Last week's blog was about Charles Ricketts's headpiece for 'The Art World', a signed illustration for the magazine Black and White that had started to appear in February of that year, displaying a masthead drawn by Ricketts. Both, Shannon and Ricketts, would contribute to the magazine. Some of the illustrations in this magazine were signed, some articles mentioned the name of the illustrators with the name of the author or in the captions, and in some cases the names of the artists were listed in the table of contents.
The drawing for the fashion articles 'Walks on the West End' in the four-page supplement for the issue of 16 May 1891 goes without a signature or name. The four larger drawings illustrating dresses were done in a different style altogether. These were the work of several artists: those by 'Dorien' and 'Nemo' are signed and their names are mentioned in the caption underneath, the one by F.H. Townsend is unsigned but equally mentions the artists's name in the caption.
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| 'Walks on the west End' (Black and White, 16 May 1891) |
The headpiece shows a shield bearing the title in an artistic script, surrounded by roses and fashion articles, such as a mirror, a parasol and a fan, objects that we recognize from other headpieces in this sketchy style that Charles Ricketts made for Oscar Wilde's The Woman's World in 1889.
On stylistic grounds alone, we cannot assume that this drawing was also produced by Ricketts, although it bears a strong resemblance to other drawings that he did sign and differs markedly from similar illustrations by other artists in this magazine. His are subtle, even somewhat fairy-tale-like illustrations. However, this particular drawing for the fashion section may, in fact, have been created by another artist, such as his close friend Reginald Savage, with whom he also collaborated on illustrations for Black and White. Their styles are very similar when it comes to this kind of assignment.
Nevertheless, I think that in this case we can attribute the drawing to Ricketts. Firstly, because he produced several such headpieces in the first half-year volume. Secondly, because Savage seemed to specialise in full-page, somewhat romantic illustrations for the magazine, which are always signed – in this volume there were four (14 February 1891, page 62, 7 March 1891, page 141, 14 March 1891, page 193, 9 May 1891, page [429]).
