THE " GRAPHIC " PORTFOLIO.*
Tins volume comprises a selection of the most attractive pictures which have appeared in the Graphic during the last two or three years, each picture having a short explanatory note attached. It is, in one way, an exceptionally interesting volume, for it shows (to quote the preface) " with what conscientious care the artist and engraver do their work." For once the promise of a preface is kept to the letter. The volume does show this conscientious care, and perhaps, taking it altogether, is the most satisfactory art-work that has been produced of late years. We might fairly challenge any illustrated newspaper in the world to show as fine a series of drawings as are to be found here, and the quality of the wood engravings leaves little to be desired. Far superior as the French wood engraving is in some respects, notably in the reproduction of sketchy outline, there is no comparison in exe- cution between any French serial and the work before us. All that technical skill can do, the wood engravers of the Graphic have accomplished, and it is only a fair recognition of their work to publish this volume, showing how fine their execution is, when it receives due care in the printing.
Before noticing any of the contents of this book, we must say a few words upon the new style of wood engraving which has sprung up of late years, and which is chiefly familiar to the pub-
• Ms " Graptdc" Portfolio. Published at the "Graphic" Office.
lie in the pages of the Graphic. It will be noticed, in comparing many of the illustrations here with those of the Illustrated London News, that there is a light, somewhat fantastic effect in the former, and that when the picture is examined, this is found to be owing to large masses of white presenting a somewhat flaky look, and doing away with much of the old liney appearance which used to be characteristic of this style of engraving. The picture loses somewhat in sharpness of outline, but gains decidedly in tone, and resembles a painting more and a drawing less. This is owing to. the substitution, in a great measure, of the brush for the pencil. Formerly, a drawing on the block meant what it said, but now a drawing on the block is as frequently, perhaps more frequently, done with the brush as with the pencil, and the lights, instead of being left as bare wood, as in former times, are put in with Chinese- white. Any one anxious to see this work in progress may often see artists finishing their blocks in the Dudley Gallery, by going in the early morning, before the fashionable world is astir ; and the curious person will then see that the colour used in the drawing is a bluish-gray, and that there is nothing like black in the picture. The translation of this light-and-shale picture on the box-wood into line is the work of the engraver, who may or may not be the artist, but who generally at present is another person.
This new method of work has its advantages and disadvantages, and it is hard to say which predominate. On the one hand, it gains, no doubt, in softness, and takes away much of the hard, scratchy appearance which wood engravings used to show so much ; it gains in reproducing more effectively than any line drawing with the lights left the actual masses of light and shade in the original picture, and it also renders the gradation of the whole much easier ; but on the other hand, it requires to be used with great caution, or it runs into most terrific extremes. It is excessively likely to exaggerate the light and shade of a composition, and above all, it is seldom so accurate as a good line drawing. But perhaps the greatest drawback of all is a sort of hazy unreality which this style of work produces ; any one who has noticed the original finished drawings for the Graphic that. have been exhibited of late years in the Black and White Exhibi- tions at the Egyptian Hall, must have seen the peculiarly sickly hue which some of the drawings manifested. This is often main- tained, though never quite to the same degree, in the wood engraving. As examples of this, Nos. 5 and 10 in the present. volume may be noticed. The first represents an artist's dream in Pompeii, and is by Sydney Hall ; the second is " Salmon Fish- ing in Lough Corrib," by W. Small. In both of these a close glance at the print will show where the large masses of white have been laid on the wood previous to the engraving. We chanced to see the latter of these drawings at the Black and White Ex- hibition last year, and noticed then the unreal appearance of the light and shade. It seemed as though the picture had been painted by lime-light.
We have dwelt thus at length on this somewhat technical subject, because it is one of the great features of English wood engraving at the present day, and is, as far as we know, quite peculiar to England, no French or German engraving that we have seen being done in a like manner.
There are many pictures here well worth preserving, and the book must be an attractive one in almost any society. The collection has apparently been made to suit all tastes, and not solely on account of the artisic merit of the pictures, which would certainly have caused a few eliminations and additions. We shall give no description of the better-known pictures, as they will in all proba- bility be familiar to the generality of our readers, but will men- tion two or three works remarkable for their artistic merit. First among these, as a specimen of reproductive art, stands undoubtedly the portrait of the late Lord Lytton. It.is. impossible, in our opinion, to have a finer woodcut of a chalk drawing than this. The very rough marks of the crayon are pro- duced with absolute fidelity, and the work on the face and hair has all the softness and almost all the depth of the original chalk drawing. Apart from this excellence as a woodcut, it is a fine drawing carried just far enough, and bears evident traces upon it of being a good likeness. This is by D. Langee, who drew it from life in 1872, the year before Lord Lytton died, and is, in our opinion, the finest original portrait ever published in an illustrated newspaper.
As an example of fine work of another kind, we must notice No. 19, " The Dhul Canal, Cashmere : the Maharajah's State Barge." This is a reproduction of a Cashmere photograph (probably one of Messrs. Bourne and Shepherd's), and is especially noticeable for the manner in which the light and sharpness of the original have been preserved. The tree in the foreground overhanging the water is a masterpiece of delicate work, and the foliage throughout the picture is minute, and in spite of its density not in the least heavy. The state barge is hardly a conveyance which we at home should dignify by that name, as it consists of little more than two parallel planks, with some boards nailed across them, and in the middle a small arched awning, under which the Maharajah sits.
Children play a large part in these illustrations, and perhaps the best of their delineations are those by Du Manrier, who is doubt- less familiar to our readers from his drawings in Punch. His intense system of light and shade is well known, and is probably due chiefly to his always having worked in pen-and-ink, over which material he has gained a complete mastery. Nearly everything which Jacquemart can do with the etching-needle in the imitation of texture Du Marnier can do with the pen, though people seeing his work in Punch week after week are too apt to take his marvel- lous skill as a matter of course. In the second of his illustrations given here this manipulation is very noticeable. The picture is called the "Rival Grandpas and Grandmas," and shows them competing for the notice of an extremely small child, who stands in their midst, somewhat puzzled, but imperturbable and perfectly master of the situation. In the background sits mamma, graceful and flattered at the notice the little one excites; and papa, with a pipe in his mouth, looks out into the garden where the small domestic drama is taking place. This picture would be a sufficient answer to those over-particular people who assert that Du Meunier is wanting in humour, but we do not notice it on that account. It is as a piece of fine and yet bold work in pen-and-ink that it is most remarkable ; and as we said above, especially masterly in giving the texture of the substances. The stiffly-starched white frock of the child, the silk dresses and lace of the grandmammas, the leather slippers and cloth coats of the grandpapas, the stone and ivy of the house, and the cane of the easy garden-chair, all of these are alike unmistakable, and the bald head of one of the rivals shines with that obtrusiveness which very bald heads show in nature.
Some of the most interesting drawings here are from the pen of Mr. Boyd Houghton, whose early death deprived the Graphic of one of its most original contributors. A member of the same school as Walker and Pinwell, he was more decidedly extravagant and fanciful in his designs than either of them, leaning, too, more to the grotesque or grotesquely horrible view of a subject than was their wont. Many of our readers will doubtless be familiar with his illustrations to the Arabian Nights, which were among the best of his works. His works here, two in number, are illus- trations of a tour he made in America. The best of these is No. 23, " A Barber's Saloon in New York." Though faithful to all the details of the scene, such as the extremely high chairs and footstools in which the person to be shaved reclines, he has im- ported a fantastic, almost weird air into the drawing, which ren- ders it unnatural, in spite of its ability. We have only space to notice one other of these engravings, No. 32, "The Agricultural Labourer," by Hubert Herkomer, a fine study of a thoughtful working-man reading the Bible, very much in the manner of Hunt.
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