Part 21
On every side I trace the growth of the same spirit. England is devoting itself to art, politics, literature and theology, and in the rush and hurry of our modern life there is a sad danger that sport will be underrated or overlooked. My countrymen must learn to concentrate their minds on the things which really matter. In your nobler moments would you not rather stand at the wicket than at the table of the House of Commons, or on the political platform of the City Temple, or on the stage of the Alhambra? Save her sport and you save England.
Modern journalistic methods are reduced to absurdity in the account of the staff of a daily paper, who are all football players, cricketers, clairvoyants, crystal-gazers, music-hall artists, or burglars. In the verses on "Journalistic Evolution," in 1907, the tendency to condense everything is specially noted. Leaders have become "leaderettes," and will in turn yield to "leaderettelets"; the writer prophesies a day when _The Times_ will only consist of headlines.
Dasent's _Life of Delane_ appeared in 1908, and _Punch's_ reviewer reminds us of the commanding position occupied by that great editor, who was consulted by all Premiers, except Gladstone, and to whom Palmerston actually offered office. The gist and sting of the review, however, is to be found in a sentence not merely true but almost tragic in its bearings on the history of English journalism:--
Delane accepted the favour of contributions by Cabinet Ministers to his news-chest, but he recognized that the power and influence of _The Times_ were based upon the foundations of public spirit, concern for national interest, and absolute impartiality in dealing with statesmen.
[Illustration: PENNY WISDOM
("In view of the grave importance of the present political situation, _The Times_ will be reduced in price to a penny."--Press Association.)]
_The Times_ passed under the financial control of Lord Northcliffe at the beginning of 1908, and in the spring of 1914, "in view of the grave importance of the political situation," its price was reduced to one penny. _Punch's_ comment took the form of a cartoon in which the new Dictator of Printing House Square is shown as a salesman at the door of the "Northcliffe Stores" with the legend on a slate, "Thunder is cheap to-day."
[Sidenote: _Homage to Andrew Lang_]
By way of contrast with hustling methods _Punch_ had noted with regret the passing in 1905 of _Longman's Magazine_, in whose pages Mr. Andrew Lang had for many years presided so gracefully "At the Sign of the Ship":--
Formerly, when, sated by sensation, Gentle readers sought an air serene, Refuge from the snapshot's domination Might be found in _Longman's Magazine_.
There at least the roaring cult of dollars Never took its devastating way; There the pens of gentlemen and scholars Held their uncontaminating sway.
There no parasitic bookman prated, No malarious poetasters sang, There all themes were touched and decorated By your nimble fancy, Andrew Lang.
True, some hobbies you were always riding, --Spooks and spies and totemistic lore; But so deft, so dext'rous was your guiding, No one ever labelled you a bore.
But alas! the landmarks that we cherish, Standing for the earlier, better way, Vanquished by vulgarity must perish, Overthrown by "enterprise" decay.
Still with fairy books will you regale us, Still pay homage to the sacred Nine, But no more hereafter will you hail us Monthly at the Ship's familiar Sign.
There no longer faithfully and gaily Will you deal alike with foes and friends, Wherefore, crying "Ave, atque vale!" _Punch_ his parting salutation sends.
_Punch_ had his own losses to deplore, for in August, 1897, the death of Mr. E. J. Milliken removed a most valuable and fertile member of his staff. Mr. Milliken was not only the creator of "'Arry," and a fluent and dexterous versifier, but he combined with a retentive and accurate memory "the rare talent of most happily applying past literature, whether in history or fiction, to the illustration of contemporary instances," and for a long time had been the chief cartoon-suggester. A longer and more distinguished connexion with _Punch_ was severed in 1906 by the retirement of Sir Frank Burnand after forty-three years' service. He joined in 1863, as the youngest of the staff, and held the editorship for over twenty-five years. In "Just a Few Words at Parting" he defines the aim of the editor in words worthy of remembrance. If _Punch_ was to hold securely the position he had achieved, it should and must be "to provide relaxation for all, fun for all, without a spice of malice or a suspicion of vulgarity, humour without a flavour of bitterness, satire without reckless severity, and nonsense so laughter-compelling as to be absolutely irresistible from its very absurdity." The precept hardly covers the higher function assumed by _Punch_ in "The Song of the Shirt," but, as it stands, had assuredly been faithfully carried into practice by the master of exhilarating burlesque, the intrepid parodist, the author of the immortal _Happy Thoughts_. As for the personal affection that he inspired in his staff, it is truly expressed in the farewell lines addressed to him by "R. C. L.":--
Dear Frank, our fellow-fighter, how noble was your praise, How kindly rang your welcome on those delightful days When, gathered in your presence, we cheered each piercing hit, And crowned with joy and laughter the rapier of your wit.
And if our words grew bitter, and wigs, that should have been Our heads' serene adornment, were all but on the green, How oft your sunny humour has shone upon the fray, And fused our fiery tempers, and laughed our strife away!
FINE ARTS, DRAMA AND MUSIC
I have noticed in earlier volumes with what asperity _Punch_ assailed the conventionalities of academic and Royal Academic Art; how he became, for a while at any rate, a convert to Pre-Raphaelitism; how, later on, the exhibitors at the Grosvenor Gallery superseded the exponents of fashionable orthodoxy at Burlington House as the targets of his satire; and with what unremitting and undiscriminating zeal he "belaboured" all representatives of the Æsthetic movement. The further progress of this reaction can be traced throughout the first half of the period now under review. In the 'nineties Aubrey Beardsley was his special _bête noire_; in the early years of the new century the Impressionist school, and by 1910 the Post-Impressionists, furnish him with unfailing matter for caricature. It was not that those who stood on the old ways were exempt from criticism. Year after year the annual summer show at Burlington House never failed to receive a punctual tribute from pen and pencil. But for the most part these notices are inspired by irresponsible frivolity--a desire to extract fun by burlesquing the titles and subjects and treatment quite foreign to the spirit in which _Punch_ had addressed himself to the task in the 'fifties, and even later. The private view of the Academy became for _Punch_ an annual excuse for an explosion of punning, and the illustrations were a faithful counterpart of the text. Yet criticism occasionally emerges from this carnival of jocularity, as when Mr. Sargent's cavalier treatment of details is noted in 1895; or when _Punch_ in 1902 suggests that the formidable congestion of pictures at the R.A. might be relieved by hanging some of them in the refreshment room; or when he writes in 1904:--
An interesting exhibit at the Royal Academy is a drawing executed by the artist when he was only sixteen years of age. Quite a feature of the show, too, is the number of pictures by artists over that age which have the appearance of having been painted by artists under that age.
In 1908 _Punch_ satirized a then prevalent fashion in his drawing of the "Problem Room" at Burlington House, crowded with perplexed spectators dropping their solutions into a box marked "Puzzle Picture Syndicate." When the "Rokeby Venus" was damaged by a militant suffragist in 1914, _Punch_ suggested that the offender ought to be made to serve her term of imprisonment in the Royal Academy--a remark quite in the spirit of his old art-critic, Charles Eastlake.
The oblique and ironical method is admirably employed in the dramatized conversations of visitors to the Academy and other exhibitions. In the sketch "Round the R.A." in 1893 the schoolmistress and her bored pupils, the complacent Briton giving himself away at every turn to his French friend, and the prosaic and practical person, are all drawn from the quick. The orthodox verdict is "quite up to the average--such delightful puppies and kittens," while the rebellious pupil of the edifying Miss Pemmican remarks, "Bother the beastly old Academy. I wish it was burnt, I do!"
From the same hand, seventeen years later, comes an equally illuminating sketch of the visitors to the Grafton Galleries--art-student, precious young painter, young City man, high-brow critic, matter-of-fact lady, and the frank and immortal Philistine only moved to unseemly mirth when his friend remarks, "Drawing to the Synthesist is entirely unimportant in solving the problem how the artist may best express his own temperament." _Punch_ often found himself driven into the ranks of the Philistines in self-defence; anyhow, he always preferred the way of Gath to that of gush. In "An Old Master's Growl" in 1895 the speaker declares that the mass of the people only enjoyed the annual summer show; the few who came to see the Old Masters mostly came to be seen. But the ancients were not annoyed, it was only what they expected:--
We expect it--I said just as much to Vandyck-- There's but one in a hundred that comes who'll descry The Beauty of Art. It's the sham I dislike: Well--good-bye!
[Sidenote: _Leighton and Millais_]
From the other end of the scale comes another "growl" in the same year--that of the professional model, in Phil May's picture, against Burne-Jones who had recently made a drawing of Labour for the _Daily Chronicle_: "I reckon 'e'll be on the pavement next." Personalities, rather than principles or theories, interested _Punch_ at this period, and in 1896 and 1897 the circle of his eminent Victorian friends was reduced by the passing of three ornaments of British Art, all of them Academicians and two successively presidents of the Academy. Of the two sets of verses on Leighton, the second is much the better. _Punch_ takes for his text Watts's saying that Leighton had painted many pictures, but that his life was nobler than them all:--
_Noblesse oblige_: his manners matched his art; Fine painter-skill, the bearing of a prince.
The writer alludes to the malignant disparagement indulged in by his detractors and sums up:--
Great if not quite among the greatest, here A noble artist of a noble life Rests with a fame that lives, and need not fear Detraction or the hour's ephemeral strife.
Leighton's generosity and munificence to brother artists deserved all and more than all that _Punch_ said: his fame as an artist has hardly borne out the prediction of the last couplet. Sir John Millais, his successor, was linked by more intimate ties from the days of _Once a Week_. Du Maurier was one of his dearest friends, and _Punch_ claimed to have been alone, save for the _Spectator_, in acclaiming the genius of his early work. As he happily says, "from P.R.B, to P.R.A.--that tale is worth the telling." Millais only lived a few months to enjoy his honour, and on his death in the summer of 1896 _Punch_ dwelt on his triple endowment of health, heartiness and power, his entirely English spirit, his mastery as a painter, and his genius for friendship.
Sir John Gilbert, who died a year later, was an old comrade and contributor. He had designed the fourth wrapper in January, 1843--Doyle's final design was not adopted till six years later--and contributed intermittently to _Punch_ down to 1882. His robust and spirited talent as an illustrator is acknowledged in _Punch's_ tribute:--
The faded history of courts and kings Touched by your spell took on its former hue; You made the daily art of common things Fresh as the morning dew.
A deeper note is sounded in _Punch's_ salutation of Watts on his death in 1904, when he recognizes the fidelity of that illustrious artist to his conception of the high mission of Art and his well-known repudiation of the maxim "Art for Art's Sake":--
His means were servants to the end in view And not the end's self; so his heart was wise To hold--as they have held, the chosen few-- High failure dearer than the easy prize.
Now lifted face to face with unseen things, Dimly imagined in the lower life, He sees his Hope renew her broken strings, And _Love and Death_ no more at bitter strife.
[Sidenote: _Punch on Aubrey Beardsley_]
To retrace our steps to the 'nineties, it must be admitted that _Punch_ enjoyed himself more in belabouring Beardsley than in saluting established reputations. Seeing nothing in his work but a wilful, exotic and decadent _bizarrerie_, _Punch_ assailed him under various _aliases_, all of them grotesque and uncomplimentary. In 1893 the famous Beardsley "poster" for the Avenue Theatre inspired the lines headed "Ars Postera," which begin:--
Mr. Aubrey Beer de Beers, You're getting quite a high renown; Your Comedy of Leers, you know, Is posted all about the town; This sort of stuff I cannot puff, As Boston says, it makes me "tired": Your Japanee-Rossetti girl Is not a thing to be desired.
Mr. Aubrey Beer de Beers, New English Art (excuse the chaff) Is like the Newest Humour style, It's not a thing at which to laugh: But all the same, you need not maim A beauty reared on Nature's rules; A simple maid _au naturel_ Is worth a dozen spotted ghouls.
[Illustration: THE DISCOMFITURE OF THE PHILISTINES
On being presented with artful and crafty puzzle by artistic friend. (Query--Is it the right way up? And, if so, _what_ is it?)]
_Punch_ pursued his pet aversion from pillar to post--or poster--with caricatures of his types, compared to "Stygian Sphinxes, Chimæras in soot, problems in Euclid gone mad." Mr. Beardsley, however, was not the only emancipated artist who came under _Punch's_ lash. In a notice of an Exhibition at the Dudley Gallery, Mr. Sickert's picture of "The Sisters Lloyd" prompts the comment, "To be more original than the originals is to paint the piccalilli and gild the refined ginger-bread." By 1901 _Punch_ had become much impressed and exasperated by the modern cult of ugliness, and in 1902 began the first of a succession of travesties of modern impressionist art--"The Garden Party," "The Picnic," "A Dutch Landscape," in which all the negligible features are accentuated and the important ones left out. Another ingenious series belonging to the same year is that of illustrations of "Mary had a Little Lamb" in the style of Marcus Stone, Goodall, Clausen, Alma-Tadema, Dana Gibson, Albert Moore, John Collier, Briton Rivière, etc. These are executed in a spirit of friendly burlesque, very different from the notice of Mr. Gordon Craig's drawings, which is a masterpiece of adroit belittlement. "His drawing-power as an actor," we read, "is only equalled by his drawing-power as an artist"; and _Punch_ kindly recommends him "to confine, or extend, his art almost entirely to designing nursery wall-papers."
The exuberances of "_nouveau art_" had already elicited the cry of the visitor (in Du Maurier's picture in 1894) on being shown round her friend's new house: "Oh, _Liberty_, how many crimes are committed in thy name!"--a joke repeated from an earlier volume.[8] Nine years later the angularities of the new "Artful and Crafty" furniture are held up to well-merited ridicule. But it is only right to add that in 1897, in "The Pendulum of Taste"--an imaginative forecast of the sale of old furniture in the year 1996--_Punch_ indulges in a comprehensive and entirely damaging review of the monstrosities of Victorian furniture and decoration: groups of fruit in wax; hideous gaseliers; terrible chromolithographs; a tea-cosy embroidered with holly-berries in crewel work; a kneeling statuette of the infant Samuel; chairs and sofa in mahogany, upholstered in horsehair; a Kidderminster carpet "with a striking design of large nosegays on a ground of green moss"; and a complete set of antimacassars in wool and crochet. Mr. Galsworthy's minute description of the "Mausoleum," in which old Timothy Forsyte, the last and most long-lived of his generation, lived or rather vegetated down to and through the War, is much on the same lines. But _Punch_, being nearly twice as old as Mr. Galsworthy, had spent a good part of his life amid these surroundings.
[Footnote 8: The Botticelli joke in the same year was new. One man is afraid he made an ass of himself because, when asked if he liked Botticelli, he had said that he preferred Chianti, and his friend kindly explains that Botticelli is not a wine but a cheese.]
[Sidenote: _Art Definitions_]
The principles and theory of art-criticism, as I have noted above, did not trouble _Punch_ greatly in the first twelve or fifteen years of this period. He was mainly concerned with the robust expression of his likes and dislikes. But by 1908 he had become slightly infected by the new psychology of art, and by way of clarifying the atmosphere launched the following list of definitions:--
ART
(A glossary for the opening of the R.A.)
An Artist is a person who paints what he thinks he sees.
An Amateur is a person who thinks he paints what he sees.
An Impressionist is a person who paints what other people think he sees.
A Popular Artist is a person who paints what other people think they see.
A Successful Artist is a person who paints what he thinks other people see.
A Great Artist is a person who paints what other people see they think.
A Failure is a person who sees what other people think they paint.
A Portraitist is a person who paints what other people don't think he sees.
A Landscape Painter is a person who doesn't paint what other people see.
A Realist is a person who sees what other people don't paint.
An Idealist is a person who paints what other people don't see.
The Hanging Committee are people who don't see what other people think they paint.
A Royal Academician is a person who doesn't think and paints what other people see.
A Genius is a person who doesn't see and paints what other people don't think.
A Critic is a person who doesn't paint and thinks what other people don't see.
The Public are people who don't see or think what other people don't paint.
A Dealer is a person that sees that people who paint don't think, and who thinks that people who don't paint don't see. He sees people who don't see people who paint; he thinks that people who paint don't see people who see; and he sees what people who don't paint think.
FINALLY
A Reader is a person whose head swims.
The art critics accredited to the daily Press, like their musical colleagues, could no longer be accused of lagging behind the modernist tendencies of the times: they aspired to be in the van of progress. In 1913 _Punch_ burlesques the wonderful phraseology of _The Times_ art critic in one of his "Studies of reviewers," which deals with the exhibitors at the Neo-British Art League. It may suffice to quote the appreciations of Mme. Strulda Brugh and Mr. Marcellus Thom. The method of the former, as illustrated by her "Pekinese Puppies," is contrasted with that of the Congestionist school in that she "deanthropomorphizes her scheme of pigmentation into nodules of aplanatic voluminosity":--
When therefore we have to assume a fluorescent reticulation of the interstitial sonorities, a situation is developed which might well baffle any but an advanced expert in transcendental mathematics. As a result the modelling of the puppies' tails is lacking in curvilinear conviction; their heads fail in canine suggestiveness, their fore-paws in prehensile subjectivity.
Mr. Marcellus Thom's "Sardine Fishers in the Adriatic," executed in "creosoted truffle stick," is a masterpiece of "suppressed but dignified antinomianism":--
Wonderful though the drawing and the interfiltration of coordinating paraboloids are, it is the psychological content of the picture rather than its direct presentative significance which affects the solar plexus of the enlightened onlooker. The whole atmosphere is summarized and condensed in a circumambient and oleaginous aura.... To do full justice to such a picture is unhappily beyond the resources of the most sublime preciosity. It demands the [Greek: esôterikê phlyaria] of Theopompus of Megalocrania or even the _intima desipientia_ distilled in the _Atopiad_ of Vesanus Sanguinolentus.
[Illustration: The Hanging Committee _Sir Hubert Herkomer_, R.A.]
[Illustration: Portrait of Miss Guldheimer _J. Sargent, R.A._]
[Illustration: The Young Squire's Wedding _H. H. La Thangue, A.R.A._]
[Illustration: "The red orb sinks, the toiler's day is done" _B. W. Leader, R.A._]
The new spirit in Art had already been burlesqued by one of _Punch's_ artists in a series of "intelligent anticipations" of the work of Herkomer, Sargent, Leader and La Thangue as executed in the Futuristic Style; and again in Mr. Haselden's Paulo-Post-Impressionist portraits of various celebrities in the _Almanack_ for 1913. In the same year Mr. Sargent's decision to withdraw from portraiture is commemorated in a fancy picture of "an old Chelsea Gateway," where, beneath the name "John S. Sargent" hangs a notice, "No Bottles, No Circulars, No Hawkers, No Portraits." Here, I may add, that _Punch_ had, three years earlier, with the aid of Mr. George Morrow's ingenious pencil, duly chronicled the decay of flattery in contemporary portrait painting.
Three notable additions to the Art Galleries of London were made during this period. The opening of the National Portrait Gallery, in 1896, is recorded in Sambourne's picture of Britannia welcoming British worthies to their new home: "at last we can give you a roof over your heads." The Tate Gallery, opened in the following year, is welcomed with a profusion of puns on the name of the donor; and the installation of the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, in 1900, prompts the observation that "millions after all have their utility." The sensational abduction and recovery of the famous portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire impelled _Punch_ to cry, "_Vive la Grande Duchesse!_" over the "loss and Gain-sborough picture." Another famous portrait of a Duchess--Holbein's superb Christina of Milan--was in danger of being permanently lost to England in 1909, when _Punch_, in "Hans across the sea," portrayed an American dealer with a bag of dollars dragging the Duchess away with the comment: "Once aboard the liner, and the gyurl is mine!" The peril, however, was averted, and Christina still remains with us in London.
[Sidenote: _Tenniel, Phil May and Sambourne_]