The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19

An Art That Has Developed Greatly
Within Recent Years.


George Wharton Edwards, in the Outlook.
In writing this caption 1 am irresistibly
reminded of u story which a prominent
American illustrator once told me, amusing
ly defining the state of illustration before
the new era The artist in question was
employed by one of the large publishing
houses, and, moved by. letter which he
had received from friend who had gone
to Munich to study art, in which the stu
dent pictured the joys of the art school
and the fine models which were so easily
obtainable there, he determined to ask per-
mission to the model in his work. In
this particular publishing house the art de-
partment was a lofty ceiled room, with a
row of tables upon the side nearest the
windows, each table partitioned off from its
neighbor, and before each an artist bust
ly engaged in drawing upon the wooden
block The artist in question approached
his chief, and, with some hesitation, asked
for a model. Now, in all the years that the
chief had spent at his desk such request
had never before been made, for all the
drawings were evolved from the inner con-
sciousness Of the artist, stimulated by files
News. The chief gazed up at the young
artist through his spectacles in -astonish-
ment while the latter explained his re-
did not know about it, He would ask the
house" In a short time the house" in
before him, explained in some trepidation
the curious request he had made,
Models? models? Who ever heard of
such a thing? 1t cannot be, sir. Our artists
are expected to do without models-they
must have gone beyond all that sort of
thing-they are expected to have their
heads, SIR And so, for that day, the QueS-
ton of models was decided, but 1t was the
entering wedge, and in six months time the
young artist who had urged the need of
models in order to be able to do good and
artistic work, and from whom practically
the new movement in American illustration
started. had received permission from the
House" to hire studio in the uptown dis
trict and have all the models he required.
One by one the other illustrators who were
his companions at the little tables followed
his course, and finally all the work of the
artists was done away from the printing
house, and the little penned-up tables were
nut to other uses From this time on the
illustration of books received new birth.
and in a few years the entire method had
new processes the work of the artist-that
is to say, his individual touch-was brought
forth with truth and fidelity, the wooden
block was abandoned, and artists drew in
whatever medium their fancy dictated
Models, too, at first scarce almost to the
unknown, became little by little more plen-
tiful, until finally to-day each artist has
his address-book quite filled with the names
of models as good II not as cheap as are
to be found abroad But 1t was not until
about fifteen years ago that artists Sc
riously turned their attention to drawing
for illustration. Before that time there had
ou rn' tiiied the demand Of the pTblishers
for illustration. The demand upon them
was not very exhaustive. The publisher
and asked him to make picture illustrat-
ing certain line or lines, and the illus
traitor was expected to furnish a picture
which fitted these lines and no others; he
had no latitude in the matter. II Sir Gala
had in the lines of the manuscript grasped
the heroine by the arm, then the artist must
so show him in the picture. He was not
expected to exercise his own imagination;
and so art was still in letters, so to speak,
and things went easily for a space But all
this time young men were going abroad.
and taking to themselves the advantages of
the Julian and the Collarossi schools, the
Beaux Arts in Paris. and the schools of
Munich and Antwerp as we'll. These young
men now began to return to America after
from three to five years spent in the best
schools of Europe, and as result art
awakened, the publishers found that there
were better artists to be had than the old
stand-bys and consequently the young men
soon had all that they could do. The art
OF illustration changed here again; the art
lists were permitted to select their own SUBJ
jects in the manuscript for illustration. The
result was that the eyes or Europe were
turned towards the United States, for here