BOOKS.
MRS. MUNDI AT HOME.*
A wEW picture-book by Walter Crane is always welcome. His name is a guarantee for good art and good humour, and the familiar bird-mark at the corner of his page may be regarded as a stamp of sterling metal, like the now historic insignia of Leech in his bottle, Thackeray's pair of spectacles, or the older but still living autograph of venerable George Cruikahank. Mr. Crane's square, coloured volumes have for years past been a source of admira- tion and delight no less to parents than to children. Prudent economists, warned by rapid wear and tear, buy them with can- vas-backed pages; but a more far-seeing providence suggests the laying-by of an extra copy of each, that we may have something to look and laugh at and enjoy in old age. For what, for example, can be more perennially grotesque and comic than the painted story of the celebrated family of little pigs, the first of whom went to market, -while the fifth cried " wee !" with its ingenious finale of the domestic circle seated expectant of roley-poley round a palmate sapper table, like four fingers and a thumb ! What can be more impossibly real and seamanlike than laconic Captain Duck, who said " Quack !" when his fairy ship set sail, with its active crew of white mice and its cargo of almonds and raisins ! But Mr. Crane is not a mere caricaturist. He is an admirable draughts- man, with a rare feeling of grace of line and sculpturesque dignity of form, which often combine with his keen sense of humour in giving a charm to his handiwork. In his framed drawings, in public exhibitions, he shows a taste for allegory and for the illustration of classic fable, but in them does small justice to the above qualities, perhaps from a deficient appreciation of certain natural effects, and possibly also from a narrowness of view as to the scope of pictorial art. But however that may be, he has in the work now before us hit upon a subject and a style of art which exactly suit his genius, enabling him to indulge in the most telling form his taste for allegory and his spirit of fun ; and at the same time, to give full play to his graceful fancy, and to his firm and facile pencil.
This is a series of twenty-four outline compositions, in a style -closely imitative of the decorative drawings on Etruscan vases. In the allegorical form of a perpetual Dance of Life, they bring before us the chief phenomena and the daily and yearly course of nature, together with the actual position of affairs on this sublunary sphere. To Mr. Crane's sportive fancy, the "Terres- trial Ball," rolling through recurrent seasons, suggests an uni- versal dancing-party, first invited by Mrs. Mundi, and then kept -up in a continual whirl of dissipation, the same guests coming and going in alternate succession to the end of time. Within this general scheme, and upon this arena, he frames a mythology of his own, availing himself freely of classic conceptions when they suit his purpose, clothing ancient forms in modern guise, depicting the permanent under present phases, and garnishing the whole with quaint pleasantries that belong to no particular age. Mrs. Mundi's invitation embraces the entire universe, her assembly personifies all that is most conspicuous in matter and in space, and in the action of the drama are typified the various influences of the forces of nature, the political condition of man, and the course of time. Chronos himself, in footman's livery, and with his fore- lock powdered, ushers in the guests. Day and Night are the police at the door, and the winds and waves provide the music. Lord Sol, a full-blown " buck " of the first water, drives up his team of prancing horses, twenty-four in hand, melts Miss Snow with the touch of his arm, and as he opens the ball, with gentle Spring as his first partner, looks as gay and gallant a_masquer as bluff Harry himself. Summer, of course, receives his most marked attention, but he sets to Autumn, who at supper " keeps helping herself to the fruit," where old Mr. Winter in his turn gives the cold shoulder to timid Miss Spring. At the end of the feast, the jolly lord is found to have subsided under the supper-table horizon,—" Not his fault," as he said, " for the world bad turned round." But in the next scene he is up again, with a misty look about the eyes, and making his morning call ; while Aurora, fresh and bonny, trips it merrily, and Lord and Lady Somnium take their depar- ture. We are introduced to the four elements. Wild-fire comes flaming on his engine, drawn by fiery steeds, and sits at supper as the central heat, ruling the roast ; the Queen of the Mr stirs- light breezes with her fan between two suffocating Mundiatiforne. Lines and Outlines by Walter Crane. London: Marotta Ward and Co. figures of Sirocco and Simoom ; while Water's spangled train is held fast by the icy spur of Winter ; and Grandmother Earth groans under the weight of armfuls and cornucopias of babies. Rain, Dew, Snow, and Hail, arriving in chariots of cloud, have a picture to themselves, and the more conspicuous heavenly bodies have their fitting personifications. Luna comes in her crescent carriage, driven by an owl and drawn by bats. In dealing with the planets, the artist cleverly adapts to modern character and costume the several types laid down for him in the Greek mythology, and makes this union a vehicle for some telling hits. Venus, in the fashion of the day, reclines on the arm of General Mars, who enters the room with a military nonchalance which is truly British, and a dress agreeably com- pounded of classic armour and the uniform of the Queen's Regula- tions. Jupiter, as the Thunderer, typifies the Times, with a pen for his bolt, champion belts of money articles and latest telegrams bound round his middle, and a plentiful fringe of advertisements to his tunic. A double eye-glass on his nose makes a great show of speculation, but the eyes behind it are closed as if in sleep ; and for the bird of Jove we have a truculent-looking goose, with the all-important scissors by his side, doubtless intended for the sub- editorial philosopher who devotes his intellect to the summation of old people's ages. Mercury follows as a young athlete, with a pair of prize sculls on his caduceus, and Bell's Life in the pocket of his Ulster coat, which, standing open, is, with a quaint conceit, graduated down the two fronts like a mercurial thermometer. Urania introduces our leading poets, and old Saturn, with his ring on his head, busies himself with the Saturday Review. Captain Boyton, as a triton, precedes old Admiral Neptune, while Captain Nares follows in the rear as custodian of the Pole Star. In the Signs of the Zodiac, which form a border to this print, we have Messrs. Moody and Sankey as the Twins ; and by way of Lion, Dr. Kenealy, armed with his fat umbrella, shakes the dew-drops from his mane. Sundry of the leading constellations are punned upon in the next print ; and then the artist, still combining grace with humour, shows us the four quarters of the globe, and baby Australia, in the arms of a kangaroo nurse, with a toy spade in his girdle, picking gold plums from his nugget-cake ; and then the nations of Europe, as half-a-dozen fair ladies, of characteristic form and feature, who fall to pulling crackers at supper, while two effervescing champagne-bottles, labelled " Turkey " and "Bosnia," are seen in collision on the table, the contents of the latter flying up to the ceiling, while that of the former oozes away through the cork. Germany, a fine young woman of the most powerful build, leads forward the bending figure of Italy, while Russia appears in travelling costume, with a guide to India in ber hand. Fair England's rather meek- looking- lion is contrasted with a more rampant lion of France, M. Leon Gambetta ; while two vulture-headed matadors, Alphonso and Carlos, contend for the hand of disconsolate Spain.
It will have been seen that the circle in which Mrs. Munch moves is decidedly aristocratic. In one instance, indeed, she did venture to send an invitation into a sphere of society somewhat lower than that of the lords of creation, but it had to be de- clined.
" When the monkeys were asked, 'twat; wisely objected,
Decent men from their stock long ago were selected."
It is true that the lower animals are in some measure represented in the persons of the great and little Bear, but these are only admitted as heavenly bodies, and even in that capacity they seem a little out of place, for although it is to be presumed they could dance, we are tersely told that " Ursa, the Major, behaved like a brute," and sure enough, there he is, growling over the supper- table for buns. We venture to suggest, however, to Mrs. Mundi, who is certainly a woman of the world, that in so cosmopolitan a gathering, some further provision ought to be made for the rest of the animal kingdom. Mr. Crane himself merely stands in the corner. Let us hope that he will induce her to give a party to the birds, beasts, and fishes, if it be only in the servants' hall. We can assure her that she would find our artist a most accom- plished master of the ceremonies. He has already marshalled the birds and beasts of Noah's Ark in alphabetical order, and by one who so well appreciates the capabilities of nursery literature, the "Butterfly's Ball and Grasshopper's Feast" cannot long be allowed to remain a dead-letter.
The pictures now before us are accompanied by a rhymed description, which more abounds in wit than poesy. For Mr. Crane's verses are apt to halt, he has sometimes to beat about for a rhyme, and shows but small appreciation of rhythm. We can- not help thinking how elegant and sparkling the literary part of such an undertaking would have become in the hands of a writer like
Planche. Moreover, if thevolume should have to be rebound, we sug- gest that the pictures should be placed together at the beginning or end, instead of being interpolated at random among the verses, so as to break the continuity without being at all adjusted to the parts of the text they illustrate.
A mere verbal description can, however, convey no idea of the masterly way in which the things we have mentioned, and many others, are expressed in the drawings by the fewest possible lines, the graceful ease of the figures and flow of the drapery, and the skilful balance and unity of nearly all the groups. The least suc- cessful, as a whole, is that in which Lord Sol is represented driving his drag. The perspective view of the twelve pair of horses is, indeed, admirably drawn ; but to enable the coach and driver to be seen at all, it was necessary to make them pre- posterously big, and to do this the wheelers, which, in propor- tion, are of the size of dogs, have had to be attached to the corner of the vehicle, which not only is, but looks, absurd. One of the best groups is that of the musicians, where the blast of a French horn, which is wound round the burly figure of Boreas, not only carries off little quavering locks of hair from the heads of Terpsichore and Polyhymnia, who are seated at the piano, as well as of Zephyr, who stands by with his flute, but seems to bend the performers forward over the instrument, and even to affect the curved legs of the furniture. Another curious fancy, reminding us in the general appearance of some of the strange designs of William Blake, takes a geographical form, where an island in a raging sea is made to represent a savage case of wife-beating. Flanking this scene are two noble female figures of the North and South Poles, reposing during a game of croquet. Altogether, we cannot but regard these lithographs as the highest production yet achieved by Mr. Crane's pencil, and we look at them again and again with increasing delight.
Previous page
