Cruikshank's relations with Ainsworth continued in "Ainsworth's
Magazine," of which the first number bears the date February 1842. Among
the stories in this magazine which Cruikshank illustrated must now be
mentioned "The Miser's Daughter" (1842), "Windsor Castle" (1842-3) and
"St James's: or the Court of Queen Anne" (1844). The first of these
stories is only incidentally historical, but it afforded Cruikshank an
opportunity for quickening his hand with the spirit of place. He has
told us that his drawing of Westminster Abbey Cloisters and Lambeth
Church, etc., are "correct copies from nature" [sic], and it almost
seems as we look at his etchings and water-colours for "The Miser's
Daughter" that he copied not only stones but living scenes. His ball in
the Rotunda at Ranelagh has the charm of lavish light and dainty
gaiety; the humour and grace of his _Masquerade in Ranelagh Gardens_ are
too obvious for discovery, and his rendering of the pursuit of a
Jacobite Club on the roofs of houses within view of Westminster Abbey is
a striking nocturne.
In Cruikshank's designs for "Windsor Castle," Mr Julian Moore finds "the
minimum of charm and freshness in the drawing, and maximum of
achievement in technique." I am in disagreement with this verdict, but
it is not unintelligent. Cruikshank's "machine-ruling" is tyrannous to
his Ainsworthian work, and an artist serving the historic muse when she
is very much in earnest can only pray to be academic when he is not
inspired. But Cruikshank did admirable work for "Windsor Castle," and
could hardly help wishing to outshine Tony Johannot, who was also
employed in illustrating that romance. Since "the great George" is not
present to assail me in a vehement script, I may say that I discern an
influence of Johannot upon Cruikshank's design (spirited but not
insufferably vigorous) entitled _The Quarrel between Will Sommers and
Patch_, for there was something called artistic restraint to be learned
from the French illustrator of Cervantes, and this quality is in the
etching I have mentioned, and not negatively there but as a positive
gift of touch. Of Cruikshank's Henry the Eighth, it need only be said
that he is bluff King Hal; his Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are mere
females: his Herne is as impressive as a person can be who jeopardises
the dignity of demonhood by wearing horns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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