Page 38 - The Studio First Edition - April 1893

The Fitzroy Picture Society
take the opposite extreme, the thin elegance of a
HE FIRST PUBLICATIONS OF
Flaxman outline seems always an exotic in
THE FITZROY PICTURE SO-
English art ; while the naturalistic detail of the CIETY.
so-called American style—such as once raged
rampant around sketches set askew or overlapping T IN these days of cheap colour-printing
each other—is so beloved of the advertiser that it it has long been a matter for regret, that the few
suggests at first sight a label for a patent medicine pictures published in large size for the adornment
or a Sunday-school reward card. Not that one of schoolrooms or similar purposes, were, as a rule,
need be limited to a few styles. Even Japanese of the ordinary German style, and not peculiarly
decoration may be not unfitly chosen, especially good at that. The Fitzroy Picture Society, there-
the French variety—half-Japanese, half-Gothic— fore, in issuing a series after originals by Messrs.
that so influences the designs of Grasset or Carlos Selwyn Image, Heywood Sumner, and C. W. Whall,
Schwabe. The Rococo has its admirers, and are not merely attempting for almost the first time
boasts a long pedigree of famous book-plates, to produce at a low cost large pictures which are
including the much-over-praised Chippendale decorative as well as pictorial ; but are doing it in
style ; while the neo-Gothic, that curious Renas- a way that leaves little chance of successful rivalry.
cence of the nineteenth century, which finds its With the one exception of a series of Scripture
chief exponents in the pre-Raphaelites or in Burne cartoons in gold and monochrome designed by
Jones, seems to be rarely used : hardly a single W. Gunston, the style of work hitherto deemed
important example may be found; yet one would appropriate for this purpose is not merely crude
have thought that it was the most likely style to in colour, sickly in its sentimentality, and almost
be popular with modern book collectors. beneath contempt as art, but singularly ineffective
Rossetti, it would seem, never designed a plate. as wall decoration. These under notice are drawn
Mr. Burne Jones has made one graceful little label, in bold black lines, and printed in simple flat
but it has hardly a trace of the qualities associated colours, but are yet brilliant and rich, besides
with his work. Mr. Walter Crane's book-plates, being distinguished by a certain originality of treat-
good as they are, are not by any means above ment we have learned to expect from the artists.
the average of his work ; Sand Mr. Selwyn Image Therefore they are not only excellent pictures in
so far has not used his individual talent in this themselves, but adorn a room to an unusual degree.
field. Mr. Stacy Marks' clever drawings are not The Annunciation, by Mr. Selwyn Image, as the
essentially book-plates ; but the one instance by reduced drawing shows, is, a fine composition, simple
Sir John Millais is, if not an ideal plate, full of in its treatment and yet preserving the dignity which
decorative quality, and above all a label with a de- should surely be an essential feature of Christian
vice, not a picture. The designs of Mr. Sherborn art. The scheme of colour is deep and vivid, the
are, as a rule, intensely German in feeling; indeed, red of the angel's wings and the halo that encircles
their beauty consists more in their exquisite craft the Virgin's head, with the broken blues and greens
and the vivid re-creation of forms used before, than of the foliage being notable for transparent full
in their actual design. The plates of Mr. Erat colour, rare in chromo-lithography. The cartoons
Harrison, Mr. John D. Batten, Mr. Alan Wright, (46 x 31) are published at 4s. 6d. each ; a set of
Mr. Herbert Home, Mr. Leslie Brooke, Mr. R. three, "Jesus Hominum Salvator," 13s. 6d. They
Anning Bell, and some few others, should be added are also issued mounted and varnished at 16s. 6d.
to those already quoted as exceptionally good ; the set ; mounted and stretched and varnished at
but considering the growing popularity of the craze, 22s. 6d.; and glazed in plain oak frames at £2 5s.
which seems yet far from its zenith, those already the set or 15s. each.
attracted to it are small in number, however capable The panels of " The Four Seasons," designed by
in degree. Here it would be invidious to estimate Mr. Heywood Sumner, make a capital quartet for
the relative value of the designs which, owing to the decoration, not merely of a schoolroom but for
the courtesy of the various artists, accompany this home use. They are bright as a Walter Crane toy-
paper; and it must suffice to call attention to book, but here, as there, the gaiety of colour escapes
them on their own merits, and to emphasise their vulgarity. Well chosen mottoes from Swinburne,
dissimilar treatment as a healthy sign of individual Christina Rosetti, Keats, and Shakespeare run on
effort to produce new types that fulfil more or less friezes above and below each picture, which is
the requirements we have suggested, and are in each 33 x 17, the prices being 2s. 6d. separately, 10s.
case distinctly decorative in themselves. G.W. for the set; or in various mountings like the first
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