New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-08
perspectives
By Ralph Block
,u.,strafjon Knocks on the
o.or for Recognifi0n--An
american Contribution to


y soorsh as the argument Of the
FAINTER who looks down on "'llustra-
'..u. Painting for its own sake is
I ..rhably modern thing. Michael An
:. was an illustrator, SO were the
s...h.rs Van Eyck and Velasquez and
pubsns and Rembrandt; war and relig-
:. having been the chief matters Of
4 ,..orest of our ancient and medieval
r.ss and the churches and town halls
he chief media of communication of in
diligence
The dav when printing became so ex-
.orsive that it seemed to cheaper illus
cation was bad day for the artist. He
uent off into his own fields, and his in
sniration has been for the most part
weak and watery ever since. A good
way for an artist to be an illustrator
these days and still save his professional
l dignity is to become mural decorator.
4 But dignity is drawback in its mere
fact of being, ana it takes an extraordi-
? nsrily robust temperament to overcome
the restraining hands that reach out
from cold walls to curb the brush and
the sweeping arm.
As a matter of fact, illustration just
as illustration is becoming a thing that
the critics, and the artists too, will have
to reckon with With the war over, all
the unconventional conventionalities will
be coming back-the impressionists, the
primitives, the half-and-half futurists,
and the beyond the-beyond radicals.
When they have all taken a first shy
look at the grounds to see if the fuss is
over, and have come back in sprinklings
of timid twos and threes, it will become
suddenly apparent to any one interested
in the matter that the illustrators were
the only artists who had vitality enough
to survive the eliminating blasts and
high-powered winds of war time. The
illustrators, it may be said, painted and
penned and pencilled their way from the
first Marine to Sedan, while the rest Of
their more delicate brothers of the craft
we're keeping their sensitive talents in
hiding until the storm should be blown
over. The Fifth Avenue display Of the
last Liberty Loan drive may be noted
in exception to this, but for one splendid
Carl Melchers there have been hundreds
Of posters put out by the illustrators
and hundreds of imaginative pictures of
action in the magazines
1t must be granted at the outset of
what is frankly an argument that these
would be poor grounds on which to base
a declaration of independence for the
illustrator. The actual point Of extenua-
ton is that illustration as it has been
practlsed in these states has developed
group Of men who cannot go long now
unattended by critical scrutiny and au-
the painter looked down on the illus
traitor. This did no good to the painter,
who became complacent under the OPP
portunity for condescenson, and stinu-
lated the illustrator, on the principle
that every knock is a boost. That day
is now over, and for purposes of booting
the shoe has almost gone over to the
other foot.
The United States, due to the amazing
development of magazine printing, has
had development of illustration in its
own unique fashion. Illustration in Eng
land had day of its own in Hogarth
and Cruikshank, and something different
IN Phil May and Du Maurier France
mad development of this character and
ADDED man like Forain, from whom
our cartoonists have had tremendous
impulse. In Germany the painter in
saoed the magazines as painter, and
Jugend" in its day, if the armistice will
allow 1t to enter our attention, had as
much Of Leo Putz, of Frank Stuck, as
we have had in public exhibition Of
Vnase or Duveneck or Hassam or Alex
ander.
But for the accident over here of
9poey, who was fostered by publish
ing house in a manner Of good fortune
mat attends few men of genius, our own
,nodern period of illustration was for a
'ong time set between the ripe chrysan-