PROGRESS OF WOOD - CUT ILLUSTRATIONS.
SINCE the Penny Magazine set the fashion of cheap publications in which pictorial illustrations form a prominent feature, the introduction of wood-cuts into periodicals at_i works issued in series has become the rule rather than the exception : itostrations are now regarded as neces- sary to a book, either for explanatioL or embellishment ; and our popu- lar literature is now pictorial as well as periodical. The Illustrated News has its staff of graphic reporters ; the jests and whimsies of Punch are pointed with comical cuts and pencilled puns ; and Chartist penny papers ridicule the powers that be, in caricatures by some homely HB or St. Giles's Giusney ; while on the other band the leading biblio- poles embark thousands of pounds in costly reprints, such as LOCK- HART'S Spanish Ballads and THOMSON'S Seasons, their chief attractions consisting in the designs engraved on wood : LANE'S Arabian Nights and the Pictorial Shakspere, History of England, Bible, and Prayer Book, attest the universality of the practice. Not only English but fo- reign artists minister to the popular liking for pictured book.; and French works are translated and histories written for the purpose of reprinting the French designs in England. Every incentive that can be afforded by the competition of rival artists and publishers stimulates to improvement in the art of book-illustration, and the number and skill of engravers of both sexes who "devote their heads to the block" increases daily.. Nor should the printers be forgotten, when a Suornswoorm is found making special arrangements to compete with Witrrnsonest and VIZETELLY in wood-block typography. The number of artists able and willing to design for the wood-engraver has greatly increased within these last two or three years ; up to which time HARVEY was almost the only designer of talent in this department. The Etching Club have gone over in a body to the popular side, exchanging the copperplate for the woOd-block, and the etching-needle for the lead-pencil, in illustrating THOMSON'S Seasons; and Mr. S. C. HALL has induced several young painters to try their maiden hands in drawing for the wood .engraver to illustrate his Book of British Ballads. The two last-mentioned pub- lications afford the best means of estimating the capabilities of mo- dern artists for this mode of illustration, inasmuch as the designs cora .1st principally of figures, and are mostly drawn on the wood by the designers themselves. But the current serials of the day—the Abbots- ford Waverley Novels, the Environs of London, KNIGHT'S London, Mr. and Mrs. HALL'S Ireland, and Mr. REDDING'S England—also contribute to enable us to judge of the progress of wood-cut illustration in this country. It is remarkable that all these works are national in their character : thus, whether in portraiture of scenes and persons existing or bygone, or in imaginative representations of fictitious incidents, the artists have rarely occasion to go beyond their own country for sub- jects, or the materials and feelings to treat them characteristically : what they have done, therefore, should have been done con amore.
The progress of wood-engraving, and of pictorial embellishment ge- nerally, must depend mainly upon the talent and dexterity of the designers ; for whatever an artist can draw on the wood there are en- gravers competent to cut. We shall, therefore, in this glance at the wood-cut illustrations, regard only the merits of the designs. These may be classed under two divisions—the actual and the imaginative. Among the actual are included all that partake of the nature of portraiture. whether of men and animals, or of scenery and architecture, costumes Sod other accessories ; the imaginative embracing those scenes, incidents, Ind characters, in depicting which the exercise of fancy and invention is required. In all that relates to realities, the human figure excepted, the artists have shown no lack of skill : actual scenes and objects are delineated with fidelity and a lively sense of their picturesque charac- teristics: but where human character has to be expressed and action portrayed, there the stiff, crude, and laboured efforts of the " 'prentice- hand " are too plainly visible ; facility being rarely attained but by means of some trick or mannerism.
Let us exemplify these general remarks from the works before us. The scenery in the Environs of London is sketched by Mr. W. H. PRIOR, with a vivid perception of those qualities that con- stitute their picturesqueness, and a tact in producing pictorial com- binations of lines and arrangements of light and dark that sug- gest the effects of colour and atmosphere in nature : Chelsea Hospital, Holland House, Hampton Court, Claremont, and various Points on the banks of the Thames, at once recall the impres- sions made by these familiar scenes. The illustrations of KNIGHT'S London are far inferior in this local picturesqueness; being often bald, mechanical, and in some eases imperfect representations: compared with the views of the Environs, they are what the block plan of a building is to one filled up with details. The scenic illustrations of England and !rata are distinct and characteristic; making no pre- tensions to any thing more than faithful delineations of the scenery, antiquities, costume, and manufactures : but a great deal is accomplished by these graphic facts, inasmuch as the reader is informed of particulars that could not otherwise be expressed. This is the peculiar advantage of illustrations : their value consists in picturing what cannot be de- scribed. The Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels abounds in this kind of illustration : weapons of the old Scottish warfare, relics of Abbotsford, graphic records of scenes and persons that have passed away, as well as views of romantic scenery and venerable ruins, form the most interesting of the numerous wood-engravings. In addition to these, the copperplate embellishments of previous editions have been reEngraved in wood ; and a new set of plates of local scenery, in STANFIELD'S best manner, engraved in line, for this edition : no wood-engravings can come up to these plates, but it is wonderful to see bow closely TURNER'S magical effects of light and air are rendered in wood. The portraits of Adam Smith, David Hume, Lords }Eames and Monboddo, and Dr. Erskine, are full of character ; showing what may be done in portraiture on wood, where attention is paid to the leading lines of the physiognomy. The same may be said of land- scape and architecture, on a small scale : the white paper ought to tell as much as the black lines in producing the image. In single objects of few and well-defined details, elaboration is very successful ; but where too much minuthe is attempted, the failure leaves only indis- tinct masses of dark. Among the new designs in the Abbotsford series, LAUDER'S bold and striking figure of Meg Merrilies is conspicuous for its strong expression of character, though marked with a coarseness tending to exaggeration. Simsoses are conventional commonplaces, and HABLOT BROWNE'S mere caricatures. Buss is most successful in treating modern costume : his group of Colonel Mannering and Julia is expressive, graceful, and easy. Other artists will be better charac- terized by a reference to their designs in the Book of British Ballads; the larger scale of which is better calculated to develop character and expression ; besides, each has there a complete story to tell in his own way. The praise of depicting intelligibly and dramatically the leading inci- dents of the Ballads may be awarded in nearly every case : the groups are defined with a clear and expressive outline, and the ornamental scrolls and borderings to the vignettes are fanciful. FRANKLIN is the most frequent and fertile designer ; and admirably he draws : but his style is so thoroughly German that we could have almost supposed he was a disciple of CORNELIUS, from whom he has derived figures, cos- tume, and manner. E. CORBOULD'S knights are mailed coxcombs, more like the dandy chivalry of Eglintoun Castle than ancient heroes. MEADOWS'S figures are hard, angular, and mannered in the extreme, with faces fixed in the vice of grimace : M'Iases are homely, characte- ristic, and full of action, though deficient in drawing; as are also those of FRITH, though his have more refinement. GILBERT'S are the most pictorial in grouping and effect ; but with a certain degree of vague- ness. E. M. WARD tells the story with the most chitinet expression of individual character. On the whole, the English srtists of the mw school show promising qualities ; yet compared with the French and Germans, they are but in their pupillage. JULES DAVID'S illustrations of the Pictorial History of France, though theatrical, as all French pictures are, evince that perfect knowledge of costume and facility in design, which result from the thorough education that foreign artists receive; and the want of which has so crippled the infancy of art in this country.
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