The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1893-02-16
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
Report for Glass ID by c.. K.)


Report for Glass ID by G.. K.}
Illustration may be divided into ten groups:
first those which depict manners and customs.
and the life of man and beast; second. those i'll
which mems thoughts and creations already
given to the world in another FORM as in liter
allure and tradition. are taken and used as sub
iect by the artist. The earliest illustrations are
as old as writings, and are indeed symbolic writ
ings recording the social religious, and pOlit-
ical life of the people. The Egyptians had fig
ures carved on blocks of stone; the pictures on
Greek vases and the wall paintings at Pompeii
are Illustrations and all belong to the first
group. What we mean when we speak of illus
tratiOns to-day, are included in the second
group and unlike the earlier works. which exists
in single example. the artists designs are
multiplied thousapdfold by the various pro-
cesses of reproduction. Du Halde is authority
for the statement. that the Chinese printed pic
lures from plates blocks as early as 112O b. c.
In the West. we find the Italians printing
from blocks in 1888; the Germans making prints
of saints at the beginning of the fifteenth cent
ury. and Finguerra using cOpper-p plates in Flor
ence in 146l. The painter Botticelli gave his at
tentiOn to -cOpper-plates engraving. and others
followed his example. Since the days of Albert
Durer, the Italian painters have been drawing
from reproductions. and at the present time half
of those that used the brush have worked more
or less in the field of illustration. as we use the
term and some have made in it reputation that
Outshine those that gained it painting pictures.
We have many worthy artists who do nothing
but illustrations. and who rarely paint picture
or draw in cOOrs. In the United States great
progress has been made in the past twelve or
fifteen years. Some of the best of cur painters
have devoted a large part of their time to Illus
tratiOnS, and to the work done by illustrators.
The artists who work almost exclusively in black
and white for the magazines and Illustrated
journals. have steadily improved in their work.
To-day, illustration is the regular profession of
host of men and wOmen-a number of painters
who find it a source of income that permits them
to paint pictures according to their individual
tastes. without regard TO the question of pOpII-
farity with the public. 1t is the serious Occupa-
ton of others, too. who find in it some work Of
poetry or fiction: subjects with which their
temperament is in sympathy. The opportunity
is also given to make drawings that are in no
sense to be COMPOUNDED with what is known a.
hack work. even when it is Of such excellence
that it seems unjust to apply TO it a name that
suggests in itself lack of true artistic interest
In considering the subject of illustration. we
must say a word at the outset about the dictum
of certain critics who maintain that Illustration.
as such, is unnecessary: and that it is bad art.
IF an idea or scene is portrayed in words. they
contend: What reason is there for another
man to do it over again in another FORM" If
in poem. play, or story a thing is we'll done.
the illustration will be inferior or. in a few
eases, perhaps. it will he better as Il work of art
than the text which furnished the subject. If.
in the first case. the designers work is super
fuous, in the second. the picture will live. and
the original III its literary form will be forgotten
for the world will not want both If this is not
plain reverse the proposition, and fancy man
writing poem about picture. What can he
tell that is not already told on the canvas and
how can he express in words what the artist has
only been able to convey TO the sense by means
of form and color: This is speciOus argument
but It's not sound one. While it may be true
that good deal of the current illustration is in
feriOr, it serves a useful purpose in the propaga
ton of a loose art among people who would not
without it see nothing whatever worthy OF the
name. Wood cuts and photographers from the
designs of competent artists, in the illustrated
papers and magazines are far better food fol
the people. in homes distant from the art centre
than the cheap chrOmos and cheaper steel en-
cravings that used to be about all there was il
such houses in the way of pictures of any de
scriptiOn. The relative merit of illustration. anC
its subject in literature. are not in question. II
our country. at least. it is ndiSputabe that more
has been done through the medium of illustrated
literature to make the masses of the people real
iZe that there is such thing art. and that il
is worth caring about after all. any way
AS to the best work in the field of illustration
when the artist has found in literature something
that appears to him as subject he would like tt
treat in pictorial form, we are not forced to de
eide in our opinion which is the better, the au
thOr'S word Oicture or the artists Instrumentation