Martin Hardie

“ The excellence of his craftsmanship may be judged by a comparison of his engravings for Caldecott's 'Breton Folk' (text by H. Blackburn, 1880) with the original drawings, which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Many illustrated books, like the first four mentioned above, were entirely planned by Cooper ; and whilst seeking suitable artists to carry out his ideas, he discovered and encouraged the talent of such men as Robert Barnes, Caldecott, E. M. Wimperis, and William Small. Cooper also engraved the illustrations for works by many eminent authors. ”

“ RAILTON, HERBERT (1858–1910) , black-and-white draughtsman and illustrator, born on 21 Nov. 1858 at Pleasington, Lancashire, was eldest child (in a family of two son and a daughter) of John Railton by his wife Eliza Ann Alexander. His parents were Roman catholics. After education at Malines, in Belgium, and at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, he was trained as an architect in the office of W. S. Varley of Blackburn, and showed great skill as an architectural draughtsman, but he soon abandoned his profession for book-illustration, and came to London to practise that art in 1885. ”

“ EVANS, EDMUND (1826–1905) , wood-engraver and colour-printer, born in Southwark on 23 Feb. 1826, was son of Henry Evans by his wife Mary. Educated at a school in Jamaica Row kept by Bart Robson, an old sailor, he in November 1839, at the age of thirteen, became 'reading boy' at Samuel Bentley's printing establishment at Bangor House, Shoe Lane. On the suggestion of an overseer, who found that the boy had a talent for drawing, his parents apprenticed him in 1840 to Ebenezer Landells [q. v.] , the wood-engraver. ”

“ After being educated at private schools he studied art at Leigh's School and the Government School of Design at Somerset House. In 1851 he was appointed headmaster of the Stourbridge School of Art, but was soon transferred to a teaching appointment in the school at Somerset House, where he had received his training. In 1855 he was appointed an inspector in the science and art department, and in 1876 became assistant director for art at South Kensington. ”

“ J. S. Sargent's persuasion, and held an exhibition of his paintings at the Goupil Gallery. In a prefatory note to the catalogue Mr. Sargent said 'The gift of colour, together with an exquisite sensitiveness to impressions of Nature, has here been the constant incentive, and the immunity from "picture making" has gone far to keep perception delicate and execution convincing.'
Brabazon was also an ardent pianist, with a rare facility for reading and rendering the most difficult music at sight. ”

“ He came to London at the age of eleven to reside with his elder brother, John Jackson [q. v.] , joint author with William Andrew Chatto of the 'Treatise on Wood Engraving' (1839) . Mason received from his brother his first lessons in wood-engraving. By 1836 he was sufficiently advanced to take part in the engraving of Richard Seymour's design for the green wrapper of the monthly parts of 'Pickwick Papers'. Between 1850 and 1860 Jackson made himself a name by his wood-engravings for the Art Union of London ”

“ In 1860 he went to Paris, not entering on any regular course of study, but receiving much help from Edward May, a pupil of Couture, and afterwards from Edouard Frère. After working for two years in France, he started on his homeward journey, but made a halt in London, and finally settled there for the rest of his career. In 1862 and 1863 he exhibited two pictures each year at the British Institution. ”

“ In Goulding's case the craft of plate printing depended on something more than mere handicraft. He combined with remarkable dexterity of workmanship a singular understan^g of each artist's aim, and so played no small part in the revival of etching in the nineteenth century. For his amusement and instruction he produced a few etchings of his own; their organic weakness of line is concealed by masterly printing. ”

“ His first exhibits at the Royal Academy were portraits, among them those of Lady Slade (1875) , Mrs. Heneage Wynne-Finch (1877) , and Lady Clay (1879) . Though he continued to paint occasional portraits, such as those of Lord Northbourne (1886) , Mrs. Stuart (afterwards Lady) Rendel (1891) , the Hon. Walter James (1892) , Lady Morpeth (1895) , and Lady Cecilia Roberts (1897) , he was concerned from 1883 onwards almost entirely with landscape. Between 1875 and 1902 he exhibited thirty-eight works in all at the Royal Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1902. ”

“ He was responsible for the illustrations to books by Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Owen, Livingstone and others. In his engravings for Stanley's 'How I found Livingstone' (1872) and 'In Darkest Africa' (1890) he showed remarkable skill and intuition as an interpreter of the hints for landscape, groups of natives, animals or weapons, given in Stanley's rough but suggestive sketches. Among his later work were the engravings for 'Pictures from Shelley' (1892) after designs by Etheline E. Dell. ”

“ From 1876 to 1879 he also assisted Legros in an etching class held at the Slade School. On 7 Feb. 1890, at a full meeting of the council of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, he was unanimously elected the first master printer to the society. ”

“ His sense of beauty was too refined and cultivated to win the masses, and his distinguished talent was just beginning to win appreciation at the time of his death. Among his more important works, besides those already mentioned, are ‘Passing Storm’ (1896) , ‘Autumn Rains’ (1896) , and ‘Florence in Spring’ (1898) . ”

“ In 1888 he became president of the society in succession to James McNeill Whistler [q. v. Suppl. II] , and till the close of his life held this office, for which his geniality, wide artistic sympathies, and energy were well adapted. ”

“ During his last two years he was confined to his rooms at Oaklands, where he died, unmarried, on 14 May 1906. He was buried in Sedlescombe churchyard. Examples of his water-colours are in the Tate Gallery, the British Museum, the public galleries at Dublin and Edinburgh, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. ”

“ Other successful publications between 1858 and 1860, with printing done in six to twelve colours on a hand-press, were 'Common Objects of the Sea Shore,' and 'Common Objects of the Country,' by the Rev. ”