English Illustration 'The Sixties': 1855-70: With Numerous Illustrations by Ford Madox Brown: A. Boyd Houghton: Arthur Hughes: Charles Keene: M. J. Lawless: Lord Leighton, P.R.A.: Sir J. E. Millais, P.R.A.: G. Du Maurier: J. W. North, R.A.: G. J. Pinwell: Dante Gabriel Rossetti: W. Small: Frederick Sandys: J. Mcneill Whistler: Frederick Walker, A.R.A.: and Others
Dante Alighieri · en
In Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_ (Routledge), with a hundred and ten
designs by J. D. Watson, engraved by the Dalziels, we are confronted
with a book that is distinctly of the 'sixties,' or perhaps it would be
more accurate to say that most of its illustrations are distinguished
by the broader treatment of the new school. It is strange that
the ample and admirable achievements of this artist have not received
more general recognition. When you meet with one of his designs set
amid the work of the greatest illustrators, it rarely fails to maintain
a dignified equality. If it lack the supreme artistry of one or the
fine invention of another, it is always sober and at times masterly,
in a restrained matter-of-fact way. Some sketches reproduced in the
_British Architect_ (January 22, 1878) display more freedom than his
finished works suggest.
_Quarles' Emblems_ (Nisbet), illustrated by C. H. Bennett, a
caricaturist whose style seems to have lost touch with modern taste,
with decorative adornments by W. H. Rogers, must not be overlooked;
nor Tennyson's _May Queen_ (Sampson Low), with designs by E. V. B.,
a gifted amateur, whose work in this book, in _Child's Play_, and
elsewhere, has a distinct charm, despite many technical shortcomings.
_Lyra Germanica_ (Longmans, 1861), an anthology of hymns translated
from the German by Catherine Winkworth, produced under the
superintendence of John Leighton, F.S.A., must not be confused with
a second series, with the same title, the same anthologist and art
editor, issued in 1868. This book contains much decorative work by John
Leighton, who has scarcely received the recognition he deserves as a
pioneer of better things. At a time when lawless naturalistic detail
was supreme everywhere he strove to popularise conventional methods,
and deserves full appreciation for his energetic and successful
labours. The illustrations include one fine Charles Keene (p. 182),
three by M. J. Lawless (pp. 47, 90, 190), four by H. S. Marks (pp. 1,
19, 57, 100), and five by E. Armitage (pp. 29, 62, 111, 160, 197).
The engraving by T. Bolton, after a Flaxman bas-relief, is apparently
the same block Bohn includes in his supplementary chapter to the
1861 edition of Chatto and Jackson's _History of Wood-Engraving_, as
a specimen of the first experiment in Mr. Bolton's 'new process for
photographing on the wood.' As this change was literally epoch-making,
this really beautiful block, with its companion p. 111, is of historic
interest.