DOI Heft:
No. 278 (May 1916)
DOI Artikel:Johnson, A. E.: The line drawings of W. Heath Robinson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21261#0238
The Line Drawings of IV. Heath Robinson
More recently the artist has returned to that
illustration of fairy tales and the like, with which
he began his public appearance and to which his
fanciful mind is so well suited. “ Bill the Minder ”
(Constable) furnished a unique opportunity for his
special talent in this direction, for the sequence of
tales comprised under that title was written by
himself. There are several instances of an author
who has illustrated (not always with the happiest
results) his own writings, but the converse case of
an artist who has turned author in order to provide
material for himself as illustrator is rarer. On the
present occasion the experiment was exceedingly
fortunate, for “ Bill the Minder ” is a book which
one may fairly claim could have been written by no
one but Heath Robinson. As a result the drawings,
treated in the simplest manner, often practically
mere outline, belong to the stories with an intimacy
which rarely exists between text and illustrations.
Other volumes recently illustrated for Messrs.
Constable include Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales
and “ The Water Babies,” and in all one notes
with interest a recrudescence (in polished and
highly accomplished form) of the ideas and
methods which were embodied in such early work
as “ The Arabian Nights,” the poems of Poe, etc.
A most engaging comparison, indeed, can be made
between the Hans Andersen volume to which the
artist contributed some of his first published
drawings, and that only recently issued by Messrs.
Constable. The advance in dexterity and accom-
plishment is naturally considerable, but the per-
sonality behind the work in either case is visibly
the same.
Intervening amidst these fairy-tale illustrations
is the elaborate series of drawings for “ A Mid-
summer Night’s Dream,” which represent, perhaps,
Mr. Heath Robinson’s high-water mark of achieve-
ment at the present moment. This was scarcely
an interlude, for though the play seemed to call
for more “important” drawings (as the dealers
would say), its nature was in keeping with the vein
W-H.R
ILLUSTRATION TO “A SONG OK THE ENGLISH” (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) BY W. HEATH ROBINSON
234
More recently the artist has returned to that
illustration of fairy tales and the like, with which
he began his public appearance and to which his
fanciful mind is so well suited. “ Bill the Minder ”
(Constable) furnished a unique opportunity for his
special talent in this direction, for the sequence of
tales comprised under that title was written by
himself. There are several instances of an author
who has illustrated (not always with the happiest
results) his own writings, but the converse case of
an artist who has turned author in order to provide
material for himself as illustrator is rarer. On the
present occasion the experiment was exceedingly
fortunate, for “ Bill the Minder ” is a book which
one may fairly claim could have been written by no
one but Heath Robinson. As a result the drawings,
treated in the simplest manner, often practically
mere outline, belong to the stories with an intimacy
which rarely exists between text and illustrations.
Other volumes recently illustrated for Messrs.
Constable include Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales
and “ The Water Babies,” and in all one notes
with interest a recrudescence (in polished and
highly accomplished form) of the ideas and
methods which were embodied in such early work
as “ The Arabian Nights,” the poems of Poe, etc.
A most engaging comparison, indeed, can be made
between the Hans Andersen volume to which the
artist contributed some of his first published
drawings, and that only recently issued by Messrs.
Constable. The advance in dexterity and accom-
plishment is naturally considerable, but the per-
sonality behind the work in either case is visibly
the same.
Intervening amidst these fairy-tale illustrations
is the elaborate series of drawings for “ A Mid-
summer Night’s Dream,” which represent, perhaps,
Mr. Heath Robinson’s high-water mark of achieve-
ment at the present moment. This was scarcely
an interlude, for though the play seemed to call
for more “important” drawings (as the dealers
would say), its nature was in keeping with the vein
W-H.R
ILLUSTRATION TO “A SONG OK THE ENGLISH” (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) BY W. HEATH ROBINSON
234