New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-08-10
TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED oOTI hr !

owed nothing. he thinks. to Shakesnaa-.
whose world is so abundantiy Illuminated b
idealism. 1t was HOgarth's destiny he mar
tains, to be among Englishmen the e.,
and, in a sense. the only true reaIist Rr.
adds Nj. Filon, his realism. very different from,
that of the French artist is inseparable from n
moral intention, and he calls him. happily. AN
English Moliere. In successive chapters he dis
cusses Hogarth as commentator on the social
traits of his time, dramatist in pictorial
art and political satirist. For English
readers these chapters perhaps over
burdened with descriptive passages, yet Wa
must confess that familiarity with the original
designs has not dulled our appreciation of this
writer's survey of them. He is eloquent over
their truth and their force, over their almost
passionate intensity OF feeling, and over the
consummate skill with which the artist crowded
innumerable details within the limits Of single
caricature, and yet preserved an artistic as
well as a didactic unity in his work. Also be
delights in his herOs good faith, deprecatins
the prejudice which swayed Hogarth when at
lacking the French, but tacitIy acknowledging
that under the circumstances things could not
well have been otherwise. He shrinks from
calling him an artist of genius. considering that
the epfthet is scarcely the one to apply to a
man whose principal qualities were those OF
patience and observation, judgment and reiec-
ton. He quotes the anecdote OF Hogarth on his
deatbbed warming his wife not to sell his be-
loved picture. ..Sigisrnunda," for less than $500
as an Illustration OF the kind of practically
which is not usually associated with artistic
genius He calls him, in an apt phrase,
piler of psychological data But NJ Filon cares
too much for Hogarth to worry about the title
to be bestowed upon him The main thing. he
Sees is that this caricaturist was great in his
hal he a
pieces in which extraordinary skill is Joined to
profound understanding of human nature.
The other important figures studied by NJ
F'lon are RowIandsOn and Gillray. both OF
whom he treats briefly but wildly IN rhapters
that are models OF critical biography Row
IandsOn. like Hogarth. impTesses him by his
power as an observer. but he misses IN MIN the
moral weight of his predecessor and master.
His outlook on life was cynical-2nd 1t vas
clear He caught the movement Of society and
rendered 1t with something of the spontaneity
and directness of u latter-day impressionist In
GfrIray our author finds more of Hogarthian
invention and pungency. NJ FIlOn. with ad-
n,irtbIe Justice does not ask Of any Of his
caricaturists what they never pretended to give.
an artistic quality over and above the needs
of their designs as caricatureS- He knows that.
however much Hogarth may have sighed for
eminence as a painter-and he could, upon Oc-
casion, use his brushes in remarkably brilliant
fashion-the important point for him, as for
RowIandson or Ciillray. was to hit the Tark
There is little feeling for beauty, for its own
sake. in Hogarth's pictorial sermons; there is
none in the work of either Rowlandson Gill
raw. though NJ. Filon finds something of grace
and charm to admire in certain drawings by the
first of these two. and. with reservations. we
can agree with him. In the main. English carl