Studio: international art (68.1916)

The Black and White Work of F. H. Townsend

action, and the momentary expression of character, draughtsmanship too, only finding easier, bolder
as well as an intuitive grasp of type, controlled expression.

withal by a buoyant sense of humour, and a just Mr. Townsend was at the Lambeth School of Art
feeling for pictorial essentials. from 1885 to 1889, and his friend and fellow-student

It was in the year 1887 that this now distinguished Mr. A. J. Finberg, in a recent number of The Studio,
black-and-white artist first swam into my ken. gave us a jolly glimpse into the school during that
Aided and abetted by the graphic humours of, period, when there was a notable little group of
Bernard Partridge, Dudley Hardy, G. P. Jacomb genuine students there, all inspired by a real delight
Hood, and others, I was editing, for Mr.—now Sir in art, and all destined to achieve fame. Charles
William—Lever, a little weekly illustrated journal Ricketts, Charles H. Shannon, Raven Hill, F. W.
designed to let sunlight into the homes of the Pomeroy, T. Sturge Moore, these made a stimula-
million, and of course I was on the look-out for ting company to work among. But this stimulus
recruits of talent. Happening to meet Oscar Wilde was not immediately forthcoming. The Antique
one day, he spoke to me of a clever student of the Class, then under the able direction of Mr. William
Lambeth School of Art who was illustrating stories Llewellyn, had to be gone through, but the monotony
■of his—" Lord Arthur Savile's Crime " and " The of the routine work with the stump bored the young
Canterville Ghost"—appearing in the " Court and student, eager to tackle the vital aspects of nature.
Society Review"; and a few days later the editor However, he joined the wood-engraving class at the
of that journal, my friend • Phil Robinson, the City and Guilds of London Institute, Kennington
brilliant war correspondent and most delightful and Park Road, and this proved his artistic salvation,
original of writers on natural history, sent young Not that in wood-engraving Townsend found his
Townsend to me with a letter of introduction, metier any more than did John Leech or Fred
Nineteen years of age, and still in the schools, he Walker, Birket Foster, Walter Crane, or Harry
was already earning something of a livelihood by Furniss; but in that class, directed by Roberts
making comic drawings for one or two very popular of the "Graphic," were also studying Ricketts,
periodicals, while, besides the Oscar Wilde stories, Shannon, and Raven Hill, and later Sturge Moore;
he was illustrating Phil Robinson's vivid records and through the friendly influence of Ricketts and
of war experience and travel adventure, " As told Reginald Savage, Townsend was admitted to the
to the Savages." At once I saw that the' bright Lambeth life-class—then held in the same building
engaging youth had the
true illustrator's happy
adaptability of intuition,
with a facile grace and
freedom of draughtsman-
ship, and during the months
that " Sunlight" ran its
merry course its pages were
brightened by Townsend's
drawings, the social scene,
the humorous incident,
and the romantic illustra-
tion. From the first his
versatility was in evidence,
and when one looks at
those drawings done just
twenty-nine years ago,
comparing them with his
work of to-day, one may
see how the boy was
father to the man; the
constructive pictorial sense
was there from the earliest,

only simplifying with de- T.H"Pow*j,sr»« o ©&

velopment; the vivacity of drawwg for chelsea artsclub fancy ball programme, by f. h. townsend

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