Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1884-07-11
pn MdURiER
ceiiessten Of His Dcawinss- HIS Art as Com
..rea wita That OF Leech.


pared wIsh That OF Leech.
There are brought together at the rooms
Of the Fine Art Society, says the London
Sfonddrd. collection OF between TWO anu
three hundred drawings by Mr.. George ou
Maurer. Mos. Of them are the oTigins'sci
now familiar wood-cuts In Punch, ana we
are glad OF this, for, on the wnole, snese
are the things that represent MI. pu siau-
rier the best. lie has done mucn o.ner
work. Some Of II has appeared con'inu-
ously in q monthly magazine, put ,.is
has been the work OF iliis'rat.ns Tue
conceptions Of otner people. ana MT. Du
Maurier IL least happy when his pencn Is =.
the service of an Imagination, not only not
his own. but often In little sympathy with
his own. His IL by no means talent that
car easily identify Itself with that OF an
other. Crmkshank was at one with H1rri-
son Ainsworth; Habiot Browne was en-
tirely et one with Dickens; each novelist
bpd In the artist who attended him per-
feet illustrator. But Du Maurier, when he
illustrates. is often anything but perfect.
He ceases TO be himself. or is only his most
manneied self; the spirit, the quality, mas
foo much gone out OF him. lie Is lar
too original In his vision OF LIE and
character TO place himself In ready
union with the last chance sue
cess of a writer OF romance. He does him.
selfjustlce only when he invents his subject,
or. at the least, only when bis subject Is
invented by somebody who understands
the artist for whom the theme Is Is to be
found. MIR. Du Maurier has too distinct
message OF his own to deliver-that mes
sage. the record OF our social weaknesses
and our trivial ambitions-for 1t TO be pos
sible TO him TO deliver with equal effect the
more foreign message culled from the text
of novelist. But the pages OF Punch Tor
now nearly twenty years have been happily
omen to him, and therein week by week he
has preached his own sermon. Ills sermon
Is picture OF
ENGLISH POLITE LIFE.
Here, in couple OF hundred drawings,
are seen over and over again, yet with Won
derful variety, the figures Of the foreign
ambassador, the fashionable ecclesiastic,
the duchess, the aspiring mistress OF
salon. the accepted artists, the young Ok
oman. the athletic young woman, the I'M
calmly spinster who has spoken to the
Doint at st. James Hall. He knows
not Camden Town. nor Brixton, nor
"Tbe Dials," nor the East End.
Outside a lmited-but it is tolera-
bly ex,onsive-world he makes but Oc-
casiona excursions. Now and then he
draws us fshwiie Of Dieppe, or sailor
of Whltby. The hand is not then weaker
than II il were enga. ed IN drawing a dean
in vogue or a talked-about beauty. But it
returns shortly TO its proper task-resumes
the occupation OF its particular province.
And the province Of Mr.. Du Maurler Is the
polite world. Thirty years ago that was
the province OF Richard Doyle; at the same
period il was the province OF Thlcke-
ray. But thirty years ago the polite
world was smaller, Thackeray's fashionable
Young man-the young man who, best OF
all. was aware what duties he owed t. him
seli-"neyeT went north OF Oxford street"
Nowadays it would be practically irposs-
bic for him TO be faithful 10 so exalted IN
ideal. The most suaye and polished OF Mr..
Du Maurier's youthful heroes is perfec ly
at home at Hampstead. To the world OF
"the great" there has been added in Mr..
Du Maurier's art the larger world OF the
cultivated" When that has been once
said there has been expressed in briel the
subject OF all his pictures.
With two or three hundred drawings be-
fore us il would be futile 70 refer to many
specimens as better or worse than the rest.
The Immature work--if there was any i'm
mature work-has been LETT wholly aside.
The drawings that are here exposed express
Mr.. Du Maurier's own spirit, and, with
scarcely an exception, have been wrought
since the time at which he. acquired fun
command OF his means. II would have
been interesting as
A CURIOSITY
TO have inspected the first two or three
sketches he ever contributed TO Punch.
They are OF about two and twenty years
back, and, if we remember rightly, are
wrought completely in the manner OF
John Leech. Du Maurier had not then
discovered his own types; and hg was
stepping, as youth. into place MADE hon
oiable by the success Of predecessor
whom il was both polite and natural to
begin by following. But reference to
an old volume OF Punch will show
us how very soon Du Maurier, who had
begun in the way OF another. found his
own. And at the Fine Art SOciety's rooms
we sec him only rs himself. Comparisons
between himself and Leech. however
odorous," will be inevitable. But com,
parison is unjust, for Leech was man or
genius, and Du Maurier is only an artist OF
talent. Ihe humOf OF Ltech II lorali u-c''
The humor OF Du Maurier will be I'M
known fifty years hence. His girls are Of
finer race, that tail, 1.-THE, active type OF
beauty i'm whose favor the merely
"chubby" and full-blown has been
wisely dcposed. But his children
are less invariably satisfactory. They
are true, no doubt, to the restless, ner-
vous, over.stmuated type which is type
Of the day: but with an ideal in girlhOod
an artist may have an ideal in childhood
beside, and in the children of Mr.. Du
MaurIer's art we could wish for little
more Of the fine simplicity not yet quite
vanished. and, when perceived at all, GER
taiuly perceived not the least among the
classes TO which, with rare exceptions. Mr..
Du Maurier has devoted the whole OF his
piquant and intensely observant work.