DOI Heft:
No. 57 (December 1897)
DOI Artikel:White, Gleeson: The coloured prints of Mr. W. P. Nicholson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0226
The Coloured Prints of
FROM A COLOURED PRINT BY W. P. NICHOLSON
("An Alphabet.'''' IV. Heinemaun)
lady of Windsor the greatest figure in modern
Europe. Looking at it, we realise the personality
that has been as loyal to British ideals as the
great Empire, which has come to its majority
beneath her sway, has been loyal to its Queen.
Turn from this to the portrait of Madame Bern-
hardt and you find that Mr. Nicholson is not a
player with a single string. The divine Sarah
again witches you with her peculiar fascination.
You go to see her in a new part, full of insular pre-
judice and resolved to remain a perfectly impassive
critic, and before she has spoken a dozen words
you are again a mere abject slave. That is a com-
mon experience ; and in this print you are confronted
not by the erratic lady of the many paragraphs but by
the immortal Sarah who masters you and makes you
credit her with any virtue she cares to claim. The
portrait of Mr. Whistler shows no less distinctly
different quality. It is—Mr. Whistler ; and it would
be hard to add anything to that statement. For
the complex personality that has impressed itself
.alike on foes and friends is not to be defined by
.any statement in words so epigrammatic and com-
plete as is this coloured print.
Two volumes of wood engravings by Mr. Nichol-
son, to be published at popular prices by Mr. Heine-
mann, which will reach the public about the time
this number appears, deserve long columns of ap-
182
Mr. IV. P. Nielwlson
preciation. Yet it were mere fatuity to set oneself
to describe the two dozen designs in An Alphabet,
or the dozen in An Almanac. In the first, A,
for Actor—you have Mr. Nicholson's caricature of
himself in forma pauperis—a most good-humoured
travesty ; and in " B was a Beggar "—it might be
possible to identify his colleague—when as the
Beggarstaff Brothers, Mr. Pryde collaborated with
Mr. Nicholson in the famous series of posters
which it would be an insult to imagine the readers
of this magazine do not know by heart. In C,
for Countess, the shade of Velasquez would delight
could he see it. E, for Earl, or E, for Executioner
(the Edition de Luxe contains the latter subject
which was considered too " gory" for juveniles)
are both as good as they make them, which is
slang, but also accurate. F, a flower girl with her
basket of roses, is notably fine in colour—but space
forbids even a bare catalogue of the rest. L, Lady,
R, Robber, T, Topers, V, Villain, Y, Yokel, X,
Xylographer (a happy choice for this alphabet),
Z, Zoologist, are all memorable. In the almanac
the single figures of the alphabet are replaced at
times by groups, and the horses show that the
author of Persimmon (the first published, by the
way, of these engravings) is as well versed in
equine character as in the peculiarities of humanity.
That these volumes will be eagerly acquired by all
FROM A COLOURED PRINT 15Y W. P. NICHOLSON
("An Alphabet." IV. Heinemann)
FROM A COLOURED PRINT BY W. P. NICHOLSON
("An Alphabet.'''' IV. Heinemaun)
lady of Windsor the greatest figure in modern
Europe. Looking at it, we realise the personality
that has been as loyal to British ideals as the
great Empire, which has come to its majority
beneath her sway, has been loyal to its Queen.
Turn from this to the portrait of Madame Bern-
hardt and you find that Mr. Nicholson is not a
player with a single string. The divine Sarah
again witches you with her peculiar fascination.
You go to see her in a new part, full of insular pre-
judice and resolved to remain a perfectly impassive
critic, and before she has spoken a dozen words
you are again a mere abject slave. That is a com-
mon experience ; and in this print you are confronted
not by the erratic lady of the many paragraphs but by
the immortal Sarah who masters you and makes you
credit her with any virtue she cares to claim. The
portrait of Mr. Whistler shows no less distinctly
different quality. It is—Mr. Whistler ; and it would
be hard to add anything to that statement. For
the complex personality that has impressed itself
.alike on foes and friends is not to be defined by
.any statement in words so epigrammatic and com-
plete as is this coloured print.
Two volumes of wood engravings by Mr. Nichol-
son, to be published at popular prices by Mr. Heine-
mann, which will reach the public about the time
this number appears, deserve long columns of ap-
182
Mr. IV. P. Nielwlson
preciation. Yet it were mere fatuity to set oneself
to describe the two dozen designs in An Alphabet,
or the dozen in An Almanac. In the first, A,
for Actor—you have Mr. Nicholson's caricature of
himself in forma pauperis—a most good-humoured
travesty ; and in " B was a Beggar "—it might be
possible to identify his colleague—when as the
Beggarstaff Brothers, Mr. Pryde collaborated with
Mr. Nicholson in the famous series of posters
which it would be an insult to imagine the readers
of this magazine do not know by heart. In C,
for Countess, the shade of Velasquez would delight
could he see it. E, for Earl, or E, for Executioner
(the Edition de Luxe contains the latter subject
which was considered too " gory" for juveniles)
are both as good as they make them, which is
slang, but also accurate. F, a flower girl with her
basket of roses, is notably fine in colour—but space
forbids even a bare catalogue of the rest. L, Lady,
R, Robber, T, Topers, V, Villain, Y, Yokel, X,
Xylographer (a happy choice for this alphabet),
Z, Zoologist, are all memorable. In the almanac
the single figures of the alphabet are replaced at
times by groups, and the horses show that the
author of Persimmon (the first published, by the
way, of these engravings) is as well versed in
equine character as in the peculiarities of humanity.
That these volumes will be eagerly acquired by all
FROM A COLOURED PRINT 15Y W. P. NICHOLSON
("An Alphabet." IV. Heinemann)