[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON--No. 2. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY A. NOBODY]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ADVENTURES IN TOY LAND" BY ALICE B. WOODWARD (BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "PRINCE BOOHOO" BY GORDON BROWNE (GARDNER, DARTON AND CO. 1897)]
The work of the Danish illustrator, Lorenz Froelich, is almost as familiar in English as in Continental nurseries, yet his name is often absent from the title-pages of books containing his drawings. Perhaps those attributed to him formally that are most likely to be known by British readers are in "When I was a Little Girl" and "Nine Years Old" (Macmillan), but, unless memory is treacherous, one remembers toy-books in colours (published by Messrs. Nelson and others), that were obviously from his designs. A little known French book, "Le Royaume des Gourmands," exhibits the artist in a more fanciful aspect, where he makes a far better show than in some of his ultra-pretty realistic studies. Other French volumes, "Histoire d'un Bouchée de Pain," "Lili à la Campagne," "La Journée de Mademoiselle Lili," and the "Alphabet de Mademoiselle Lili," may possibly be the original sources whence the blocks were borrowed and adapted to English text. But the veteran illustrator has done far too large a number of designs to be catalogued here. For grace and truth, and at times real mastery of his material, no notice of children's artists could abstain from placing him very high in their ranks.
Oscar Pletsch is another artist--presumably a German--whose work has been widely republished in England. In many respects it resembles that of Froelich, and is almost entirely devoted to the daily life of the inmates of the nursery, with their tiny festivals and brief tragedies. It would seem to appeal more to children than their elders, because the realistic transcript of their doings by his hand often lacks the touch of pathos, or of grown-up humour that finds favour with adults.
The mass of children's toy-books published by Messrs. Dean, Darton, Routledge, Warne, Marcus Ward, Isbister, Hildesheimer and many others cannot be considered exhaustively, if only from the fact that the names of the designers are frequently omitted. Probably Messrs. Kronheim & Co., and other colour-printers, often supplied pictures designed by their own staff. Mr. Edmund Evans, to whom is due a very large share of the success of the Crane, Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway (Routledge) books, more frequently reproduced the work of artists whose names were considered sufficiently important to be given upon the books themselves. A few others of Routledge's toy-books besides those mentioned are worth naming. Mr. H.S. Marks, R.A., designed two early numbers of their shilling series: "Nursery Rhymes" and "Nursery Songs;" and to J. D. Watson may be attributed the "Cinderella" in the same series. Other sixpenny and shilling illustrated books were by C. H. Bennett, C. W. Cope, A. W. Bayes, Julian Portch, Warwick Reynolds, F. Keyl, and Harrison Weir.