M . Liotard drew upon himself the disapproval of his brother
artists for painting La Belle Chocolatière at the behest of a great industrial house , but the original hangs in the Dresden gallery . To-day the advertising pages of our illustrated magazines carry
the signed work of artists of fame and distinction. It is to them that lovers of art turn for examples of the classical school of art
rather than to the reading pages where the experiments in the new art are frequently “ tried out.” The attitude of the public in its turn has also greatly changed if Wordsworth's sonnet on “ Illustrated Books and Newspapers” ?
may be taken as a criterion of public opinion. As a result of this changing attitude of both press and artist
and the growing demand of the public for illustrations of every description in every department of the newspaper the illustration
has become an epitome of the press as a whole. The part is not
equal to the whole , but an examination of the illustration and of the graphic press must show that in and of itself it has indepen
dently the same characteristics as has the press considered collec tively ; it has the same problems to meet and its relation to the
public is the same. This is not true of other parts of the paper. News, reports, correspondence, editorials, criticism are all in
complete parts of the press,but the illustration is a wheel within a wheel, complete and self-contained. The illustration has its own distinct personality as has each representative of the press and this is expressed not so much by epithets and nicknames as in graphic form . Life, Puck , Punch , 7 This was written in 1846 and was probably apropos of the founding of the Illustrated London News in 1842. " Discourse was deemed Man 's noblest attribute, And written words the glory of his hand ; Then followed Printing with enlarged command
For thought - dominion vast and absolute For spreading truth , and making love expand .
Now prose and verse sunk into disrepute Must lackey a dumb Art that best can suit The taste of this once-intellectual Land.
A backward movement surely have we here, From manhood , - back to childhood ; for the age
Back towards caverned life 's first rude career. Avaunt this vile abuse of pictured page !
Must eyes be all in all, the tongue and ear Nothing? Heaven keep us from a lower stage !”
