A GOLDEN DECADE IN ENGLISH ART

    THE most perfect English art in black and white was done between the
years 1860 and 1870.  What an absurdity ! of course ; for Blake was
absurd, Alfred Stevens ridiculous, Keene ignored, Whistler a joke.  And yet,
when the amateur tires of his postage-stamp and the young lady with no
books wearies of her book-plate, when all the sham Bartolozzis have been
shipped to America and the Japanese print outweighs the bank-note, then
the English illustration of 1860 may possibly be invented, and Art may be
once again upon the town.  I use the date 1860, but I ask for as much
latitude as one is granted in speaking of the Romanticists and 1830, with
whom the men of 1860 are worthy to be ranked.

    No matter how little we like to acknowledge it, many of our luxuries
and necessities come from Germany ; and it is to Germany that one turns
for the inspiration of modern illustration, and to Adolph Menzel as its
prophet.  When, in the late thirties, Menzel was working on his various
versions of “Frederick the Great,” seeing the results obtained in Curmer’s
“Paul et Virginie,” he confided some of the designs he had drawn upon the
wood-block to an Anglo-French firm of wood engravers, Andrew Best Leloir ;
but he was not satisfied with the results, which may be seen in the earlier
part of Kugler’s “Frederick the Great” ; so he trained his own engravers—
Kreutzchmar, Bentworth, Unzelmann, the Vogels—and between them they
produced those triumphs of German art which gave the direct inspiration to
modern English illustration.  They are : “The Life of Frederick,” 1840 :
“The Uniforms of the Army of Frederick,” 1852, a supplement ; “The
Works of Frederick,” 1850 ; “The Heroes of War and Peace,” 1856.
These books, I have been informed—and I have been told the facts by
the artists and engravers and publishers themselves—did have their effect
in the following ten years, if they did not produce a sensation in England

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immediately on their appearance in Germany, or even on their re-publication
here, for “The Life of Frederick the Great,” Kugler’s “Geschichte Fried-
richs des Grossen,” 1840, was issued here by Bohn in 1845 as “A Pictorial
History of Germany,” though the others have never appeared in English
dress.  The first book which shows this influence is William Allingham’s
“The Music Master,” 1855; and I maintain that Rossetti in his drawings—
that is, in his method of drawing for engraving as shown in this book—must
have been inspired by Menzel, for no book like it had been illustrated in
England, nor had similar illustrations been made previously in this country.
Rossetti, Millais and Arthur Hughes did the drawings.  Rossetti furnished
the frontispiece: “A youth listening in rapt mood to the chaunt of three
mystic women—the maids of Elfin Mere.”  Burne-Jones then thought it
the most beautiful drawing, for an illustration, that he had ever seen.  Yet
Mr. W. M. Rossetti says his brother was highly dissatisfied, and regarded
the woodcut (of course it was a wood engraving) by Messrs. Dalziel as a
decided travesty of his work.  What would he have thought had it been done
a little earlier ?

    Next year, 1856, Samuel Palmer—who had been following the tradition
of Blake and that lovely decorator, Calvert—illustrated one chapter : “The
Distant Hills,” for Adams’s “Sacred Allegories,” with nine drawings.  Three
or four of these must rank with Turner.  Palmer has given the effect of the
setting sun over great landscape as no one ever did before, as no one has
attempted since.
    The year 1857 is a memorable one—the year of Moxon’s “Tennyson”;
the herald of Millais’ genius as an illustrator.  The book contains the
famous Rossetti drawings and Holman Hunt’s best design, “The Lady
of Shallot” : but the rest of the illustrations are weak, poor, commonplace.
The engravings, of which one hears little that is good, are by Dalziel and
Linton.  It is most interesting to compare the engraving of “Sir Galahad”
—from the Rossetti drawing done by Linton, which is quite characterless so
far as the work of Rossetti goes (or, rather, Lintonesque, save in the small
heads, which are very good)—with the first drawing in the “Palace of

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Art,” by Dalziel, also after Rossetti, which is brilliant and individual by
comparison.  Yet Rossetti himself, so his brother says, preferred the Linton
to the Dalziel.

    Mr. Ruskin backs Rossetti, too, in his denunciation of the engravers ;
but this is not of much importance, as in a few years, just after the very
best work had been done, he attacked artists and engravers both, saying :
“Cheap popular art cannot draw for you beauty, sense, honesty ; but every
species of distorted vice—the idiot, the blackguard, the coxcomb, the paltry
fool, the degraded woman—are pictured for your honourable pleasure on every
page.  These are favourably representative of the entire art industry of the
modern Press.” This is a criticism of these men and these books.

    In the same year, a book, the illustrated edition of which is quite un-
heard of—Willmot’s “Sacred Poetry”—was published.  In this was maintained
an all-round standard of greater merit in design and engraving even than in
the “Tennyson,” for among the contributors were Madox Brown, Tenniel,
Harvey, Foster, Arthur Hughes, Harding, Millais and Gilbert, engraved by
Dalziel : there were fewer Academicians, and the men knew better how to
draw on wood.

    In 1858, John Gilbert, even then the Nestor of English illustration,
obtained his chance, and the magnificent “Shakespeare,” also engraved by
Dalziel, was commenced, and continued during the two following years.  This
is Gilbert’s masterpiece, and still remains the finest complete illustrated edition
of Shakespeare.  It came out in parts, and is probably the first example,
among these books, of the present popular fashion of issuing books in parts.

    If 1857 was notable, 1859 is destined to become historic, for it marks
the starting of Once a Week, soon to become synonymous with good illus-
tration.  The first volume is more an array of names than a distinguished
accomplishment.  Millais did eight drawings for it, not one of which can be
compared with his designs for the “Tennyson”; though he was beginning
that series of studies of the costume and furniture of the period, the crinoline.
the chignon and the what-not, that we now find so amusing.  Harvey did
one drawing, and there are a number by Phiz, Leech, Tenniel, and many

            A GOLDEN DECADE IN ENGLISH ART      115

crude things signed “Keene” which are commonplace.  They were all engraved
by Swain, or, as Keene himself put it, they fell before the graver of Swain.
After this, Keene appears continuously, always more and more interesting ; but,
save for his “Caudle Lectures,” 1865, he is scarcely a book illustrator.  Yet
his fame is secure, his position as an illustrator is acknowledged.

    I have said already that it is to these books and magazines that we
must turn for all that is left of the English illustration of the sixties ; for
this reason, the final finished drawings were made on the wood-block, and,
consequently, engraved all to pieces ; and, save those wood-blocks, most of
which have vanished, and, possibly, some engravers’ proofs and the prints
in the magazines and books themselves, there is absolutely nothing else left.
Therefore the world, which always wants what it cannot have, may some day
understand how important are these early volumes.

    To the first number of the Cornhill, 1860, Thackeray, more or less
worked over by ghosts and engravers, contributed the illustrations for “Lovel
the Widower.” But, in the second or third number, Millais was called in,
and then G. A. Sala, to complete the work.  Frederick Sandys illustrated the
“Legend of the Portent” ; this is, so far as I know, his first appearance as a
book illustrator ; the lithographed burlesque of “Sir Isumbras” is earlier.  And
the volume ends with Millais’ splendid “Was it not a Lie?” an illustration to
“Framley Parsonage.”  From that time forward Millais gives character and
distinction to its pages.  The grace of the crinoline, the beauty of the frock-
coat and the top hat, the daintiness of the pantalette, are shown in every
number, while the pre-aesthetic houses are full of interest.  It is curious
to note that either Thackeray or the publisher refused to mention the names
of the artists in any way.  Millais and Sala alone signed their designs with
their monograms.  Sir Frederick Leighton, I imagine, contributed the “Great
God Pan” (signed ” L.”) in the second volume ; while his drawings for
“Romola” were also among the special attractions in 1863.  Richard Doyle
began his “Birdseye Views of Society” in the third ; but it was not until
more than half-way through this volume that the initials “F. W.” appeared
on what were supposed to be Thackeray’s drawings—or, rather, it was

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not until then that the great author acknowledged his failure as an illus-
trator.  But in one of his “Roundabout Papers,” eventually, he admitted
his indebtedness to Walker with the best grace in the world.  The first
drawing in the Cornhill signed by Walker—a fact interesting enough
to be recorded—faces page 556, in the volume for 1861 : it is the “Nurse
and Doctor,” an illustration to Thackeray’s “Philip.”

    Good Words also was started in 1860, and attracted certain young
Scotsmen—Orchardson, Pettie, Graham, MacWhirter.  Even Punch was
brilliant then, and its excellence was due to Du Maurier and Keene ; a
Du Maurier, however, that one would not recognise to-day.

    I do not know of any notable books in 1861, though G. H. Bennett’s
magnum opus, Quarles’ “Emblems,” appeared in that year, and, I believe, was
popular.  But in 1862, Miss Rossetti’s “Poems,” illustrated by her brother
with two drawings, came out ; Rossetti also designed the cover.  The illustra-
tions can hardly be called satisfactory as illustrations, for the two Lizzies are
quite different—the first, a country girl; the second, a stately Rossetti woman.
The second edition contains two more drawings, which were added in 1866.
William Morris engraved the frontispiece to this book, signed “M MF & Co.”

    The illustrations for these magazines and books were done in a curious
but very interesting way ; the entire work was undertaken by two firms,
Messrs. Dalziel and Swain.  They commissioned the drawings from the
artists, and then engraved them ; the method seems to have been so
successful, that the engravers, notably the Dalziels, not only employed artists
to make drawings and then engraved the blocks themselves, but became their
own printers as well.  It was in this manner that they produced the books
which are bound to become the admiration and despair of the intelligent and
artistic collector.  When the books were printed they were sold to a publisher,
who merely put his imprint on them ; but to this day they are known as
“Dalziel’s Illustrated Editions,” that is, when they are known at all.  The first
important book of the series which I have seen is Birket Foster’s “Pictures
of English Landscape,” 1863 (Routledge), printed by Dalziel, with “Pictures
in Words,” by Tom Taylor.  The binding is atrocious ; the paper is spotting

            A GOLDEN DECADE IN ENGLISH ART      117

and losing colour ; but the drawings must have been exquisite, and here and
there the ink is spreading and giving a lovely tone, like that of an etching, to
the prints on the pages.  This autumn it was revived, by Nimmo, with literary
selections by Mr. John Davidson ; of course there is no mention of the fact
that the engravings were made thirty-two years ago. In the same year,
F. Shields did a shilling edition of Defoe’s “Plague,” containing six drawings,
engraved by Swain and Moreton ; this must be one of the earliest of illus-
trated shilling publications ; it contains Mr. Shield’s best designs.  The
dead-pit, into which, by the flaring light of torches, the bodies are being
shot from a cart, is like Rembrandt in its power.

    In 1864, Messrs. Dalziel, who had already in the previous year engraved
the designs for Good Words, published in a volume Millais’ “Parables of Our
Lord,” through Routledge.  This book, issued in an atrocious binding
described as elaborate (and it truly is), bound up so badly that it has broken
all to pieces, and printed with a text in red and black, contains much of
the strongest work Millais ever did.  Nothing could excel in dramatic
power, or in effect of light, “The Enemy Sowing Tares,” and the “Lost
Piece of Silver,“ or in beauty of line or realistic treatment of the foreground,
“The Sower,”—to mention but three blocks where so many are so good.  The
whole book is excellent, and is now excessively rare in its first edition.  In
this year also, W. J. Linton illustrated Mrs. Lynn Linton’s “Lake Country”
(Smith, Elder & Co.), drawing and engraving the pictures ; it is a curious
book, and exemplifies, I suppose, Mr. Linton’s methods ; of which I may say,
I had rather he engraved his own designs than mine.

    But 1865 is the most notable year of all.  To it belongs Dalziel’s
illustrated “Arabian Nights’ Entertainments,” originally published in parts,
and, later, in two volumes, with text and pictures enclosed in horrid
borders (Ward & Lock).  In this book, A. Boyd Houghton first showed
what a really great man he was.  He clearly proved himself a master in
technique as well as in imagination, and, although he had as fellow illus-
trators Sir J. E. Millais, J. D. Watson, Sir John Tenniel, G. J. Pinwell
and Thomas Dalziel, Houghton towers above them all. Mr. Lawrence

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Housman, in an able article on him in Bibliographica, well says : “Among
artists and those who care at all deeply for the great things of Art, he cannot
be forgotten ; for them, his work is too much an influence and a problem ; and
though, officially, the Academy shuts its mouth at him   .   .   .   certain of
its leading lights have been heard unofficially to declare ߵthat he was the
greatest artist who has appeared in England in black and white.ߴ Technically,
his work, always in line, with a brush or pencil, is most simple and powerful ;
the values of white asserted by the yard.  Broad white upon black, black
upon broad white ; yet there is searching draughtsmanship, marvels of subtle
modelling, and always the strange realism that gives rags their squalor, limbs
the hairiness of life.”

    In 1865, also, Houghton’s “Home Thoughts and Home Scenes” was
published by Routledge.  It is much less imaginative than his later work,
but contains, perhaps, more that is beautiful, studies of child-life, charm-
ingly seen, beautifully drawn.  After this, he worked prodigiously, and yet
excellently.  His edition of “Don Quixote” (Warne), as a whole rather
over rated, yet fine in parts, must be sought for now in the most out-of-the-
way places.  Very Spanish in character is the frontispiece ; and his rendering
of local colour in his books is all the more remarkable since I have heard he
never was in Spain or the East.  Easier to find are his “Kriloff’s Fables,”
slight sketches published by Strahan in 1869.  Best known of all are his
drawings in the early numbers of the Graphic—the American series—which
were not all published, I think, before he died.  If some of them are
grotesque, almost even to caricature, they are amazingly powerful ; and,
being the largest engraved works left, show him, fortunately, at his best.
His original drawings scarcely exist at all ; they were nearly all done on the
wood ; and though, at times, he made several versions of each, he seems to
have destroyed all except the one that pleased him, and this disappeared in
the engraving.

    Another event was the publication of Ward & Lock’s edition of Gold-
smith, in which G. J. Pinwell revealed his marvellous powers ; but Pinwell’s
most important work is for a late date.

            A GOLDEN DECADE IN ENGLISH ART      119

    In 1865, there must have been almost as many good illustrated magazines
published in England alone as there are to-day in the whole world.  Besides
Good Words, the Cornhill, and Once a Week, there were London Society, the
Shilling Magazine, the Argosy, and the Quiver.  The uniform edition of Dickens
was also being issued ; illustrated by C. Green, Luke Fildes, Marcus Stone,
J. Mahoney and F. Barnard.

    F. Sandys is, in imaginative power, the greatest of all these artists ;
in technique he is the legitimate successor of Durer, in popularity he is a
hopeless failure.  He has never illustrated a book : so far as I know, he
made but few drawings specially for books : these few are contained in
Willmot’s “Sacred Poetry,” 1863, “Life’s Journey.” the “Little Mourner.”
and Dalziel’s “Bible Gallery.”

            A GOLDEN DECADE IN ENGLISH ART      121

    In 1861, a number of his drawings were printed in Once a Week—
“Yet once more let the Organ play,” “Three Statues of Ægina,” and others.  In
every one is seen the hand of the man able to carry on the tradition of
Durer, and yet bring it into line with modern methods.  So far as I am

aware, Ruskin never mentions him ; how far this was owing to the famous
Sir Isumbras caricature, “The Nightmare,” I do not know.  All the spirit
of early German art breathes through his drawings.  But it is during the
next year, 1862, that Sandys, becoming accustomed to the wood-block, did

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some of his most powerful work—“The Old Chartist,” “Harold,” and
“King Warwulf,” in Once a Week.  In “The Old Chartist” there is the real
Durer feeling in the distant landscape, but the trees are better than Durer’s
trees, and the figure is one that Sandys has seen for himself.  But in all
his work there is this evidence of things seen and studied.  1862 was his
most productive year; in 1863 there are but four drawings; none in 1864; in
1865, a magnificent “Amor Mundi,” for Miss Rossetti’s poem, printed in the
April number of the Shilling Magazine.  After that there are only one or two,
and then he disappears.  There are many drawings by him on paper, but
it is safe to say no man who did so few drawings on wood ever made such
a reputation.  True, Whistler only did four in Once a Week (1861-2), among
them the charming design printed in this article, but he was known as an
etcher and painter at the time.  Whistler also contributed to a “Catalogue of
Blue and White,” published by Ellis Elvey, in 1878, illustrated by auto-
types, which will one day rank with Jacquemart’s books ; but this was only
issued in a very limited edition.

    After 1865, we find that the books contain better illustrations than the
magazines, attracting the better men by the greater care with which they
were printed and the larger size of the pages.  However, Du Maurier, Keene,
Lawless, Millais and Small still contributed regularly to the magazines.

    Expensive gift-books by Houghton, Pinwell, North and Walker were
then commenced, perfectly new drawings being used for their illustration.
In 1866, “A Round of Days” was issued by Routledge ; Walker, North,
Pinwell, and E. Dalziel come off best in this gorgeous morocco-covered
volume, especially Dalziel, who contributes a striking nocturne ; the beauty of
night, discovered by Whistler, being duly appreciated by these illustrators.
Houghton’s edition of “Don Quixote” is another of the books of 1866.

    In 1867, “Wayside Posies” and Jean Ingelow’s “Poems” were published
by Routledge and Longmans respectively.  These two books reach the high-
water mark of English illustration ; in them, North and Pinwell surpass
themselves—the one in landscape, the other in figure—and Edward Dalziel
is quite amazing in studies of mist and rain, which I imagine were, at the

            A GOLDEN DECADE IN ENGLISH ART      123

time, absolutely unnoticed by the critics.  The drawings of the school,
however, must have been popular, for Smith, Elder & Co. reprinted the
Walkers from the Cornhill in a “Gallery,” in 1864; Strahan, in 1866,
collected the Millais drawings in a portfolio; and in 1807, “Touches of
Nature,” also from the magazines, printed, it is said, from the original
blocks.  Possibly this was meant as an atonement for the shabby way in
which the artists had been treated in the magazines.

    In 1868, “The North Coast,” by Buchanan, was issued by Routledge ;
much good work by Houghton is hidden away in its pages.  The next year
the Graphic was started, and these books virtually ceased to appear.  There
were some spasmodic efforts to produce new ones, most notable of which
were Whymper’s magnificent “Scrambles amongst the Alps,” containing
J. Mahoney’s best drawings and Whymper’s best engravings, Tenniel’s
editions of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” Miss
Rossetti’s “Sing-Song,” illustrated by Arthur Hughes, 1872, and “His-
torical and Legendary Ballads” (Chatto & Windus), 1876, made up from
the early numbers of the magazines, and specially interesting because of
the rare drawings by Whistler and Sandys which are included.  It is
almost the only book in which one can find the work of these two men,
although their drawings were not done originally for it, as the editor would
like one to believe.

    The Graphic printed a Portfolio in 1877, made up from early numbers.
In 1878, “Nature Pictures,” drawn by J. H. Dell and engraved by Patterson,
was issued ; as an example of what facsimile wood-engraving is capable of, it
is amazing, the most elaborate penwork being wonderfully facsimiled in wood.

    Dalziels produced at least two books later on, magnificent India proofs
of “English Rustic Pictures,” printed from the original blocks by Pinwell
and Walker, done for the books I have mentioned (this volume is undated) ;
and the “Bible Gallery” (1881), the drawings for which had been made long
before and kept back till they could be photographed on wood.  Many of
these drawings, which a few years ago they vainly tried to sell, are now among
the treasures of South Kensington.  All the best-known artists contributed

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to the “Bible Gallery,” yet the result was not altogether a success.  The
most conspicuously good drawings are by Ford Madox Brown, Leighton,
Burne-Jones, Sandys, Poynter, Houghton and Dalziel.  It is the last great
English book illustrated by a band of artists and engravers working together.
Whether the results are satisfactory or not, the fact remains that the
engravers were most enthusiastic, and encouraged the artists as no one has
done since in the making of books ; and the artists were the most distinguished
draughtsmen who have ever appeared in England.  In the early numbers of
the Graphic there are also many marvellous designs by these men, and
by Green, Fildes, Linton, Macbeth and Herkomer.  In fact, in not a few
cases the most distinguished work of the present R.A.’s is to be found, in
black and white, in the Graphic.

    I am perfectly aware that this is by no means a complete list of the
books of what I have called the 1860 period.  It is but an attempt to
point out the great value and importance of the illustrations contained in
these books, many of which, so far as their pictures go, are as important as
those of the fifteenth century.  Yet no record of them has been made ; they
are almost unknown, save to artists.  Among artists, however, there is a
rapidly-growing admiration for English art of this period, and in ten years’
time these books will be rightly considered the treasure-houses of the golden
decade of English art.

                                                                                                Joseph Pennell.