Anyone fortunate enough to see the illustrations in First
Editions of books by Philip Henry Gosse will be amazed by their accuracy and beautiful
colours. I certainly remember my reaction to many of his book plates and admit
to being one of Gosse’s avid admirers [1].
Recently, I visited the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter
and met Holly Morgenroth, the Curator of Natural History. Together, we looked
at the materials by Henry Gosse in the museum collections (some of which can be
seen by searching for “Gosse” at http://rammcollections.org.uk).
In addition to illustrations in pencil, pen and ink, and watercolour (see above
for examples), there were several boxes of chalk drawings on large sheets of black
paper, some being collages, and these are masterpieces of their type. They are
attributed to Gosse, but yellow writing on some sheets appears to be in a
different hand, although earlier white lettering on others is almost certainly
by him. Each sheet has two loops of material glued to the rear of the upper margin,
secured by strips of paper. Six of these beautiful illustrations are
shown below:
They are certainly visible at a distance and may have been
used in talks or on the field courses that Henry ran. In his biography of his
father, Edmund Gosse wrote [2]:
Between 1853 and 1860 my father
lectured on several occasions in various parts of England and Scotland, with marked
success. He was perhaps the earliest of those who, in public lecturing,
combined a popular method with exact scientific information. He was accustomed
to use freehand drawing on the black-board, in a mode which was novel when he
first began, but which soon became common enough. He gave up lecturing mainly
because of the extreme shyness which he never ceased to feel in addressing a
strange audience. Had he not expressed this sense of suffering, no one would
have guessed it from his serene and dignified manner of speaking on these
occasions. His fondness for romantic poetry, and his habit of reciting it at
home with a loud, impressive utterance, naturally produced an effect upon his
manner in public speaking and lecturing [2].
I imagine that the production of meticulous new illustrations at each
lecture would be a labour too far and I think the many chalk drawings that we
examined in the Museum in Exeter may have supplemented the “free-hand drawing
on the blackboard” to which Edmund refers. They may even have been these
drawings. Of course, this is speculation, but who would not be impressed with
a series of them, accompanied by Henry’s oratorical style. It is no wonder that he
was so admired as a communicator about Natural History in the mid Nineteenth
Century, a time when visual aids were very much more limited than those of
today.
Ann Thwaite, in her brilliant biography of Henry Gosse [3],
wrote that lectures were well-received and she quotes from a newspaper report
that they “made what would have been otherwise a dry and uninteresting subject
to the larger portion of his auditory, popular and attractive”. The lectures could not
fail to add to his already established reputation and, although they were agonising
to present, Henry knew that they were both a chance to inform his audience and also promote sales of his Natural History books [3].
It is fortunate that the sheets of drawings that (probably) accompanied his lectures have survived for over 150 years and left us a further
legacy of Henry Gosse's wonderful skills.
[1] Roger S Wotton (2012) Walking with Gosse: Natural History, Creation and Religious Conflicts.
Southampton, Clio Publishing.
[2] Edmund Gosse (1896) The
Naturalist of the Sea-Shore: The Life of
Philip Henry Gosse. London, Heinemann.
[3] Ann Thwaite (2002) Glimpses
of the Wonderful: The Life of Philip Henry Gosse 1810-1888. London, Faber
and Faber.
All images
reproduced with permission
© 2015 Royal Albert Memorial Museum
& Art Gallery, Exeter City Council
No comments:
Post a Comment