Part 1

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BURLESQUES

BURLESQUES

BY

H. M. BATEMAN

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY A. E. JOHNSON

LONDON

DUCKWORTH & CO.

3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WM. BRENDON AND SON, LTD. PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Mr. H. M. Bateman possesses in remarkable degree that rare gift, a real power of comic draughtsmanship. He is capable not only of comic vision, but of comic expression. His "line" is an instinctive expression of the comic: it reveals an innate feeling for the essentially humorous. To put it briefly, if somewhat vaguely, he "draws funnily." He is the terse and witty pictorial _raconteur_--a shrewd observer who can sum up a character, or conjure up a scene, with a few strokes of such penetrating insight that they carry instant conviction.

Humour of the kind which the drawings in this volume embody is so spontaneous, and the expression of it so direct and incisive, that there is perhaps a tendency to overlook the intensity of the effort which produces the seemingly effortless result. Mr. Bateman's method is sometimes described as caricature, but that is to miss its true significance, though the term may seem, upon the surface, appropriate enough. Caricature is the art of inducing humour, by dint of satirical exaggeration, in a subject not necessarily humorous of itself. Mr. Bateman's more difficult function is to reveal humour, not to impose it.

There is no trace of the self-conscious humorist in these drawings. Facetiousness is a quality conspicuously and gratefully absent. The artist's only concern is to pluck the very heart out of his subject, and that his mind has a trend towards the humorous aspect of life is merely accidental. For it is the humour of life, not merely of men, that attracts him, and even when he deals with seemingly quite trivial subjects, there is nothing petty or trite about his comic treatment of them.

He generalises. His observations are of types, not of individuals, of situations rather than of scenes. He draws for us people whom we all know but none of us have actually seen, for when he portrays a type his sketch embodies all the salient characteristics that go to make that type. If he draws a plumber, for example, he shows us the Compleat Plumber--more like a plumber than any plumber ever was. And as with character, so with action--whatever Mr. Bateman elects to make his puppets do, they do it with an intensity and vigour beyond all practical possibility, but not (and this is the artist's secret) beyond the bounds of imagination and belief. When a man is seen running in a Bateman drawing he does not merely run--he _runs_; if he slumbers, one can veritably hear him snore! The intensity of the artist's imaginative effort visualises for us that which cannot humanly be, but would be if it could.

Pictorial exponents of the comic art are few, for of so-called "humorous drawings" not many are inspired by the true comic spirit. It is a fortunate opportunity, therefore, which the present volume provides of preserving in collected form so much that bears the evident stamp of the real thing.

A. E. J.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

PAGE

THEY CALL IT "FAME" 1

MAESTROS: THE IMPRESSIVE 3

MAESTROS: THE UNEMOTIONAL 5

MAESTROS: THE SENTIMENTAL 7

THE WINTER VEST 9

THE MAN WHO WON A MOTOR-CAR 11

THE ACCOMPANIST WHO DID HER BEST 13

THE POTTER-ABOUT-THE-HALL-ALL-DAY PERSON 15

THE GRUMBLE-AT-THE-FOOD-AND-EVERYTHING-ELSE PERSON 17

"I REMEMBER IN 1870----" 19

THE TEMPER 21

GENUINE ANTIQUES 23

SIGHTS UP IN TOWN 25

SIGHTS DOWN IN THE COUNTRY 27

LITTLE TICH 29

THE BLUE 31

PREPARATIONS FOR A GREAT OFFENSIVE 32, 33

GARÇON! 35

MAN AND WIFE 37

SPEECHMAKERS: THE FAITHFUL OLD DOG 39

SPEECHMAKERS: THE WORM 41

TWINS 43

PLATONIC 45

ALL THIS FOR 3D., 6D., AND 1/- 47

THE MISSED PUTT 49

THE MAN WHO ONLY WANTED TWO HALFPENNIES FOR A PENNY 51

PSYCHIC: GLOOM 53

LOST--A PEKINESE DOG 55

DANCERS AND DANCES: SPANISH 57

DANCERS AND DANCES: AMERICAN 59

DANCERS AND DANCES: ORIENTAL 61

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 63

MERELY A MATTER OF SECONDS 65

A HEART TO HEART TALK 67

HOW I WON THE MARATHON 69

99° IN THE SHADE 71

_The drawings contained in this book originally appeared, with some exceptions, in "The Sketch," "London Opinion," "The Graphic," "The Bystander," "Printer's Pie" and "Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News." The author is indebted to the proprietors of these journals for permission to issue them in this volume._

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Transcriber's Notes

Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.

Italic text is denoted by _underscore_ and bold text by =equal signs=.

The following numerous errors were left as is: endquote missing punctuation No punctuation at para end