rossetti, Walker, Pinwell, A. Boyd Houghton, Small, Du Maurier, Keene, Crane, Leighton, Millais, and Tenniel, with the publication of the "Cornhill," "Once a Week," "Good Words," the "Shilling Magazine," and such books as Moxon's "Tennyson," that the best period of English illustration begins. Mr. Ruskin's own drawings for his books must not be forgotten.

Among the English engravers, outside of the large shops of Dalziel and Swain, there are only two names that stand out conspicuously: W. J. Linton and W. H. Hooper. The excellent work of the latter, unfortunately, has been overshadowed by that of Mr. Linton, who, however, cannot be considered his equal as an engraver.

In America F. O. C. Darley was certainly the first illustrator, while the French tradition was carried on for years in "Harper's Magazine" by C. E. Doepler, who produced some very excellent little blocks. Harper's "Illuminated Bible," with more than fourteen hundred drawings by J. G. Chapman, engraved by J. A. Adams, was begun in 1837, and finished in 1843. But the greatest number of the better American drawings were either borrowed from English sources, or, as in the case of the American Tract Society, English artists, like Sir John Gilbert, were commissioned to make them. After the Civil War, the first man to appear prominently was Winslow Homer. Contemporary with him, and later, were John La Farge, Thomas and Peter Moran, Alfred Fredericks, W. L. Shepherd, and the older of the men working to-day. Among the caricaturists, Thomas Nast was preeminent.

There is one American book, however, which deserves special mention. This is Harris's "Insects Injurious to Vegetation," the drawings for which were the work of Sourel and Burckhardt. It is one of the most artistic books of the sort ever published in America or elsewhere. Then, too, amid a flood of other things, appeared, in 1872, "Picturesque America," and later "Picturesque Europe," which then reached really the high-water mark of American publishing enterprise in the United States, just as surely as DorÉ at the same time in France and England was the most exploited of all illustrators. The greater number of drawings for these books were made by Harry Fenn and J. D. Woodward. The profession of illustration at this period must have been almost equal to that of gold-mining. Everything the artist chose to produce was accepted. It would be more accurate to say everything he half produced, for the school of Turner being then superseded by that of DorÉ, wood-engravers, like Pannemacker, for instance, had been specially trained by the artist to carry out the ideas which he merely suggested on the block.

But a change was coming; the incessant output of illustration killed not only the artists themselves, but the process. In its stead arose a better, truer method, a more artistic method, which we are even now, only developing. This later American illustration may be said to have had its beginning in the year 1876.

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