Show I Ii Iio F o 0 o a a D A R L E Y The FIRST ST OF ARTIST HIS TIME By ELMO SCOTT WATSON N JUNE 23 just 1822 years ago there was born in Philadelphia a boy who was destined to become not only the first artist of his time but also one of the most v versatile geniuses with the pencil and brush that this country has ever known Because of that versatility Americans of a later generation owe him a great debt of gratitude In Inthe Inthe the days when the art of photography was in its infancy he made for them a pictorial record of contempo- contempo contemporary contemporary American life and scenes of historical interest which are almost photographic ic in n their fidelity to fact Felix Octavius Carr Darley was his name and three three- quarters of a century ago the signature Darley on a picture was familiar to more I Americans than that of any other man But with the passing years both the artist and the importance of his work have been forgotten and they are known only to the few who are interested in more than just the obvious facts of American history Darley was the son of an Eng Eng- English English lish actor named John Darley who came to America soon after the close of the Revolution The senior Darley intended to have his son seek a mercantile career and at the age of fourteen the boy was placed in a business hou house e in Philadelphia While em- em employed as a clerk his talent for drawing became apparent and his fellow had many manya a hearty laugh at the caricatures i which he drew of them and of I his employer Some of these caricatures at- at attracted attracted the attention of the editor of the Saturday Museum who bought them paying young Dar Dar- Darley Darley ley a larger sum for a few sketches that he had dashed off at odd moments than he could earn by a weeks week's work as a clerk Encouraged by his success the f x u uv v J Jr r Ichabod Cranes Crane's School youthful artist determined to tomake tomake make this his life work His first commission was to illustrate a number of humorous works for a Philadelphia publish publish- publishing publishing ing house Darley was a keen ob- ob observer observer server of human life and his apt I apt apt- aptness ness in sketching humorous situ situ- situations situations and in telling jokes without words made him popular with the public who began watching for his drawings In this respect he was the first of a school of distinctively American pictorial humorists which was to include such men as E W Kemble A B Fro Frost t Oliver Herford and some of our modern cartoonists Ichabod Crane Comes to Life In 1848 Darley moved to New NewYork NewYork York and two years later the American Art Union invited him to illustrate Washington Irvings Irving's humorous writings He prepared two sets of designs one depicting the scenes in Rip Van Winkle and the other The Legend of Sleepy Hollow In the latter America saw for the first time that scarecrow like school teach teach- teacher teacher er Ichabod Crane come to life and America was delighted with it of oth- oth other other er er characters in Irvings Irving's stories did much to increase interest in that authors author's work and although his illustrations were only out out- outline outline line drawings they at once took the popular fancy and established established Darleys Darley's fame In 1856 he made outline sketches for Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter and in the same year prepared similar il- il illustrations illustrations for another romance of New England life Sylvester Judds Judd's Margaret One interest interest- interesting interesting ing fact about these drawings is that lie he undertook them on his own responsibility since the t h e publishers had not ordered them and therefore they possess more of the characteristics of the auth- auth author's ors or's genius than almost any of his other sketches But even though the publishers of Hawthorne's and Judds Judd's books had not or- or ordered ordered dered Darleys Darley's drawings they were quickly accepted when he submit submitted ted them Next Darley furnished m o 0 r e ethan ethan than designs for the works of J Fenimore Cooper and as asin asin in the case of Ichabod Crane America sa mv v for the first time timea a picture of that romantic hero and had fixed In its mind a real concept of Coopers Cooper's noble red man Dar Dar- Darley Darley ley also prepared a set of for Dickens novels and caught the spirit of the English writers writer's immortal characters quite as successfully as any English artist could have done While carrying on this work of book illustration Darley was also engaged by a number of illustrated illustrated ed magazines and newspapers and within a short time the cred- cred line it-line of Drawings by F O 0 C Darley or simply the name Darley on a picture was as familiar to the reading public of that time as some of the well well- known trademarks are to read read- readers readers ers of today Next he was em- em employed employed by the United States gov- gov government government to make make- designs ns for gov- gov government government bonds and national bank bank- banknotes banknotes notes and they were also used on a great variety of commercial paper If you will dig into that old trunk up in the attic some someday someday day and find old promissory notes receipts etc which are embellished with steel engrav- engrav engravings engravings ings of Indians symbolical fig fig- figures figures ures such as Columbia and the like the chances are that you will be looking at pictures which were made from drawings by Felix Octavius Carr Darley In addition to his outline draw draw- drawings drawings ings Darley al also o produced a number of other works some in color and some in black and a n d dwhite white generally employing what is known as the aquarelle method in his work He was one of the original members of If the Ameri- Ameri American American can Society of Painters in Water WaterColors WaterColors Colors and a member of the Art Art- Artists Artists Fund Society of New York In 1852 he became a member of the National Academy of Design A Pictorial historian Of greatest interest to Ameri- Ameri Americans Americans cans of a later generation are his pictures of historical scenes In these he covered the whole sweep of American history from Co- Co Colonial Colonial lonial days down to his own time One of his mo most t famous pictures is that of the wedding procession as described in Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Stand Stand- Standish Standish ish which appeared in 1859 Noteworthy too were his paint paint- paintings paintings ings depicting scenes in the Rev Rev- Revolution Revolution They included such pic- pic pictures pictures tures as The First Blow for Liberty which shows a group of patriots firing from behind a astone stone tone wall at the British red red- redcoats redcoats coats as they retreat from Lex- Lex Lexington Lexington ington Washington at the Bat Bat- Battle Battle tle of Monmouth and his stir stir- stirring stirring ring Wyoming Valley Mas- Mas Massacre Massacre sacre showing an attack by b y Iroquois Indians on settlers in New York and Pennsylvania dur- dur during during ing those dreadful days made memorable by the romances of Harold Frederic Robert W Cham- Cham Chambers Chambers bers and Walter D Edmonds Better known perhaps than any of these Revolutionary war pictures are tho those e which Darley made commemorating the hard hard- hardships hardships ships and heroism of the emigrants emi emi- emigrants grants across the great plains of the West Although idealized in some respects yet it is probable probable able that no other artist has come as near to depicting faithfully those days of the covered wag wag- wagon wagon on as did Darley One of his pictures Emigrants Attacked by Indians was among the four ordered by Prince Napoleon when Darleys Darley's reputation lead ad spread across the sea and it is often reproduced in books dealing with life on the western frontier as typifying that romantic era in our history The next period in which engaged Darleys Darley's atter- atter attention tion was the Civil war and he made man many pictures descriptive of its outstanding incidents Of Emigrants Attacked by Indians on the Western P Plains ains The original of this painting was purchased by Louis Napoleon later Emperor Napoleon III of France cour course e by this time photography had been developed to such a state stale of perfection that it was possible to record through the eye of the camera history while It was happening That is what Matthew Brady the fin first t news cameraman did from 1861 to 1865 But Brady could not be everywhere to photograph all the scenes worth preserving Fortunately Fortun- Fortun Fortunately for posterity the pencil and brush of Felix Daley admirably supplemented Bradys Brady's camera in preserving for it a pictorial rec- rec record record ord of that great conflict Civil War Pictures Most famous of all of Darleys Darley's Civil war pictures Is his Sher mans man's March to the Sea steel engravings of which hung on the walls of so many American homes in in the North of course until changing tastes in pictures pictures- the home relegated them to the attic Nearly as famous as astl tl this s picture was Darleys Darley's Dahl grens gren's Cavalry Charge at Fred Fred- Fredericksburg Fredericksburg ericksburg which attracted uni- uni universal universal versal admiration when It was exhibited at the Paris exhibition in 1867 Darley was already well known I abroad by that time for he had visited Europe in 1864 1861 and added largely to his stock of pictures Many of these were published in book form in 1868 under the title of Sketches Abroad with Pen and Pencil His water color Street Scene in Rome was one of the outstanding canvases at atthe atthe the Centennial exposition in Phil Phil- Philadelphia Philadelphia adelphia in which 1876 proved for once at least that a prophet is not without honor in his own But for all the fame that he hewon hewon won as a painter Darley re- re remained remained a great illustrator to the thelast thelast last In 1886 he produced a not not- notable notable able series of drawings to illus illus- illustrate illustrate Shakespeare's plays Then two years jears later death stayed his hands He died in Claymont Del on March 27 1888 Painting of scenes from com com- common common mon life is of late appearance in America observes Frank Jewett Mather Jr in the chapter devoted to Genre Painting be- be before before fore the Civil war ar in the The American Spirit in Art Yale University Pre Press s Chronicles of America The interest which our forefathers felt in themselves was not extended to their social and business relations Apparently Apparently they were too busy doing to observe themselves in action Even the early illustrators bar bar- barring barring ring a few political cartoonists avoided genre at a moment when England and France were leaving the fullest and ablest records of their everyday affairs The glo- glo des ries of the style in America were not in painting at aU all but in the copious illustration and always excellent il- il of F O 0 C Darley A Versatile Genius And elsewhere in the same vol- vol volume volume ume are arc frequent references to this versatile genius as for ex- ex example example ample after For his albums of outlines af- af ter American authors the famous Iter illustrator Felix O 0 C Darley employed lithography very suc- suc successfully llY His plates plate a after ter Wash Wash- ington Irvings Irving's Rip flip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow and after Judds Judd's Margaret are among the best things of the sort that the century produced anywhere Through all this period lithography was serving a useful purpose Books on geology and botany needing col- col color color or were usually thus illustrated so were scientific government re- re reports reports ports and the books on the In- In Indians Indians f But the results while of- of often often ten excellent for their purpose do not concern the student of art For standard sets of American prose writers notably Irving and Cooper line engraved illustration seemed Indispensable It was however generally limited to a frontispiece or title title- vignette Darley can be tragically dra- dra dramatic dramatic matic as in The Death of King Philip for the Artists Edition of Irvings Irving's Sketch Book and a n d dL dR dI L R ayta a I r rl l nn A Ar r t st 1 d Jy again he was the only conceivable conceivable able American illustrator of the broad humor and melodrama of Charles Charle's Dickens Though later American illustrators have sur- sur surpassed surpassed passed him at certain points he still remains the most universal illustrator we have produced The slight but telling touch of antiquarianism is characteristic s tic in Darley in historical illus illus- illustration His broader humor is well exemplified in the vignette for Whittier's Cobbler Keezar published in New England Bal Bal- Ballads Ballads lads in 1870 Such a thing looks simple and even obvious but b u t tsuch such simplicity rests upon the most thorough preparation a s Darleys Darley's innumerable trial draw ings and sketchbook notes attest He was d in his later years by the new genera genera- generation generation tion of illustrators but in a larger sense he left no successors Great as an illustrator md and lith- lith lithographer lithographer Darley had still an- an another another other claim to distinction in that he naturally turned his TM r s c The Dying The Soldier Last Letter Front Home hand now and then Ulen to caricature We find him in young Donald G Mitchells Mitchell's Lorgnette gently sat sat- satirizing New Yorks York's excessive lion lion- worship of If the Hungarian ref ref- refugees refugees of the revolution of 1848 This is near the head of a long line of caricature dealing with the visiting or immigrant for for- foreigner foreigner eigner In due course the negro the German the Irishman and the Jew were to receive similar attention from our caricaturists e Western Newspaper Union |