Did Phiz etch his own plates for Dickens?
No, at least, not entirely: in his steel engravings Phiz tended to rely on his friend and assistant, Robert Young, as he felt he was not up to the patient and laborious task in its entirety, or, as Kitton puts it, "he had not sufficient time to devote to this part of his work" (119).
Phiz's partnership with Young goes all the way back to his first studio at Furnival's. Just drawing and painting, he and Young could barely make the rent (unlike their famous neighbour, Charles Dickens, at No. 13), so they launched into picture cleaning, printmaking, and book illustration.
Mr. Young acted as Browne's assistant in the manner described during the greater part of the years of "Phiz's" popularity, and his co-operation extended not only to the Dickens illustrations, but to the thousand-and-one designs that embellished the works of other writers. The following brief note (quoted from Mr. Thomson's Memoir) is a specimen of the many communications which constantly passed between the artist and his coadjutor: —
[Circa 1845.*]
"My Dear 'Co,' — Pray help me in an emergency. Put a bottle of aquafortis in your pockets, wax and all other useful adjuncts, and come to me to-morrow about one or two o'clock, and bite in an etching for me, ferociously and expeditiously. Can you? — will you? — oblige, Yours sincerely,
H. K. Browne." [qtd. in Kitton 119-120]
For the first volume of Winkle's Cathedrals Phiz contributed twenty-six plates when he was about twenty, but did few of the images for volume 2 and none for volume 3. By the time he took over the illustrations for Pickwick, he was relying heavily on Young's skill as an engraver. In Dickens and Phiz, Michael Steig specifies that Young, a fellow apprentice at Finden's, served as both etcher and engraver, principally as an etcher on steel, since Phiz found wood-engraving easy enough. Steig suggests that Phiz did the groundwork for each steel, drawing directly on the ground and adding details, but did not do the actual etching with a steel needle, or the biting-in. In the production of Pickwick, Phiz would submit the designs for the two monthly plates for Dickens's approval, and incorporate his suggestions: "If approved, the design would be etched by Browne on a steel previously prepared by Robert Young and then sent along to Young with the drawing and perhaps further instructions regarding the biting-in" (Steig 21). Even when he did all of the engraving himself, Phiz used Young for the lengthy biting-in procedure, partly because he often had several commissions on the go at once. The darker the plate, the lengthier the biting-in: "no doubt Robert Young deserves some of the credit for the effectiveness of the dark plates" (107), as, for example, On a Dark Road in Dickens's Dombey and Son (March 1848, Part 18).
Young used a ruling machine for the backgrounds of the regular Bleak House plates (1852-53), and did the lengthy biting-in for the dark plates. John Buchanan Browne's biography confirms that theirs was a life-long partnership. Frederic G. Kitton offers this picture of Young and Phiz at work on Pickwick:
Browne speedily communicated to Mr. Young the welcome intelligence respecting the "Pickwick" appointment; indeed, we are told that he went at once to his friend's chambers, and on entering said, "Look here, old fellow: will you come to my rooms to assist me with a plate I have to etch?" Mr. Young, who was still in the employ of Finden, had acquired such a thorough knowledge of the art of biting-in designs upon steel plates, that Browne realised the importance of securing his co-operation without delay, and, happily for him, his friend readily acceded to his wish; whereupon "Phiz" suggested that he should take his key with him, as they might be late. The design having already been drawn upon the plate, the two conspirators devoted the entire night to the operation of biting-in, the outcome of which was the production of the plate depicting the eventful meeting of Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller at the old White Hart Inn, perhaps the most notable illustration in the book. Mr. Young's share of the undertaking consisted in the application and manipulation of acid, which corroded the plate where exposed by the needle — a troublesome and delicate operation, requiring considerable experience, as, by too lengthy or too brief a subjection of the metal to the action of the acid, the plate would be ruined, and the labour of the artist rendered of no avail. Mr. Young writes in reply to my enquiry respecting this and subsequent collaboration: "I did not bite-in the whole of 'Phiz's' etchings. I was some years abroad, during which he had assistance from two engravers, Sands and Weatherhead. 'Phiz' was quite capable of doing this part of the work himself, for he had two or three years' practice during his apprenticeship at Finden's; but he had no time for such work, being always fully occupied in etching or drawing on wood." [Kitton 63-64]
* Note that Valerie Lester dates this letter to 1836 (48).
Bibliography
Browne, Edgar. Phiz and Dickens As They Appeared to Edgar Browne. London: James Nisbet, 1913.
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! The Book Illustrations of Hablot Knight Browne. Newton Abbot, London, and Vancouver: David and Charles, 1978.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
Hammerton, J. A. Chapter X, "The Pickwick Papers." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 17. 84-128.
Hammerton, J. A. "The Story of This Book." Dickens’s Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2: i-viii.
Johannsen, Albert. "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club." Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1956. 1-74.
Kitton, Frederic G. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. London: George Redway, 1899.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Steig, Michael. "Chapter II. The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.
Created 15 May 2024