"This here stooping do fairly make my back open and shut," exclaimed the dairy man. by Hubert Von Herkomer, RA. This large scale composite woodblock engraving, the first in the illustrated serialisation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, appeared in the 29 August 1891 issue of the London Graphic, p. 245: double-page, horizontal: 21.5 cm high x 30.5 cm wide (4 ¼ inches high by 5 ½ inches wide). Eighth instalment beginning Book Second, Ch. XIX, over the page], one-third down column 3 [hunting for the garlic in Chapter XXIII]. [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Tess and the others help Crick hunt for the Garlic in the pasture
At last the dairyman, who came next, could stand it no longer.
“Upon my soul and body, this here stooping do fairly make my back open and shut!” he exclaimed, straightening himself slowly with an excruciated look till quite upright. “And you, maidy Tess, you wasn’t well a day or two ago — this will make your head ache finely! Don’t do any more, if you feel fainty; leave the rest to finish it.”
Dairyman Crick withdrew, and Tess dropped behind. Mr Clare also stepped out of line, and began privateering about for the weed. When she found him near her, her very tension at what she had heard the night before made her the first to speak.
“Don’t they look pretty?” she said.
“Who?”
“Izzy Huett and Retty.”
Tess had moodily decided that either of these maidens would make a good farmer’s wife, and that she ought to recommend them, and obscure her own wretched charms.
“Pretty? Well, yes — they are pretty girls — fresh looking. I have often thought so.” [Phase the Third, "The Rally," Chapter XXII, "Search for a Garlic Plant," pp. 246-248]
Commentary
This is plate number 8 in the illustrated serialisation by various artists for Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles (4 July through 26 December 1891) in the London Graphic, Chapters XXI-XXIII (eighth weekly instalment). The picture appears ahead of the text (pp. 246 and 248) that it illustrates. Although the title draws the reader's attention to the speaker, Farmer Crick (down left), the composition draws our eye to Tess at the centre of the composition. Significantly, Herkomer transforms a line of Hodges, agricultural workers from Dorset, into individuals by virtue of their poses, ages, facial expressions, and physical types. Moreover, the illustrator juxtaposes romance (Tess) and reality (Crick), personal inclinations and communal responsibilities, love and labour.
As in the text, the garlic-hunters are ranged across the page with Crick, Angel, Tess, Marian, Izz, Retty, Bill Lewell, and Jonathan, but missing the married dairy women at the top of the line, Beck Nibbs and Flaxen Frances, creating a compact design. The artist has subordinated verisimilitude to dramatic and visual effectiveness. He deftly contrasts the jealous Marian and Izz (left of centre) to the mutually engrossed Tess and Angel (centre) and the pained Crick (right). In Modes of Production in Victorian Novels, N. N. Feltes describes the scene as a visually pleasing tableau: "'an effective pastoral scene' of a certain type, as it literally fore-grounds the be-smocked Crick as 'hodge,' speaking his quaintly rustic piece to that alien observer, the reader of The Graphic" (70).
Note: The next few illustrations in this serialisation are by different illustrators. See the complete list.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. Formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Allingham, Philip V. "The Original Illustrations for Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles Drawn by Daniel A. Wehrschmidt, Ernest Borough-Johnson, and Joseph Sydall for the Graphic (1891)." The Thomas Hardy Year Book, No. 24 (1997): 3-50.
Allingham, Philip V. "Six Original Illustrations for Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles Drawn by Sir Hubert Von Herkomer for the Graphic (1891)." The Thomas Hardy Journal, Vol. X, No. 1 (February 1994): 52-70.
Feltes, Norman N. "Lateral Advance: Tess and the Necessities of Magazine Publication." Modes of Production in Victorian Novels. Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1986. Pp. 57-75.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the Graphic, 1891, 4 July-26 December, pp. 11-761.
Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.
Vann, J. Don. "Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the Graphic, 4 July — 26 December 1891." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985, pp. 88-89.
Created 9 January 2005
Last modified 26 April 2024