Campbell Dodgson

“ The two sons of Robert Dalziel, Alexander Aitcheson and John Sanderson, became pupils of the Brothers Dalziel in wood-engraving, but did not persevere in their profession.
John, the sixth son of Alexander Dalziel (born at Wooler on 1 Jan. 1822, died at Drigg, Cumberland, on 21 May 1869) , the most notable member of the family after George, Edward, and Thomas, became associated with his brothers' firm in 1852, and was a highly accomplished engraver on wood, but failing health compelled him in 1868 to abandon artistic work and retire to Cumberland. ”

“ In 1845 the family removed to Manchester, where Knight spent the earlier part of his career as an artist, visiting France, Holland, and Italy. In 1871 he removed to London and in 1875 to North Wales, where he thenceforth chiefly resided. He made some reputation alike as a painter in oil and in water-colour, and as an engraver and etcher. ”

“ A complete illustrated record of the brothers' work in chronological sequence remains in Mr. Gilbert Dalziel's possession.
The 'Bible Gallery,' completed in 1880 after many years of preparation, was the last important undertaking of the Dalziels on the artistic side. In the next decade the photo-mechanical processes were already beginning to prevail in competition with the slower and more expensive methods of the wood-engraver. The Dalziels' energies were thenceforth more devoted to the business of printing and the production of illustrated newspapers, chiefly comic. ”

“ After serving apprenticeships to a house-painter at Edinburgh and a japanner at Wolverhampton he obtained employment with William Wales, a glass -painter at Newcastle, where he remained five years, attending the school of design under William Bell Scott [q. v.] . In 1853 he went to London, where he studied and taught in the Central School of Design at Marlborough House till, in 1855, he became master of the School of Art, then called the Mechanics' Institution, at Liverpool. ”

“ As a painter he is represented in the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool. On retiring from the School of Art, in 1896, Finnie broke up his home in Huskisson Street and settled at Tywyn, near Llandudno, where he spent his life in painting, engraving, and music. He retained full vigour until an attack of influenza injured his heart in 1905. He returned to Liverpool, where he died on 27 Feb. ”

“ Of the elder sons, William (1805-1873) was a painter of still life and heraldic decoration, Robert (1810-1842) a portrait and landscape painter, and Alexander John (1814-1836) a promising draughtsman in black and white. ”

“ One of his last important plates, 'The Countess of Warwick and her Children,' after Romney, was published by Messrs. P. and D. Colnaghi in 1909. Pratt purchased from the widow of Thomas Oldham Barlow [q. v. Suppl. I] , their late possessor, the set of mezzotinter's tools that had been used by Samuel Cousins. Exhibitions of Pratt's engravings held by Messrs. Agnew at Manchester and Liverpool in 1902, and by Messrs. Vicars in Bond Street in 1904, proved him to be the foremost reproductive engraver of his time. A considerable, though incomplete, collection of his work is in the British Museum. ”

“ For these 'fine art' books, often issued in the name of other firms, the Dalziels made all arrangements and undertook the financial risk, commissioning artists on their own responsibility to design the woodcuts, contributing part of the designs themselves, and engraving the blocks by their own hands or those of pupils. ”

“ At Winchester he wrote his first critical essay of any importance, on the 'Fools of Shakespeare,' which was published in 'Noctes Shakesperianæ' (1887) . Small in stature and of frail physique, he took no exercise save walking, making vacation tours in Wales, the Lake country, and Cornwall.
In December 1885 Johnson won a Winchester scholarship at New College, Oxford, and in July 1886 he gained the Goddard scholarship for proficiency in classics. He went up to New College in October 1886, taking a second class in classical moderations in 1888 and a first in literæ humaniores in 1890. ”

“ His interest in nationalist politics and in the Irish literary revival was fostered by a visit to Ireland in September 1893, which he often repeated, but his own alleged Irish origin was a literary pose, and Celtic influences had reached him first through Wales. ”

“ Though he exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy from 1861 onwards, and also at the British Institution and in Suffolk Street, he was best known in London by his original mezzotint engravings of landscape, exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers, and Engravers, of which he became an associate on 24 Oct. ”

“ For several years the two Detmolds, who continued to reside at Hampstead, spent part of the year at Ditchling, Sussex. On 9 April 1908, when about to leave Hampstead for the country, Maurice committed suicide by inhaling chloroform; his twin brother survives him.
[M. H. Spielmann in Mag. of Art, Jan. 1900 (portrait) ; A. Graves, Royal Acad. Exhibitors; Cat. of Royal Soc. of Painter Etchers, 1905; The Times, 14 April 1908; art. by C. Dodgson in Die Graphischen Künste, Vienna, 1910, xxxiii. 16, with complete catalogue of the etchings; private information.] ”

“ DETMOLD, CHARLES MAURICE (1883–1908) , animal painter and etcher, son of Edward Detmold, electrical engineer, by his wife Mary Agnes Luck, was born at Putney on 21 Nov. 1883. Together with his twin brother, Edward Julius, who shared in every stage of his artistic development, he was distinguished by extreme precocity. ”

“ As an illustrator he was less gifted and prolific than his brother Thomas. No book was illustrated entirely by him, but woodcuts from his designs appear in the following: 'Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant' (New York, 1857) ; 'Home Affections with the Poets' (1858) ”

“ These two books rank among the best catalogues of an engraver's work produced in England. Whitman's health began to fail in the autumn of 1908, and he died in London after a long illness, on 2 Feb. 1910. His annotated copy of J. Chaloner Smith's ‘British Mezzotint Portraits’ was sold at Christie's on 6 June 1910 for 430l. 10s. On 12 August 1885 he married, at Hammersmith, Helena Mary Bing. ”