E. V. B., initials which stand for the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, are found on many volumes of the past twenty-five years which have enjoyed a special reputation. Certainly her drawings, if at times showing much of the amateur, have also a curious "quality," which accounts for the very high praise they have won from critics of some standing. "The Story without an End," "Child's Play" (1858), "The New Child's Play," "The Magic Valley," "Andersen Fairy Tales" (Low, 1882), "Beauty and the Beast" (a quarto with colour-prints by Leighton Bros.), are the most important. Looking at them dispassionately now, there is yet a trace of some of the charm that provoked applause a little more than they deserve.
In British art this curious fascination exerted by the amateur is always confronting us. The work of E. V. B. has great qualities, yet any pupil of a board school would draw better. Nevertheless it pleases more than academic technique of high merit that lacks just that one quality which, for want of a better word, we call "culture." In the designs by Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, one encounters genius with absolutely faltering technique; and many who know how rare is the slightest touch of genius, forgive the equally important mastery of material which must accompany it to produce work of lasting value.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY." BY R. ANNING BELL (DENT AND CO.)]
Mr. H. S. Marks designed two nursery books for Messrs. Routledge, and contributed to many others, including J. W. Elliott's "National Nursery Rhymes" (Novello), whence our illustration has been taken. Two series of picture books containing mediæval figures with gold background, by J. Moyr Smith, if somewhat lacking in the qualities which appeal to children, may have played a good part in educating them to admire conventional flat treatment, with a decorative purpose that was unusual in the "seventies," when most of them appeared.
In later years, Miss Alice Havers in "The White Swans," and "Cape Town Dicky" (Hildesheimer), and many lady artists of less conspicuous ability, have done a quantity of graceful and elaborate pictures _of_ children rather than _for_ children. The art of this later period shows better drawing, better colour, better composition than had been the popular average before; but it generally lacks humour, and a certain vivacity of expression which children appreciate.