Magic Touches by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 197 in the seventh instalment (June 1855). Steel-engraving. 10.8 cm high by 12.4 cm wide (4 ¼ by 4 ¾ inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XIX, "A Studio." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Governess Takes Charge of Simmy Crow's Canvas
“I believe the great painters — Vandyke, certainly — rarely took the studies from a single head. They caught a brow here, and a mouth there, harmonizing the details by the suggestions of their own genius. Now, what if, preserving all this here,” — and [Kate] pointed to the head and eyes, — “you were to fill up the remainder, partly from imagination, partly from a study.” And as she spoke she took the brush from his hand, and by a few light and careless touches imparted a new character to the face.
“Oh, go on! that's admirable, — that's glorious!” exclaimed Crow, wild with delight.
“There is no necessity to lose the expression of haughty sorrow in the eye and brow,” continued she; “nor does it interfere with the passing emotion he may be supposed unable to control, of proud contempt for that priestly influence which has dominated over the ambition of a king.” And now, as though carried away by the theme, she continued to paint as rapidly as she spoke, while Crow busied himself in preparing the colors upon the palette. [Chapter XIX. "A Studio," 197]
Commentary: Kate Henderson's Versatility and Simmy Crow's Comicality
The illustration realizes the chaotic studio of Simmy Crow, last seen in The Emperor Charles V restores Art in the fifth chapter (January 1855), but with several significant differences. In the first place, Simmy has moved the contents of his studio from The Osprey's Nest at Kilkieran to the oval-shaped, top-lit summer ball-room of Cro' Martin Castle. And the helpmate who has furnished him with art criticism and a strategy for replacing Joe Nelligan as the model for the Prince of Orange with Jack Massingbred is not Mary, but the new, much-travelled governess, Kate Henderson. She now takes charge of the painter's historical composition to impose her solution for the completion of the Prince's head. Rather than resenting her interference, Simmy seems delighted with her finishing touches in the manner of Veronese, Titian, and Vandyke. Spurned by Jack, Joe has departed in a melancholy funk for Oughterard: "Young Nelligan — the future Prince of Orange of the picture — was gone!" (194), but handsome Jack will be available as a secondary model for some days.
The general untidiness of Simmy's workspace gives the illustration a "back-stage" aura, with a partial suit of plate armour lying on the floor, a nineteenth-century "beaver" gracing a classical bust (left), and a fully clothed dummy in Renaissance garb at Simmy's shoulder. Phiz provides visual continuity not merely by including the large-scale canvas and screen, but also by repeating the second suit of armour, upper left. Phiz uses the little artist as a vehicle for comic relief, just as he uses the dwarf Hans Roeckle, the Baden Baden toymaker, in the "continental" Irish novel, The Daltons (1852).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [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
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'"Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.
Created 20 September 2022