Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

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felt to be essential in evoking the "repeated incidents"
v;liio:i Wedmoro proposes as proper subjec j for genre paint:".i
It was as though Pre-Raphaelitisra had be< H fragmented - from
whatever am agam of several distinct painting techniques it may
be said to represent - and divided into two schools. On the one
hand, some artists rejected realism and the depiction of nature-
Beardsley's nature work may sarve as an example. Others sought
to achieve a scholarly but untendentious acquaintance with the
minutiae of past ages - notable among these were Alma-Tadema,
Moore, and the pen-and-ink illustrator, Hugh The: son.
Thomson's first major commissions came from Comyns Carr's
nev; 'foolish Illustrated Magazine, which began publication in
October 1883. His work at first included some modern subjects,
and he provided competent illustrations for articles on
contemporary London life and for Henry Arthur Jones's "The
Dranatic Outlook" (II (1885) 280-9 and 341-352). Soon he
established himself as an illustrator of eighteenth century
subjects, with an edition of Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley
papers from The Spectator (first published in *rae_ ^English
Illustrated Magazine in 1884-6, and reprinted as a book in 1886).
lie meticulous and, for the most part, unsentinontal view of
the eighteenth century had some affinities with the somewhat
sacLarriiic iclyllc of Kate Crcenawcvy, and v/ith Kclph Ualdecott 's
more substantial drawings - his John Gilpin appeared in lo?8.
A representative account of the appeal of the period chosen by
Thomson, Caldecott and Kate Grreonciv/ay is that rp.von by an
anonymous writer in Art and otters, describing G.H.Bou&rton'c
painting £iiow in spring t_
Among a group of artists who love to study the
manners of the past in order t!^ it they may escape
from the tyranny of trie? present Mr bought on holds
a prominent _~1 ce. v'vith Lueh men it is not to much
the passion of the archaeologist aa t'.>o desire for
freedom that carries thorn back to t.h