Punch Magazine and the Golden Age. . . .

My father was born on Thursday,  March 24, three days short of Easter in 1932. I am only aware of the proximity of his birth to Easter Sunday because of a cartoon that appeared in Punch Magazine on that week. Here is the cartoon.

The cartoon is by Bernard Partridge, an artist who became the chief cartoonist at Punch Magazine around 1910 and continued to do cartoons, book illustrations, and some paintings till his death in 1945. The cartoon is meant to illustrate the irregularity of the timing of the Easter Holiday, and though it is not particularly amusing, it is a nice drawing and, entirely unbeknownst to Mr. Partridge, it informed me of a little piece of trivia about my father's birth. 

My dad loved Punch Magazine and left me a large collection of Punch books which are collections of cartoons and writings. Punch was one of the longest running magazines of England. Punch published from 1841 to 2002 and some great writers were involved in it pages including my very favourite writer E.V. Lucas.  One of the most interesting aspects of Punch is that, in a country so infected by class distinctions, it crossed over class fairly effectively. Punch was by no means a radical publication, but one of the very first editions of Punch contained Thomas Hood's great poetic indictment of English Capitalism "The Song of the Shirt" which was transformed into a popular song and was an integral piece of the cultural puzzle leading to labour reforms.* Punch seemed to appeal to people of all walks of life and in it offices were brought together working-class writers and artists as well as wealthy ones. My father was very working-class but he always enjoyed Punch not only as an artist but as someone who enjoyed good and amusing prose. 

Punch is probably more remembered for the artwork that appeared on its pages than for the great prose. One of Punch's greatest artists, Charles Keene, was a globally admired etcher and pen and ink artist who was so effective (so the legend goes) that he was a significant influence on great painters of the 19th century. Here is an example of Keene's work. 

But Charles Keene was of the 19th century in style and Bernard Partridge, though a good draughtsman, often produced rather stiff and overly heavy work. My father's personal favourite Punch cartoonist was unquestionably the great Phil May. Though May died in 1903, his style was revolutionary and he introduced a real 20th century style. May eschewed the traditional pen and ink approach and invented a simplified, fluid style that gives him a very important place in the history of cartooning and drawing in general. (I was lucky enough to inherit an original Phil May cartoon from my dad) Take a look at this drawing which is remarkably open and minimal for a 19th century work in pen and ink. 

My dad was particularly attracted to Phil May because he often portrayed working-class, cockneys on the streets of London in sympathetic, amusing ways. May's "Gutter-snipe" series is a genuine and important historical record of working-class culture. 

My favourite Punch cartoonist of the golden age is, without a doubt, Frank Reynolds. Reynolds was a remarkable draughtsman and could draw better than almost anyone I have ever seen. He was, for a number of years, the art editor of Punch as well as a prolific watercolour painter. Here is one of my favourite Reynolds cartoons from the pages of Punch. 

Punch is gone now. But more importantly, the era of drawing is largely gone. When I was in art college I was a drawing major and I spent years trying to continually improve my drawing skills. And even though my work doesn't generally involve complex, realistic drawings, I know that the skill helps me in every kind of artwork. But we live in a different era today and most artwork I see is woefully inadequate from a drawing point of view. It is unfortunate because I often see paintings, for example, in which the message is significantly let down by the artist's inability to draw effectively. This situation has gotten so dramatic that I believe that much of the time artists don't even know when their drawing skills are lacking. But we live in an age of short-hand, and the skills that were once considered "basic" for an artist are being replaced by more complex computer and digital skills. So it goes. 

But I have digressed. I read Punch collections regularly for the enjoyment of the drawings, the humour, and the excellent prose. But I also look at such books as a way of connecting me to the past. The pages of Punch connect me to my father (as the Bernard Partridge example so effectively illustrates) and to the writing, art, and culture of the past. 

*It should also be remembered that one of Punch's founding editors was Henry Mayhew who wrote one of the first effective sociological studies in English - London Labour and the London Poor. He was a man who knew first hand the terrible conditions in which many in England lived at that time.