CHAPTER V
FORTY YEARS OF ILLUSTRATION
Most people of a certain age remember the palmy days of the Magazine of Art, its literary brilliance under W. E. Henley, its artistic abundance under M. H. Spielmann. The germ of all this was Cassell's discovery of the public interest in pictures during the Great Exhibition and his development of the mechanical art of illustration. The great success of the Illustrated Exhibitor tempted Cassell to carry on the paper as a weekly. He enlarged its title to the Illustrated Exhibitor and Magazine of Art, which in 1853 was contracted to the Magazine of Art. Though it was the first paper to deal mainly with art subjects, it was not exclusively devoted to them, but included contributions on matters of general interest from such writers as the Howitts, Miss Meteyard ("Silverpen"), and James Hain Friswell. The first editor was Millard. He was assisted by Thomas Frost as sub-editor, one of whose "sub-editorial" duties was to translate the book on the old masters written by Charles Blanc! When Professor Wallace resigned the editorship of the "Popular Educator," Millard undertook to conduct both; but the Magazine of Art did not pay, and Cassell stopped it at the end of 1854. It was revived for a little while during the second Exhibition (1862), but otherwise lay dormant until 1878.
In the latter year the Paris International Exhibition was made the occasion for re-issuing it under the editorship of Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. J. R. Trendell, of the Science and Art Department, the first number appearing on April 25. It was published at sevenpence, in a small quarto size. It had, as was inevitable, a strong South Kensington flavour, among the early contributors
96
