Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ILLUSTRATION

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 325 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

ILLUSTRATION . In a See also:

general sense, illustration (or the See also:art of representing pictorially some See also:idea which has been expressed in words) is as old as Art itself. There has never been a See also:time since See also:civilization began when artists were not prompted to pictorial themes from legendary, See also:historical or See also:literary See also:sources. But the art of illustration, as now understood, is a comparatively See also:modern product. The tendency of modern culture has been to make the interests of the different arts overlap. The theory of See also:Wagner, as applied to See also:opera, for making a combined appealto the See also:artistic emotions, has been also the underlying principle in the development of that See also:great See also:body of artistic See also:production which in See also:painting gives us the picture containing " literary " elements, and, in actual association with literature in its printed See also:form, becomes what we See also:call " illustration." The illustrator's See also:work is the See also:complement of expression in some other See also:medium. A poem can hardly exist which does not awaken in the mind at some moment a See also:suggestion either of picture or See also:music. The sensitive temperament of the artist or the musician is able to realize out of words some parallel idea which can only be conveyed, or can be best conveyed, through his own medium of music or painting. Similarly, music or painting may, and often does, suggest See also:poetry. It is from this inter-relation of the emotions governing the different arts that illustration may be said to See also:spring. The success of illustration lies, then, in the instinctive transference of an idea from one medium to another; the more spontaneous it be and the less laboured in application, the better. Leaving on one See also:side the illuminated See also:manuscripts of the See also:middle ages (see ILLUMINATED See also:MSS.) we start with the fact that illustration was coincident with the invention of See also:printing.

See also:

Italian art produced many See also:fine examples, notably the outline illustrations to the Poliphili Hypneratomachia, printed by Aldus at See also:Venice in the last See also:year of the 15th See also:century. Other See also:early See also:works exist, the products of unnamed artists of the See also:French, See also:German, See also:Spanish and Italian See also:schools; while of more singular importance, though not then brought into See also:book form, were the illustrations to See also:Dante's Divine See also:Comedy made by See also:Botticelli at about the same See also:period. The sudden development of See also:engraving on See also:metal and See also:wood See also:drew many painters of the See also:Renaissance towards illustration as a further opportunity for the exercise of their See also:powers; and the See also:line-work, either See also:original or engraved by others, of Pollajuolo, See also:Mantegna, See also:Michelangelo and See also:Titian has its See also:place in the See also:gradual enlargement of illustrative art. The German school of the 16th century committed its energies even more vigorously to illustration; and many of its artists are now known chiefly through their engravings on wood or See also:copper, a See also:good proportion of which were done to the See also:accompaniment of printed See also:matter. The names of See also:Durer, Burgmair, See also:Altdorfer and See also:Holbein represent a school whose engraved illustrations possess qualities which have never been rivalled, and remain an invaluable aid to imitators of the See also:present See also:day. Illustration has generally flourished in any particular See also:age in proportion to the See also:health and vigour of the artistic productions in other kinds. No evident revival in painting has come about, no great school has existed during the last four centuries, which has not set its See also:mark upon the illustration of the period and quickened it into a medium for true artistic expression. The etchers of the See also:Low Countries during the 17th century, with See also:Rembrandt at their See also:head, were to a great extent illustrators in their choice of subjects. In See also:France the period of See also:Watteau and See also:Fragonard gave rise to a school of delicately engraved illustration, exquisite in detail and invention. In See also:England See also:Hogarth came to be the founder of many new conditions, both in painting and illustration, and was followed by men of See also:genius so distinct as See also:Reynolds on the one side and See also:Bewick on the other. With Reynolds one connects the illustrators and engravers for whom now See also:Bartolozzi supplies a surviving name and an embodiment in his graceful but never quite See also:English art. But it is from See also:Thomas Bewick that the wonderfully consistent development of English illustration begins to date.

Bewick marks an important period in the technical See also:

history of wood-engraving as the See also:practical inventor of the " tint " and " See also:white line " method of wood-cutting; but he ,Pr°gress also happened to be an artist. His artistic See also:device England was to give See also:local See also:colour and texture without See also:shadow, securing thereby a precision of outline which allowed no form to be lost. And though, in consequence, many of his best designs have somewhat the See also:air of a• specimen See also:plate, he succeeded in bringing into See also:black-and-white illustration an See also:element of colour which had been wholly absent from it in the work of the 15th and 16th century German and Italian schools. Bewick's method started a new school; but the more racy qualities of his woodcuts were entirely dependent on the designer being have equalled. Out of an See also:alliance cemented by their See also:common use and understanding of the material on which they worked came the school of facsimile or partial-facsimile engraving which flourished, during the 'sixties, and lasted just so See also:long as its conditions were unimpaired—losing its flavour only at the moment when " improved " See also:mechanical appliances enabled the artist once more to dissociate himself from the conditions which See also:bound the engraver in his See also:craft. Before the fortunate circumstances which governed the work of the 'sixties became decisive, illustrations of a transitional See also:character, but tending to the same end, had been pre_ produced by See also:John See also:Tenniel, John See also:Gilbert, Birket See also:Raphael/to See also:Foster, See also:Harrison See also:Weir, T. See also:Creswick, W. See also:Mulready move-and others; but their methods were too vague and See also:meat. diffuse to See also:bear as yet the mark of a school; no single See also:influence gave a unity to their efforts. On some of them Adolf von See also:Menzel's illustrations to Kiigler's See also:Frederick the Great, published in England in 1844, may have See also:left a mark; Gilbert certainly shows traces of the influence of See also:Delacroix and Bonington in the See also:free, loose method of his draughtsmanship, See also:independent of accurate modelling, and with here and there a paint-like dab of black to relieve a generally colourless effect; while Tenniel, with See also:cold, precise lines of See also:wire-See also:drawn hardness, remained the representative of the past See also:academic See also:style, influencing others by the dignity of his fine technique, but with his own feeling quite untouched by the Pre-Raphaelite and romantic See also:movement which was soon to occupy the See also:world of illustration. In greater or less degree it may be said of the work of all these artists that, as it antedates, so to the end does it stand somewhat removed in character from, the school with which for a time it became contemporary. The year which decisively marked the beginning of new things in illustration was 1857, the year of the See also:Moxon See also:Tennyson and of Wilmott's Poets of the Nineteenth Century, with illustrations by See also:Rossetti, See also:Millais, See also:Holman See also:Hunt and See also:Ford Madox See also:Brown. In these artists we get the germ of the movement which afterwards came to have so wide a popularity.

At the beginning, Pre-Raphaelite in name, poetic and literary in its choice of subjects, the school quickly See also:

expanded to an See also:acceptance of those open-air and everyday subjects which one connects with the names of Frederick See also:Walker, See also:Arthur B. See also:Houghton, G. F. See also:Pinwell and M. See also:North. The illustrations of the Pre-Raphaelites were eminently thoughtful, full of symbolism, and with a certain pressure of See also:interest to which the epithet of " intense " came to be applied. As an example of their method of thought-transference from word to form, Madox Brown's See also:drawing for the Dalziel See also:Bible of " See also:Elijah and the Widow's Son " may be taken. The restoration of See also:life to a dead body, of a See also:child to its See also:mother, is there conveyed with many illustrative touches and asides, which become clumsy when stated in words. The See also:hen bearing her chicken between her wings is a perfectly See also:direct and appropriate pictorial See also:symbol, but a far more imaginative stroke is the shadow on the See also:wall of a See also:swallow flying back to the See also:clay See also:bottle where it has made its See also:nest. Here is illustration full of literary symbolism, yet wholly pictorial in its means; and in this it is entirely characteristic of Pre-Raphaelite feeling, with its method of suggesting, through externals, See also:consideration as opposed to See also:mere outlook. Of this phase Rossetti must be accounted the See also:leader, but it was Millais who, by the sheer See also:weight of his See also:personality, carried English illustration along with him from Pre-Raphaelitism to the freer romanticism and naturalistic tendencies of the 'sixties. Rossetti; with his poetic See also:enthusiasm, his strong See also:personal See also:magnetism and dramatic See also:power of See also:composition, may be said to have brought about the awakening; it was Millais who, by his rapid development of style, his original and daring technique, turned it into a movement.

When he started, there of of Mfvals. were many influences behind him and his fellowworkers—among older See also:

foreign contemporaries, those of Menzel and See also:Rethel; and behind these again something of the old masters. But through a transitional period, represented by his twelve drawings of " The Parables," which appeared first in Good Words, Millais emerged in to the perfect See also:independence of his illustrations to See also:Trollope's novels, Framley Parsonage and The his own cutter; and the same happy relationship gave distinct characteristics to the nearly contemporary work of See also:William See also:Blake and of See also:Calvert. Blake's wonderful Illustrations to the Book of See also:Job, while magnificent in their conventional rendering of See also:light and shade, still retain the colourlessness of the old masters, as do also the more broadly handled designs to his own books of prophecy and See also:verse; but in his woodcuts to See also:Philips's Pastorals the modern tendency towards local colour makes itself strongly See also:felt. So wonderfully, indeed, have colour and See also:tone been expressed in these rough wood-blocks, that more vivid impressions of darkness and See also:twilight falling across quiet landscape have never been produced through the same materials. The See also:pastoral designs made by See also:Edward Calvert on similar lines can hardly be over-praised. Technically these engravings are far more able than those from which they drew their See also:inspiration. With the exception of the two artists named, and in a See also:minor degree of Thomas See also:Stothard and John See also:Flaxman, who also See also:pro- duced original illustrations, the period from the end of the 18th century till about the middle of the 19th was less notable for the work of the designer than of the engraver. The delicate plates to See also:Rogers's See also:Italy were done from drawings which See also:Turner had not produced for purposes of illustration; and the admirable lithographs of See also:Samuel See also:Prout and See also:Richard Bonington were merely studies of See also:architecture and landscape made in a material that admitted of indefinite multiplication. It is true that See also:Gericault came over to England about the year 182o to draw the English See also:race-See also:horse and other studies of See also:country life, which were published in See also:London in 1821, and that other fine work in See also:lithography was done by See also:James See also:Ward, G. See also:Cattermole, and somewhat later by J. F. See also:Lewis.

But illustration proper, subject-illustration applied to literature, was mainly in the hands of the wood-engravers; and these, forming a really fine school founded on the lines which Bewick had laid down, had for about See also:

thirty years to content themselves with rendering the works of ephemeral artists, among whom See also:Benjamin R. See also:Haydon and John See also:Martin stand out as the See also:chief See also:lights. It must not be forgotten, however, that while the day of a serious English school of illustration had not yet come, Great See also:Britain possessed an indigenous tradition of See also:gross and lively See also:caricature; a tradition of such robust force and vulgarity that, by the side of some choicer specimens of James See also:Gillray and See also:Henry W. See also:Bunbury, the art of See also:Rowlandson appears almost refined. This was the school in which See also:George See also:Cruikshank, John See also:Leech, and the See also:Dickens illustrators had their training, from which they drew more and more away; until, with the help of See also:Punch, just before the middle of the 19th century, English caricaturists had learned the See also:secret of how to be apposite and amusing without scurrility and without See also:libel. (See CARICATURE.) Under See also:NEWSPAPERS will be found some See also:account of the rise of illustrated journalism. It was in about the year '1832 that the illustrated weekly See also:paper started on its career Influence in England, and almost by See also:accident determined Wood- engraving.. ng, under what form a great See also:national art was to develop itself. While in France the illustrators were making their triumphs by means of lithography, English illustration was becoming more and more identified with wood-engraving. The demand for a method of illustration, easy to produce and easy to See also:print, for books and magazines of large circulation and moderate See also:price, forced the artist before long into drawing upon the wood itself; and so soon as the artist had asserted his pre- ference for facsimile over " tint," the school which came to be called " of the 'sixties " was in embryo, and waited only for artistic power to give it distinction. The engraver's See also:translation of the artist's painting or See also:wash-drawing into " tint " had largely exalted the individuality of the engraver at the expense of the artist. But from the moment when the designer began to put his own lines upon the wood, new conditions shaped themselves; and though the artist at times might make demands which the engraver could not follow, or the engraver inadequately fulfil the expectation of the artist, the general tendency was to bring designer and engraver into almost ideal relations—an ideal which nothing See also:short of the artist being his own engraver could new school. Depicting the ugly fashions of his day with See also:grave dignity and distinction, and with a broad power of rendering type in work which had the aspect of genre, he drew the picture of his age in a See also:summary so embracing that his illustrations attain the See also:rank almost of historical art.

For art of this sort the symbolism of the Pre-Raphaelites lost its use: the realization in form of a character conveyed by an author's words, the happy suggestion of a locality helping to See also:

fix the writer's description, the verisimilitudes of See also:ordinary life, even to trivial detail, carried out with real pictorial conviction, were the things most to be aimed at. Pictorial conviction was the great mark of the illustrative school of the 'sixties. The work of its artists has absorbed so completely the interest and reality of the letterpress that the results are a See also:model of what faithful yet imaginative illustration should be. In the illustrated magazines of this period, Once a See also:Week, Good Words, Cornhill, London Society, The See also:Argosy, The Leisure See also:Hour, See also:Sunday at See also:Home, The See also:Quiver and The Churchman's See also:Family See also:Magazine, as well as others, is to be found the best work of this new school of illustrators; and with the greater number of them it cannot be mistaken that Millais is the prevailing force. By their side other men were working, more deeply influenced by the old masters, and by the minuteness and hard, definite treatment of form which the Pre-Raphaelite school had inculcated. Foremost of these was Frederick See also:Sandys. His illustrations, scattered through nearly all the magazines which have been named, show always a decorative power of See also:design and are full of fine drawing and fine invention, but remain resolutely cold in handling and lacking in imaginative ardour. The few illustrations done by Burne-See also:Jones at this period show a whole-hearted following of Rossetti, but a somewhat struggling technique; and the same qualities are to be found in the work of Arthur See also:Hughes, whose illustrations in Good Words for the See also:Young (1869) have a See also:charm of See also:tender poetic invention showing through the faults and persistent uncertainty of his draughtsmanship. The illustrations of Frederick See also:Shields to See also:Defoe's History of the See also:Plague have a certain See also:affinity to the work of Sandys; but, with less power over form, they show a more dramatic sense of light and shade, and at their best can claim real and original beauty. The formality of feeling and composition, and the strained, stiff quality of line in See also:Lord See also:Leighton's designs to Romola (1863), do a good See also:deal to See also:mar one's enjoyment of their admirable draughtsrnanship. Many fine drawings done at this period by Leighton, See also:Poynter, Henry See also:Armstead and Burne-Jones did not appear until the year 188o in the " Dalziel Bible See also:Gallery," when the methods of which they were the outcome had fallen almost out of use. Deeply influenced by the broad later phases of Millais's blackand-white work were those artists whose tendency See also:lay in the '.The direction of idyllic See also:naturalism and popular See also:romance, 'sixties." the men to whom more particularly is given the name of the period and school " the 'sixties," and whose more immediate leader, as far as popular estimation goes, was Frederick Walker.

With his, one may roughly See also:

group the names of Pinwell, Houghton, North, See also:Charles See also:Keene, Lawless, See also:Matthew J. Mahoney, Morten and, with a certain See also:reservation, W. Small and G. du Maurier. In no very See also:separate See also:category stand two other artists whose contributions to illustration were but incidental, John See also:Pettie and J. M'See also:Neill See also:Whistler. The broad characteristics of this variously related group were a loose, easy line suggestive of movement, a general fondness for white spaces and open-air effects, and in the best of them a thorough sense of the serious beauty of domestic and rural life. They treated the present with a feeling rather idyllic than realistic; when they touched the past it was with a courteous sort of See also:realism, and a wonderful inventiveness of detail which carried with it a charm of conviction. Walker's method shows a broad and vivid use of black and white, with a fine sense of See also:balance, but very little preoccupation for decorative effect. Pinwell had a more delicate See also:fancy, but less freedom in his technique—less ease, but more originality of composition. In Houghton's work one See also:sees 323 Small See also:House at Allington, his own See also:master and the master of a a See also:swift, masterful technique, full of audacity, See also:noble in its See also:economy of means, sometimes rough and careless. His temperament was dramatic, passionate, satiric and witty. Some of his best work, his " Scenes from See also:American Life," appeared in the pages of the Graphic as See also:late as the years 1873-1874.

There are indications in the work of Lawless that he might have come See also:

close to Millais in his power of infusing distinction into the barest materials of everyday life, but he died too soon for his work to reach its full accomplishment. North was essentially a landscape illustrator. The delicate sense of beauty in du Maurier's early work became lost in the formal but graceful conventions of his later Punch drawings. It was in the pages of Punch that Keene secured his chief triumphs. The two last-named artists outstayed the day which saw the break-up of the school of which these are the leading names. It ran its course through a period when illustrated magazines formed the See also:staple of popular See also:consumption, before the illustrated newspapers, with their hungry See also:rush for the See also:record of latest events, became a weekly feature. Its waning influence may be plainly traced through the early years of the Graphic, which started in 1869 with some really fine work, done under transitional conditions before the engraver's rendering of tone-drawings once more ousted facsimile from its high place in illustration. In connexion with this transitional period, drawings for the Graphic by Houghton, Pinwell, See also:Sir See also:Hubert von Herkomer, E. J. See also:Gregory, H. See also:Woods, Charles See also:Green, H. See also:Paterson (Mrs See also:Allingham) and William Small deserve See also:honourable mention.

Yet it was the last-named who was mainly instrumental in bringing about the See also:

change from line-work to pigment, which depressed the artistic value of illustration during the 'seventies and the 'eighties to almost See also:absolute mediocrity. Several artists of great ability practised illustration during this period: in addition to those Graphic artists already mentioned there were See also:Luke See also:Fildes, See also:Frank See also:Holl, S. P. See also:Hall, See also:Paul Renouard and a few others of smaller merit. But the interest was for the time shifting from blackand-white work and turning to colour. Kate See also:Greenaway began to produce her charming idyllic renderings of See also:children in See also:mob-caps and long skirts. See also:Walter See also:Crane on somewhat similar lines designed his illustrated nursery rhymes; while See also:Randolph See also:Caldecott took the See also:field with his fresh and breezy scenes of See also:hunting life and carousal in the times most typical of the English squirearchy. Working with a broad outline, suggestive of the See also:brush by its easy freedom, and adding washes of conventional colour for embellishment, he was one of the first in England to show the beginnings of See also:Japanese influence. Even more dependent upon colour were his illustrated books for children; while in black and white, in his illustrations to Bracebridge Hall (1876), for instance, See also:pen and See also:ink began to replace the See also:pencil, and to produce a new and more independent style of draughtsmanship. This style was taken up and followed by many artists of ability, by Harry See also:Furniss, See also:Hugh See also:Thomson and others, till the influence of E. A. See also:Abbey's more See also:mobile and more elaborate penmanship came to produce a still further development in the direction of fineness and illusion, and that of Phil May, with See also:Linley See also:Sambourne for his teacher, to simplify and make broad for those who aimed rather at a journalistic and shorthand method of illustration.

(See also CARICATURE and See also:

CARTOON.) Under the absolutely liberating conditions of " See also:process repro+ duction " (see PROCESS) the latest developments in illustration on its lighter and more popular side are full of French influences, or ready to follow the See also:wind in any fresh direction, whether to See also:America or See also:Japan; but on the graver side they show a strong leaning towards the older traditions of the 'sixties and of Pre-Raphaelitism. The See also:founding by William See also:Morris of the Kelmscott See also:Press in 1891, through which were produced a See also:series of decorated and illustrated books, aimed frankly at a revival of See also:medieval See also:taste. In Morris's books decorative effect and sense of material claimed mastery over the whole See also:scheme, and subdued the illustrations to a sort of glorious captivity into which no breath of modern spirit could be breathed. The illustrations of Burne-Jones filled with a happy See also:touch of archaism the decorative See also:borders of William Morris; and only a little less happy, apart from their imaginative inferiority, were the serious efforts of Walter Crane and one or two others. Directly under the Morris influence arose the " See also:Birmingham school," with an entire devotion to decorative methods and still archaic effects which tended sometimes to rather inane technical results. Among its See also:Meissonier's more famous illustrations to Conies remois. After Meissonier came J. B. E. See also:Detaille and See also:Alphonse M. de See also:Neuville and, leaders may be named Arthur Gaskin, C. M. Gere and E.

H. New; while work not dissimilar but more independent in spirit had already been done by See also:

Selwyn See also:Image and H. P. See also:Horne in the Century Guild See also:Hobby-Horse. But far greater originality and force belonged to the work of a group, known for a time as the neo-Pre-Raphaelites, which joined to an See also:earnest study of the past a scrupulously open mind towards more modern influences. Its earliest expression of existence was the publication of an occasional periodical, the See also:Dial (1889–1897), but before long its influence became felt outside its first narrow limits. The technical influence of Abbey, but still more the emotional and intellectual teaching of Rossetti and Millais, together with side-influences from the few great French symbolists, were, apart from their own originality, the forces which gave distinction to the work of C. S. Ricketts, C. H. See also:Shannon, R. See also:Savage and their immediate following.

Beauty of line, languorous See also:

passion, symbolism full of literary allusions, and a fondness for the life of any age but the present, are the characteristics of the school. Their influence See also:fell very much in the same quarters where Morris found a welcome; but an affinity for the Italian rather than the German masters (shown especially in the " Vale Press " publications), and a studied See also:note of world-weariness, kept them somewhat apart from the sturdy medievalism of Morris, and linked them intellectually with the decadent school initiated by the wayward genius of See also:Aubrey See also:Beardsley. But though broadly men may be classed in See also:groups, no grouping will See also:supply a See also:formula for all the noteworthy work produced when men are drawn this way and that by current influences. Among artists resolutely independent of contemporary coteries may be named W. See also:Strang, whose grave, rugged work shows him a See also:pupil, through See also:Legros, of Durer and others of the old masters; T. See also:Sturge See also:Moore, an original engraver of designs which have an equal affinity for Blake, Calvert and See also:Hokusai; W. See also:Nicholson, whose style shows a dignified return to the best See also:part of the Rowlandson with a voluminous style of his own, L. A. G. See also:Dore. By the See also:majority of these artists the drawing for the engraver seems to have been done with the pen; and the tendency to penmanship was still more accentuated when from See also:Spain came the influence of M. J.

See also:

Fortuny's brilliant technique; while after him, again, came See also:Daniel See also:Vierge, to make, as it were, the point of the pen still more pointed During the Middle period of the 19th century the best French illustration was serious in character; but among the later men, when we have recognized the grave beauty of Grassct's See also:Les Quatre Fits d'Aymon (in spite of his vicious treatment of the See also:page by flooding washes of colour through the type itself), and the delicate See also:grace of Boutet de See also:Monvel's Jeanne d'Arc, also in See also:colours, it is to the illustrators of the comic papers that we have to go for the most typical and- most audacious specimens of French art. In the pages of Gil See also:Bias, Le See also:Pierrot, L'See also:Echo de See also:Paris, Le See also:Figaro Illustre, Le Courrier See also:Francais, and similar publications, are to be found, reproduced with a dexterity of process unsurpassed in England, the designs of J. L. See also:Forain, C. L. See also:Leandre, L. A. See also:Willette and T. A. Steinlen, the leaders of a school enterprising in technique, and with a mixture of subtlety and grossness in its See also:humour. See also:Caran d'Ache also became celebrated as a draughtsman of comic See also:drama in outline. Among illustrators of See also:Teutonic race the one artist who seems worthy of comparison with the great Menzel is Hans See also:Tegner, if, indeed, he be not in some respects his technical See also:superior; but apart from these two, the illustrators respectively of Kugler's Frederick the Great and Holber,'s Comedies, there is no German, Danish or Dutch illustrator wso can lay claim to first rank.

Max See also:

Klinger, A. Biicklin, W. Triibner, See also:Franz See also:Stuck and Hans See also:Thoma are all symbolists who combine in a singular degree force with brutality; the imaginative quality in their work is for the most part ruined by the hard, braggart way in which it is driven tradition; and E. J. See also:Sullivan. In the closing years of the 19th home. The achievements and tendency of the later school of Aubrey Beardsley became the illustration in See also:Germany best in illustrated creator of an entirely novel century decorative illustration. Drawing inspiration from all are seen the weekly style of of See also:European and Japanese art, he produced, by the force See also:journal, Jugend, of See also:Munich. Typical of an older German school is sources personality and extraordinary technical skill, a result the work of Adolf Oberliinder, a solid, scientific sort of caricaturist, of a vivid highly original and impressive. To a genuine liking for whose illustrations are at times so monumental that the humour which was of repulsive and vicious types of. humanity he added an in them seems crushed out of life. Others who command high See also:analysis sense of line, balance and See also:mass; and partly by succes qualities of technique are W. Dietz, L. von Nagel, See also:Hermann See also:Vogel, exquisite partly by genuine artistic brilliance, he gathered See also:round H.

Liiders and See also:

Robert See also:Haug. Behind all these men in greater or de scandale, imitators, for the he less degree lies the influence of Menzel's coldly balanced and dry- him See also:host of to whom, most part, was able lighted but the influence Menzel realism; wherever of ceases, the a only his more mediocre qualities. merit of German illustration for the most part tends to disappear to impart In America, or become mediocre. until a comparatively See also:recent date, illustration bowed the See also:knee to the superior excellence of the engraver over the artist. AUTHORITIES.—W. J. See also:Linton, The Masters of Wood Engraving Unite d Not until the brilliant pen-drawing of E. A. Abbey carried (London, 1889) ; C. G. Harper, English Pen Artists of To-day sta te the day with the black-and-white artists of England did (London, 1892) ; See also:Joseph See also:Pennell, Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen any work of real moment emanate from the See also:United (London, 1894), Modern Illustration (London, 1895) ; Walter Crane, Pen States, unless that of Elihu See also:Vedder be regarded as an exception. The Decorative Illustration of Books (London, 1896) ; Gleeson White, See also:Howard See also:Pyle is a brilliant imitator of Darer; -he has also the English Illustration: " The 'Sixties ": 1855–1870 (See also:Westminster, ability to adapt himself to draughtsmanship of a more modern 1897) ; W. A.

Chatto, A See also:

Treatise Wood Engraving (London, n.d.) ; on tendency. C. S. See also:Reinhart was an artist of directness and force, in See also:Bar-le-Due, Les Illustrations du XIXe siecle (Paris, 1882); T. a style based upon modern French and German examples; while of greater originality as a whole, though derivative in detail, is the fanciful penmanship of See also:Alfred Brennan. Other artists who stand in the front rank of American illustrators, and whose works appear chiefly in the pages of Scribner's, Harper's and the CenturyMagazine, are W. T. See also:Smedley, F. S. See also:Church, R. See also:Blum, Wenzell, A. B.

See also:

Frost, and in particular C. See also:Dana See also:Gibson, the last of whom gained a reputation in England as an American du See also:Maurice. The record of modern French illustration goes back to the day when See also:political caricature and the See also:Napoleonic See also:legend divided be-France. tween them the triumphs of early lithography. The illustrators of France at that period were also her greatest artists. Of the historical and romantic school were D. Raft et, See also:Nicholas J. See also:Charlet, Gericault, Delacroix, T. B. See also:Isabey and Achille Deveria, many of whose works appeared in L'Artisie, a paper founded in 1831 as the See also:official See also:organ of the romanticists; while the realists were led in the direction of caricature by two artists of such enormous force as See also:Gavarni and Honore See also:Daumier, whose works, appearing in La Lithographie Mensuelle, Le See also:Charivari and La Caricature, ran the See also:gauntlet of political interference and suppression during a troubled period of French politics—which was the very cause of their prosperity. Behind these men lay the influence of the great Spanish realist See also:Goya. Following upon the harsh See also:satire and venomous realism of this famous school of pictorial invective, the influence of the See also:Barbizon school came as a milder force; but the power of its artists did not show in the direction of original lithography, and far more value attaches to the few woodcuts of J. F.

See also:

Millet's studies of See also:peasant life. In these we see clearly the tendency of French illustrative art to keep as far as possible the See also:authentic and See also:sketch-like touch of the artist; and it was no doubt from this tendency that so many of the great French illustrators retained lithography rather than commit themselves to the middle-See also:man engraver. Nevertheless, from about the year 183o many French artists produced illustrations which were interpreted upon the wood for the most part by English engravers. Cunier's See also:editions of Paul et Virginie and La ChaumlAre Indienne, illustrated by See also:Huet, Jacque, Isabey, Johannot and Meissonier, were followed by Kutschmann, Geschichte der deutschen Illustration vom ersten Auftreten See also:des Formschnittes bis auf See also:die Gegenwart (See also:Berlin, 1899). (L. Ho.) Technical Developments. The history of illustration, apart from the merits of individual artists, during the period since the year 1875, is mainly that of the development of what is called Process (q.v.), the See also:term applied to methods of reproducing a drawing or photograph which depend on the use of some mechanical agency in the making of the See also:block, as distinguished from such products of See also:manual skill as See also:steel or wood-engraving, lithography and the like. There is good See also:reason to believe that the art of stereotyping—the multiplication of an already existing block by means of moulds and casts—is as old as the 15th century; and the early processes were, in a measure, a refinement upon this: with the difference that they aimed at the making of a metal block by means of a See also:cast of the lines of the drawing itself, the background of which had been cut away so as to leave the design in a definite See also:relief. Experiments of this nature may be said to have assumed practical. shape from the time of the invention of See also:Palmer's process called at first Glyphography, about the year 1844; this was afterwards perfected and used to a considerable extent under the name of See also:Dawson's Typographic See also:Etching, and its results were in many cases quite admirable, and often appear in books and See also:periodicals of the first part of the period with which we are now concerned. The Graphic, for instance, published its first process block in 1876, and the Illustrated London See also:News also made similar experiments at about the same time. From this time begins the gradual application of See also:photography to the uses of illustration, the first successful line blocks made by work. As a result, a distinct improvement is to be found in the mere book-making of Great Britain; and although the See also:main force of the movement soon spent itself in somewhat uninspired imitations, there can be no doubt of the survival of a taste for well-produced volumes, in which the relationship of type, paper, illustration and binding has been a matter of careful and artistic consideration.

Under this influence, a notable feature has been the re-issue, in an excellent form, of illustrated editions of the works of most of the famous writers. In France the general movement has proceeded upon lines on the whole very similar. Process—especially what was called Gillotage "—was adopted earlier, and used at first with greater liberality than in England, although wood-engraving has persisted effectively even up to our own time. In the various types of periodicals of which the Revue Illustree, Figaro Illustre and Gil Bias Illustre may be taken as examples, the most noticeable feature is a use of colour-printing, which is far in advance of anything generally attempted in Great Britain. A favourite and effective process is that employed for the See also:

reproduction of See also:chalk drawings (as by Steinlen), which consists of the application of a See also:surface-tint of colour from a metal plate to a print from an ordinary process block. In Germany, Jugend, Simplicissimus, and other publications devoted to humour and caricature, employ colour-printing to a great extent with success. The organ of the artists of the younger German schools, See also:Pan (1895), makes use of every means of illustration, and has especially cultivated lithography and wood-cots, using these arts effectively but with some eccentricity. See also:Holland has also employed coloured lithography for a remarkable series of children's books illustrated by See also:van Hoytema and others. The Viennese Kunst and Kunsthandwerk is an art publication which is exceptionally well produced and printed. Illustration in the United States has some few characteristics which differentiate it from that of other countries. The later school of fine wood-engraving is even yet in existence. American artists also introduced an effective use of the process block, namely, the engraving or working over of the whole or certain portions of it by See also:hand.

This is generally done by an engraver, but in certain cases it has been the work of the original draughtsman, and its possibilities have been foreseen by him in making his drawing. The only other variant of note is the use of See also:

half-tone blocks super-imposed for various colours. (E. F.

End of Article: ILLUSTRATION

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
ILLUMINATION 		[next]
ILLUSTRES

Site © 2006 - Net Industries