GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.*
IT is not often that an artist lives to see the fruits of his labour- garnered in such sumptuous volumes as these, and their production is a good proof of the deep-rooted popularity of George Cruik- shank. He has become, indeed, a national institution ; these grotesques of his are a part of our English life almost as much as the rough characteristic tales they illustrate. , It is- scarcely too much to say that the peculiar humour of our people has nowhere found so complete and satisfactory an exposition in art as in the works before us.
The first of the three volumes under review contains Ur. Reid'e, brief introduction, a judicious essay of laudation by Mr. Bull, and a very complete and interesting catalogue of the artist's produc- tions; the other two comprise a copious selection from the etchings. and woodcuts, arranged in chronological order,—a method obviously of great value in ascertaining the progress in skilful treatment, the influences received from other workers, and the. various divergences made by Cruikshank in his long and laborious life. 'What strikes us forcibly is, how strangely few these marks. of development are, how distinctly and quickly he determined what his manner should be, and how little he has wavered while. schools of art have risen and decayed around him.
Mr. Bell dwells very lightly on the charges which are brought against the subject of his memoir of vulgarity in feeling, of lack of perception for the beautiful, and of too great a passion for directly didactic morality. That Cruikshank's mind has not those faculties which make a man a great painter, that he is lacking in imagination and sobriety, it would be hard to deny, and where these qualities are wanting in an English- man of genius there is always a fibre of coarseness in all the work he does. Mr. Reid has given us none of those political caricatures by which the artist first became famous, and we are grateful for the omission. In leaving political satire, Cruikshank threw off much that was offensive in manner and motive, and created a good taste in a department of art where for a long time it had by tacit consent ceased to exist. Any one looking over a portfolio of the almost bestial caricatures of the last- century, must perceive how great a stride in the direction of fine feeling was made by Cruikshank and Leech. When the artist is ma-. peached for disregard of beauty, it is not so easy to defend him. His faces are seldom other than repulsive ; if they are suffered to, be placid, they become inane. There is a type running through these volumes that seems to be Cruikshank's ideal of masculine beauty ; it has an enormous head, prominent nose, and long wavy hair, but it never succeeds in being fascinating. In spite of his life-long practice in drawing the human form, his successes in beautiful landscape are more eminent than those in lovely faces. The sunrise over the sea in No. 1,105, and the range of moorland hills in No. 1,701, are notable instances of this. But after all, one feels this artist's function is to rouse ineffable laughter in us, to till our memories with undying portraits of whatever is grotesque and droll, and not to provide Us with what is lovely. What loveliness there is must be sought for in the almost faultless workmanship.. There does not, however, seem to be any abstract reason why so. much ill-drawing should be necessary to the evolution of mirth. Of feeble or uncertain drawing there is none to be found in any of the master's work, but there is much that is monstrous and ill- proportioned, and that suggests an imperfect acquaintance with anatomy. What a curiosity, for instance, the skeleton of the prostrate boy in No. 1,852 would be, and how one wonders that Lady Bellaston's few inches of waist in No. 1,561 do not render impossible the existence of her lungs! Very often he exaggerates a peculi- arity in order to make more incisive the humour and satire of the piece, and with great and justifiable effect, as when he gives the dwarf a monstrous head in No. 1,710, and elongates the bear's nose.
* A Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of George Cruitshank; Etchings, Woodcuts, ex., with a List of the Books Illustrated by him. By G. W. Reid, Keeper of the Prints and. Drawings in the British Museum. With an Essay on his Genius by Edward Belk. M.A., and 513 illustrations. London; Bell and Daddy.
in No. 1,323. But this does not quite explain the ungainliness of many of those figures, even, that are supposed to be treated with dignity. Mr. Reid prints an interesting letter from Cruikshank himself which throws some light on this subject. He says :—" My father, who was a very clever miniature-painter, used to assist me in putting in hands and faces." Undoubtedly the deli- cute lines of the human body have always been a difficulty to the wayward humorist, whose fancy for ever drew out the lip, and pursed up the chin, endplayed the maddest pranks with nose and ears.
The irresistible desire for laughter, the tendency to find oddity in the dullest places of modern life approximate the genius of Cruikshank to that of Dickens ; but the groat novelist had tenderer chords in his nature than the artist, and painted what was lovely and of good report with higher skill. On the other hand, Dickens never rose to the height of Cruikshank's satire in its fiercer and more withering aspects. When the scorn of what is foul and paltry is sufficiently roused in the latter, it knows no check or respite till the miserable subject of it is utterly undone, and a mark of derision to the world. It is hard to believe that the Prinbe Regent did not writhe under the lash of that periodical caricature which enchanted all the disaffected from the windows of Sweeting's Alley. From that time to this nothing evil or base has ever been minced at by these powerful etchings of Cruikshank, and the demon of Drink is to this day attacked with all the violence spent half-a-century ago in exposing the First Gentleman of Europe.
There appears from the letter we have just quoted to be a good deal of confusion in the public mind as to the identity of George Cruikshank. The family has produced many designers,—first of all, the father of our master, Isaac Cruikshank, an excellent water- colour draughtsman of his time, now only remembered in connec- tion with his eminent son. The brother of the latter, too, Isaac, Robert, is described as having been a clever portrait-painter, and afterwards etcher. This brother was the father of Percy Cruik- shank, a wood engraver, who is himself the father of another George, to be henceforth known as George Calvert Cruikshank, an imitator of the works of his illustrious grand-uncle. Mr. Reid must have had no small difficulty in steering clear of all these perplexing relations, and the artist himself, from the tone of his letter, would seem to be hanvered by their existence in making up a truly accurate list of his works. In the course of eighty years, it must be hard indeed to recognize with certainty every drawing And woodcut to which one's hand has been laid. The insertion of this letter of the artist's lends Mr. Reid an opportunity of telling a good story. It seems that Nagler, the author of the Kiinsaer- 1exicon, studying the controversy about these very relatives, read that " George Cruikshauk was the true Simon Pure." With the utmost gravity, therefore, he catalogued him as Pure (Simon) nailing himself George Cruikshank It is sonniwhat staitling to find that the artist began to work for the publishers as far back as 1803, and has therefore been nearly seventy years before the public. In so long a life it would not be wonderful if the faculties had before now decayed, or if the master had long ago retired upon his laurels. But the untiring industry that characterized Cruikshank as a boy has gone through his life with him, and the pencil has not yet dropped from the in- vincible fingers. The catalogue describes the unequalled number .of 5,205 designs finished by this one man, and few of these are hasty or imperfect, none of them weak or uuoriginal. His fecundity of invention is very remarkable, the ever-recurring yet ,ever-varied phantasmagoria of common-place life is transferred to paper in his endless series of grotesques, and we see plainly enough how little he has been indebted for his effects to any fellow-artists, how directly he has drawn from the life as it was seen by him in Alleys and bye-lanes.
The Catalogue has been drawn up with infinite care and patience, And does great honour to Mr. lteid's judgment. It is curious to notice what peer subjects the artist was glad to exercise his talents on at the beginning of his career. We find broadsides with portraits of notorious criminals, pocket-valentines for servant- girls, and prints of champion pugilists, and even more questionable (notabilities. Later on Gil Bias and the Novelists' Library supplied him with infinitely finer subject-matter, and we find him culmi- nating in the Waverley Novels and Dickens' works. Among his latest labours as an illustrator are Frank Fairlegh and the stories of Mrs. Gore. The frontispiece of the whole work, "Fairy Con- noisseurs inspecting Mr. Frederick Locker's Collection of Draw- ings," is very charming, and being designed as lately as 1868, is a fresh proof of the wonderful vitality of the =tiring hand.
For the outward aspect and preparation of these handsome quartos we have nothing but praise. They form a noble monument to the genius of the veteran master of grotesque.
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