Punch (80.1881)

March 26, 1881.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

133

THE MILLAIS-NiUM IN NEW BOND STREET.

The Millais Collection is to be seen in the room adjoining the
one where onr friend, Pastelthwaite, exhibits his blotting-paper
studies ; and he has taken a leaf out of Punch's book to add to his
own laurel crown, by framing our illustrated review of his artistic
eccentricities. , On this same page occurred a poem entitled " Io
Triumphe ! " ^ and Mr. Whistler has pasted a sheet of tinted
letter - paper ^MlL over the poem, but left the " Io Triumphe! " as
a note of ju- bilation. He might now change it from " Io

Triumphe ! " into "I pay triumphe!" as the sale of the

"Whistiee ' effects—we mean the Pastels—has been mar-
vellously remunerative; so that, on the whole, as compared with
ourselves and the purchasers, he certainly has the best of the joke,
—the best "by chalks." But let us pass from the "Jim" to the
"Jem" Collection, i.e. that of J. E. Millais' pictures. It is a
perfect history of his art, from Strawberries in March, 1851, to
Pipe Cherries in December, 1880. A converted Pre-Raphaelite makes
the best artist. Ask for a glass—there is no refreshment-room, but
should Mr. J. Jopllng be present, he will courteously provide you
with the glass required, a very powerful one, a glass which clears but
does not inebriate, and by its aid you can examine the marvels of
the pre-Paphaelite painting as shown in Mr. Millais' early works,
when he used his brush on each particular hair of the human head
with such care and attention as only a Truefit or a Douglas—who
beards you in his own den in Bond Street—could show, and gave the
texture of cloth or tweed so faithfully that an experienced tailor
could have priced the stuff for trousers at a glance._

No. 5.—Here he took a sacred subject, a touching tradition well
known to the earliest Christian artists, and, preserving just so much
of the old familar symbolism as would appeal to poetic sentiment, he
brushed away halos like cobwebs, and gave us the muscular
Christian's view, in a.d. 1849, of a beautiful legendary episode of

a.d. 10.

No. 6.—Mr. Millais made his Strawberry-mark in 1851, with
" The Woodman's Daughter;" then, in a Pre-Raphaelite frenzy,

No. 6.—Very Early Prize Straw- No. 15. — Cherry Pounce, the
berry, Exhibited by Mr. work of a Bipe Artist, Exhi-

MlLLAIS, 1851. bited by Mr. MlLLAIS, E.A.,

1881.

exhibited his "Autumn Leaves'' 1856; and, as a pre-Paphaelite
convalescent, his " Vale of Rest," 1859, which we may take as
typical of the burial of that style of art as far as concerns Mr.
Millais, who left it to the present resurrectionist school of Bubue-
Jokes & Co., with its caravan mermaids, angels with artichoke
wings, forlorn diaphanous maidens, and its unwholesome paganism.

No. 15, " Cherry Ripe," is the popular picture, of course. Here
we see how, in the Graphic Christmas Number, the poor young lady
was cut off in her prime. The Graphic proprietors might have

written under their print, "to be
continued in our next," and given
her legs in their Christmas Number
for this year. If Mr. Millais
adopted Mr. Whistler's plan, he
would exhibit our contrast of
"Cherry C/wripe" just under-
neath. Poor thing ! How different
her expression would be if any of
those twin cherries on one stalk—
" Arcades umbo," i.e., blackhearts
both—should not be quite as ripe
as they look. Like the soldiers at
No. 15.—" In To-to.'' gir John Moore's funeral, she would

Continued from the " Graphic" bitterly think of the morrow."

Christmas Number. No. 17.—Our old friend, " The

Yeoman of the Guard," whose
motto, to adapt a quotation from Professor Perctval Leigh's im-
mortal Comic Latin Grammar, ought to be—

" Eeefcater nnus erat qui scarlet coatum habebat."

That wonderful artist, Old Father Time, has vastly improved even
this magnificent work of art. Time's touches—ah well, they give

even the greatest living artist a wrinkle now and then.
Was it Time who took Mr. Whistler by the forelock and
left his mark there ?

And here, Number Nothing in the catalogue, but Number
A 1 in fact, is the portrait of the Great Artist by himself—
as it should be. What would it have been had he painted
himself in his pre-Raphaelite days ! Every hair would have been—
ahem!—well, at that time perhaps he was necessarily rather a
master in Macassar oil, and the treatment would not only have been
very different but would have occupied a considerable time ; while

What You were Then. What You wear Now.

The Artist as lie would have repre- The Artist as he is in 1881. The
sented himself in 1856. rare " J.E.M." of the Collection.

now, with a clearer head and a freer use of the brush, he can dash
his own or anybody else's wig off in a week, and we get a manly,
sturdy, life-like portrait of a true artist, who learnt much as an
" entered apprentice," then Past Master of the Pre-Raphaelite Fra-
ternity, and who is now rather Athletic than either ^Esthetic or Ascetic,
and in fact just what his portrait represents him—himself all by
himself.

A FRIEND AT A PINCH.

{A Peck-sniff from our Private Snuff-Box.)

Those who have
seen Tom Pinch
at the Vaudeville
will readilv un-
derstand why. as
a rule, the late
Charles Dick-
ens so strongly
objected to the
dramatisation of
his novels. The
piece now play-
ing under this
title might just
as well have been
called Tom Any-
body — say To?n
All - alone. The
Stage is said to
hold up the mirror
to Nature—in this case the glass used has been of rather inferior
quality. The result is a somewhat distorted reflection of an episode
in Blartin Chuzzlewit. Mr. Tom Thornh appears in the bills as
Mr. Tom Pinch, but, in spite of a wig of very peculiar construction,
his identity is not altogether lost in his new character—which is not
at all the real article, but Pinch-beck. The Pecksniff of Mr. Wil-
liam Farren is sketchily suggestive of Sir Peter Teazle in modern
costume ; and the representatives of Merry and Cherry conscien-
tiously preserve that reputation for burlesque which the Vaudeville
enjoyed in the early days of its management.

From a snuff-box point of view, this single Pinch is nearly equal
to a full mull; but in Divorce, Miss Ltdia Cowell's performance
of the flower-girl's " Bunch " is not to be sneezed at.

Quite natural that Dr. Chore (ominous name !) should champion
the three L's—Ladies' Land League—as he is Archbishop of Cashel
and Emlt. How pleased little Em'lt must be with her Archbishop!

vol. lzxx. n