CONTENTS
Bibliography
The Square Book of Animals.
London: William Heinemann,
1900(1899).
42 pages.
284×284mm.
We thank Mrs. Elizabeth Banks for giving permission to use The Square Book of Animals.
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Introduction
Features the dog, cat, duck, and other animals familiar to household life in England. Known for his poster designs and one of the pioneers of commercial design, Nicholson’s work as a woodblock artist, as seen in his portrayal of the essence of his subjects, his use of space, asymmetry, and sense of line, was clearly influenced by Japanese prints. With their strong black outlines and brown, yellow, and red coloring, the pictures in this work mark a new era in woodblock printing art. Records show that Nicholson’s designs for this book were finished in 1896, so it is possible that Arthur Waugh’s poems were written for their publication as a book.
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The Square Book Of Animals
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The Square Book Of Animals
The Square Book Of Animals
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(♪) The Square Book Of Animals
The Square Book Of Animals
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An explanation. Friend, seek not here (to feed the mind) zoology’s recondite feasts: here you will find but common, kind, and unsophisticated beasts!
Yet fresh the life of farm and grange as that which o’er the ocean roams; take for a change a narrower range- an English book for English homes!
Yet fresh the life of farm and grange as that which o’er the ocean roams; take for a change a narrower range- an English book for English homes!
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(♪) The British bull-dog. You swing the gate; and there he stands to greet you, with growl or grin, as you are strange or known: according to your merits will he treat you- an Englishman who loves and guards his own.
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The un-common cat. Nine lives they give the common cat? There’s a rare one livelier yet than that! A cat that swings nine separate tails! And, when it’s let out of the bag, it rails with so knotty a tongue that the culprit quails! (♪)
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(♪) The friendly hen. Some birds lay eggs in towering trees, and some in fens conceal them; the hen seeks friendlier haunts than these, where every child can steal them.
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The learned pig. The farm’s philosophy, our eyes assure us, Is simpler than in Aristotle’s day: the youngest pigling follows Epicurus, and Baconʼs essays take the primrose way. (♪)
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(♪) The beautiful swan. All day she rules the pond from edge to edge, exerting beauty’s easy privilege; her world a mirror spread in each direction, where she reflects upon her own reflection.
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The very tame lamb. All men, said the poet, are struck at a mint, and some coins ring flat that the coiners embellish; but the lamb is so tame he will pardon the hint- he’d be best with a little mint-sauce for a relish! (♪)
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(♪) The toilsome goat. “You’re a lively kid!” is the schoolboy jest; but the kid is driven to work one day, and the hours of harness know little rest for the stiff goat-carriage round the bay.
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The lucky duck. There was a Drake, my duck, at Plymouth Hoe played bowls, with Spain’s Armada clear of Dover! A gamesome spirit! But to him we owe the peace your farm and all our homesteads know: for, ere the Spaniard reached our wickets, lo! Drake bowled him over! (♪)
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(♪) Cock o’ the north. Cock o’the north! The dawn is young, grey-glimmering the pane; yet you, with your discordant tongue, have woken me again! Good beasts are silent in their pens. Hush! Leave the boasting to the hens!
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The simple sheep. The sheep’s like the man in the street. She will follow, and blunder, and bleat, In pursuit of her fate at the slaughter-house gate, and she learns it too late to retreat. (♪)
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(♪) The servile cow. When the cow’s in the farmyard, her sense of servility’s simply immense; but you meet her again In the highway or lane, and she tosses you over the fence.
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The growing colt. Rough, shaggy colt: the world is all before you: blithe be your life, secure of oats and hay; a little crowd of people to adore you, and some green resting-place at shut of day! (♪)
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(♪) The sun is low behind the grey-green trees. And all the farm grows quiet by degrees. Among their many lessons this is best: the animals know when and how to rest!
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About the author 1/6
William Nicholson (1872-1949)
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1)
Mention the name of this English artist today among reasonably well-informed people in the arts and one likely elicits blank looks. Mention the name of his sculptor son, Ben, and there is ready acknowledgment. William Nicholson’s undeserved eclipse, in part attributable to his son’s publicly diminishing his father’s accomplishment, is also a matter of time and fashion.
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2)
In the second half of the l890s, Nicholson’s threatre and advertising posters, done in collaboration with James Pryde under the pseudonym, Beggarstaff Brothers, highlighted his skill as a woodcut artist which was only enhanced with the appearance of his bold, color woodcut portrait portfolios, An Alphabet (1897), Almanac of Twelve Sports (1897), London Types (1898), and The Square Book of Animals (1899).
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3)
The dramatic simplicity of his woodcuts, however, only belied a complex and highly creative artist in a number of mediums. While he is perhaps best remembered as a graphic artist with work ranging from theatre set design, printing making, and children’s book illustration, Nicholson was a gifted painter of portraits [who can forget the melancholy interior and isolated figures in “The Earl of Plymouth and family” (1908)], landscapes [the more-sky-than-land scene “Near Littlehampton” (1906) or “Devils’s Flight, Gloucestershire” (1911), and the memorable cityscapes such as “Armistice Night” (1918) with a solemnity that is palpable.
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4)
Yet, Nicholson could create a seemingly effortless still life such as “Miss Simpson’s Boots” (1919) or “Lilies of the Valley” (1925) and “Cyclamen” (1936) with such a bright palette that one might think they are the work of another artist.
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5)
As to his books for children, his collaborative effort with Margery Williams in The Velveteen Rabbit (1922) had an unusual continuing interest, perhaps more for the parents who bought it and the children’s librarians who stocked it than for the children to whom it was read for half a century. It remains in-print to this day throughout the English speaking world. Nicholson’s own effort with children’s books in Clever Bill (1926) and The Pirate Twins (1929) had less success and remain of primary interest to collectors today.
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About the author 6/6
6)
While there are numerous reproductions, notes, and biographical sketches in the art periodicals of Nicholson’s time, studies of him and his work in his time are limited. Those of recent note are: William Nicholson, the graphic work by Colin Campbell. (London: Barrie & Jenkins, l992); William Nicholson Painter: paintings, woodcuts, writings, photographs by Andrew Nicholson. (London: Giles de la Mare, l996); and William Nicholson by Sanford Schwartz. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).James Howard Fraser
January 2006
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Contents
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