CHAPTER VIII.

LETTERS, DIAGRAMS, ETC.

In a letter to a friend in Manchester, on the 17th January, 1875, Caldecott writes:--

"I stick pretty close to business, pretty much in that admirable and attentive manner which was the delight, the pride, the exultation of the great chiefs who strode it through the Manchester banking halls. Yes, I have not forsaken those gay--though perhaps, to the heart yearning to be fetterless, irksome--scenes without finding that the world ever requires toil from those sons of labour who would be successful.

"However, during the last year I managed to do a lot of work away from town, and enjoyed it. Sometimes it was expensive, because when at the cottage in Bucks, we of course mixed with the county families and had to 'keep a carriage' to return calls, return from dinner, and so forth."

Here is "a meditation for the New Year"--

"You will excuse me," he says, "talking of myself when I tell you that amongst the resolutions for the New Year was one only to talk of matters about which there was a reasonable probability that I knew something. Now human beings are a mystery to me, and taking them all round I think we may consider them a failure. If I do not understand anything that belongs to myself, how can I understand what belongeth to another? This, my dear W., with your clear intellect, you will see is sound.

"I often think of the scenes and faces and jokes of banking days, and have amongst them many pleasant reminiscences. Perhaps we shall all meet again in that land which lies round the corner!"

[Here follows a grotesque sketch of a man on a winter's day, with an umbrella, hurrying off to the "Nag and Nosebag."]

At the beginning of 1875, in the intervals of book illustration, Caldecott was busy "working on a cartoon of storks." This was a design for a picture in oils, painted in March and afterwards bought by Mr. F. Pennington, late M. P. for Stockport.

On the 7th of January he enters in his diary, "Painted some storks on the wing for a panel for a wardrobe." The rendering of dawn on the upmost clouds, the storks rising from the dark earth to greet the sun, can hardly be indicated without colour, but the design is given accurately. It was a poetic fancy which he had had in his mind for some time; one of many half developed designs which, if his health had permitted, the world might have seen more of.

On the 25th of January he "made a dry point sketch of a Quimperlé Brittany woman," and in February he was busy modelling as usual.

On the 5th of February, "took to Lucchesi (moulder) wax bas-relief of horse fair, and small 'sketch of brewers' waggon."

The advance of the art of reproducing drawings in facsimile in a cheap form, suitable for printing at the type press like wood engravings, was attracting much attention in England in 1875, and at the writer's request Caldecott made a series of diagrams suggestive of the power of line and of effects to be obtained by simple methods, to illustrate a paper read before the Society of Arts in London in March, 1875, on "The Art of Illustration."

With his usual kindness and enthusiasm he put aside his work--some modelling in clay which he had been studying under his friend M. Dalou, the French sculptor--and at once began a diagram, about seven feet by five feet, to suggest a picture in the simplest way. Without much consideration, without models, and in the limited area of his little studio in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, he set to work with a brush on the broad white sheet, and in about an hour produced the drawing in line of "Youth and Age" on the last page.

The horses were not quite satisfactory to himself; but the sentiment of the picture, the open air effect of early spring, the crisp grass, the birds' nests forming in the almost leafless trees, the effect of distance indicated in a few lines--and above all, the feeling of sky produced by the _untouched_ background--were skilfully suggested in the large diagram.

On other occasions, and for the same lecture, he made several other diagrams, including one of the pursuit of a dog in a village, another of a lecturer and various heads in an audience. The reproductions are interesting to examine together as early work in a style in which he afterwards was famous--a style, which was _not outline_ in the strict sense of the word, and which to a great extent was his own. It had little in common with Flaxman, it was not in the manner of Gillray, Cruikshank, Doyle, or Leech; nor in the more academic manner of his friend--and predecessor in children's books--Walter Crane.

To these somewhat tentative drawings he afterwards added to the series a diagram, six feet high, of the famous mad dog from one of his Picture Books, and another of the figure of a child running, reproduced above.

The discovery of a process by which a drawing on paper in line, could be photographed and brought into relief, like a wood-block for printing at the type press, was not perfected in England until 1875, and did not come into general use until 1876; had it come a year or two earlier it would have had an important influence upon Caldecott's work.

Without going too far into technicalities, it may be interesting to illustrators to mention here that all Caldecott's best drawings in his Picture Books, _John Gilpin_, _The House that Jack Built_, &c.; in the _Graphic_ newspaper, and in Washington Irving's _Old Christmas_, &c., were photographed on to wood-blocks and have passed through the hands of the engraver.

The system of photographic engraving (by which the drawings are reproduced on pp. 124 and 125) bids fair to supersede wood-engraving for rapid journalistic purposes. It naturally attracted Caldecott in the first instance; but with increased knowledge and perception of "values," and of the quality to be obtained in a good wood-engraving above any mechanical reproduction in relief, Caldecott was glad to avail himself of the help of the engraver. He drew with greater freedom, as he expressed it, preferring, as so many illustrators do, to put in tints with a brush, to be rendered in line by skilful engravers. But at the same time he delighted in shewing the _power of line_ in drawing, studying "the art of leaving out as a science"; doing nothing hastily but thinking long and seriously before putting pen to paper, remembering, as he always said, "the fewer the lines, the less error committed."

In the spring of 1875 he sends this lively picture of himself from Dodington, near Whitchurch, in Shropshire, where he had been working, staying with friends, in the full enjoyment of country life.

Writing on the 27th of April, 1875, he says:--

"I feel I owe somebody an apology for staying in the country so long, but don't quite see to whom it is due, so I shall stay two or three days longer, and then I shall indeed hang my harp on a willow tree. It is difficult to screw up the proper amount of courage for leaving the lambkins, the piglets, the foals, the goslings, the calves, and the puppies. We want rain, and then things will grow with exceeding speed; as it is, the earth is dry and the buds are slow to display their hidden beauties. A little of 'something to drink' will cheer them, and then, like some human beings, they will look pleasant and cheerful and 'come out.'"

Next, from a letter to an intimate friend, dated 5th March, 1875, on being asked to become a trustee:--

"The event is of a pleasing nature because it shows that somebody still believes in the continuance of that uprightness of principle, rectitude of conduct, and general respectability of mind and heart which for so many years endeared me to the nobility, clergy, gentry, gasmen, and fowl stealers of W----."

Life in the country with Caldecott was "worth living," and he chafed much at this period if he had to be with his "nose to the grindstone," as he expressed it, in Bloomsbury. Whilst in the country his letters to town were full of sketches, but in letters from London he hardly ever pictured life out of doors.

In June 1875, he shows the bas-relief of "A Boar Hunt," and some small groups in terra cotta, to his friends.[8]

Before the favourable verdict of the press was pronounced on _Old Christmas_, Caldecott was commissioned to illustrate a second volume; and, in May 1875, he was already at work making studies and drawings for _Bracebridge Hall_, which did not appear until the end of 1876.

About this time the first number of _Academy Notes_ was published, and in a postscript to a letter to the writer (of too private a nature to be printed) Caldecott pictures its "first appearance in a family circle."

In June 1875, Caldecott had "three drawings in sepia, badly hung, in the 'black and white' exhibition at the Dudley Gallery."

On the 4th of August he was "making designs for pelican picture;" and afterwards studying this subject at the Zoological Gardens. Two pictures of pelicans were eventually painted; the second, in the possession of Mr. W. Phipson Beale, is sketched below.

Writing on the 10th August, 1875, respecting some Cretan embroideries just arrived in England, he sends the sketch overleaf.

"In accordance with your letter about the embroideries," he says, "I have placed the address of the importer in the hands of Mr. N., a man well-skilled in detecting that which is good in a crowd of works of art. He is great in pottery, embroidery and decoration; but he has a mind great in forgetting, and a fine talent for losing addresses."

In October, whilst at the seaside, he "made six drawings;" and, later in the year, was "modelling panels for Lord Monteagle's chimney-piece."

In November 1875 he received the first copy of _Old Christmas_ from the publishers, and already favourable notices of the illustrations had begun to appear in the newspapers.