Studio: international art (48.1910)

The Lay Figure

THE LAY FIGURE : ON ILLUS- myself who were most anxious to excel as illustra-

TRATING BOOKS PROPERLY. tors. Do not men of this type maintain the dignity
of the art ? "

"I have had occasion lately to look "They do their best, I honestly believe," an-

through a large number of illustrated books of swered the Critic, " but they cannot—because they

various dates," said the Art Critic, " and, as a are too few—dominate modern illustration and set

result, I am very much inclined to argue that the a sane fashion in it. They have only too often

art of illustration has lost of late years a good deal to yield to bad influences and to allow the casual

of its vitality and much of its earlier character." taint to appear in their own work."

" How can you say that?" cried the Art Master. "What do you mean by the casual taint?"

" Why, personally, I should take exactly the asked the Man with the Red Tie.

opposite point of view, that illustration has never " I mean that want of proper connection be-

been so flourishing as it is at the present time, and tween the book and its illustrations which is so

that never before has it been practised so success- often to be seen in modern publications," said the

fully by a host of distinguished artists." Critic. " If you take up a book of the ordinary

"You mean that never before have there been kind you will find scattered at random among

so many artists trying to eke out a precarious the pages of letterpress a few small pictures of

existence by drawing in black-and-white," laughed incidents in the story. They do not as a rule add

the Man with the Red Tie. " Most of these anything to the interest of the book or help to

distinguished men have gone in for illustrated work make the story more intelligible: they seem to

because they realise that it is useless to go on have dropped in by accident and they could be

painting pictures that they cannot sell." taken out without anyone missing them. They

" That may or may not be their reason for join- would fit almost any other story as well as they do

ing the ranks of the illustrators," returned the Art the one with which they happen to be bound up.

Master; " but at any rate it is plainly an advantage I do not call that book illustration ; it is meaning-

that this particular branch of art should gain so less and purposeless, it does no credit to the artist

many new workers of the best professional and is of no assistance to the author. It is only

standing." a concession to a fashion that ought not to be

" Not necessarily," broke in the Critic; " book encouraged."

illustration, I take it, is not a kind of minor art to " What is your alternative ? " enquired the Art

which any type of artist can turn when he likes, Master. " What else can be done ? "

and in which he can expect to be successful as a " The illustrations can be treated so as to

matter of course." form an essential part of the book as a whole,"

"Then you are adopting a standpoint which declared the Critic. " They should be considered

neither professional nor public opinion would as decorative details of the greatest value, and

accept," replied the Man with the Red Tie. should be in the atmosphere of the publication

" Nearly all the artists I know look upon illustrative and directly related to it. The decorations of your

work as merely a means of filling up time that house, if they are rightly planned, have an

cannot be profitably given to any other kind of inseparable connection with the architecture of the

practice. They do not really care for it, but they building, your garden is laid out to enhance the

think it is fairly easy, and it pays tolerably well, so beauty of the house which it surrounds; why

they are quite ready to turn to it when the occasion should not the illustrations in your books be dealt

arises." with in the same manner, to add to the impression

"And that is why I say that illustration has of which the author seeks to convey, and to make

late lost both vitality and character," argued the the whole production a piece of consistent beauty ?

Critic. " When an art comes to be looked upon Of course this would mean that there should

as a sort of refuge for the destitute, when it is be closer communion between the artist and the

practised in a spirit of expediency rather than con- writer than there seems to be in most cases at

viction, when it is unwillingly followed as a kind of present, and that the illustrator would have to be

casual employment, it must suffer in dignity and more a serious designer than a painter of episodes,

go down in quality." But if once the decorative possibilities of book

" But you forget that there are many artists who illustration were generally realised I think it could

devote themselves entirely to this form of work," be done, and it would be the right way."

protested the Art Master. " I have trained several The Lay Figure.
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