2} The Graphic

The first edition of The Graphic was published near the end of 1869, when the magazine emerged as a competitor for The Illustrated London News (founded in 1842). Both periodicals were "weekly, middle class illustrated folios, described by a recent critic as 'neither review, magazine nor newspaper' but 'physical giants--[...] carefully tailored to their readers' tastes, [...] provid[ing] current events at home and abroad, high standards of illustration, and unfailing devotion to the royal family'" (Delafield 137). The Graphic ran until 1932, emphasizing high quality engravings—an impressive number for each issue—which ornamented section headings and illustrated news, journalism, fiction and essays. In "Text in Context: The Law and the Lady and The Graphic," Catherine Delafield notes how The Graphic's "layout created a need to read across each issue to link text with illustration and the eye was led from one to the other" (137). Arthur Locker took over as the periodical’s second editor in 1870, a position he held until 1891.



Wilkie Collins’s The Law and the Lady ran in The Graphic from September 1874 to March 1875. Collins had already published a novella, Miss or Mrs? in the periodical in 1871. In “Text in Context,” Delafield traces the complicated relationship of Collins and Locker. With Miss or Mrs? they quibbled over the use of the word “damn,” and with the publication of the final installments of The Law and the Lady, a conflict over Locker’s non-contractual edit to a scene between Valeria and Dexter—which he interpreted as an attempted violation by Dexter and too risqué for The Graphic readers—became public. Following the last installment, Locker printed a disclaimer describing how Collins’s contract forced the magazine to print the story as it was, despite its objectionable material.

The Law and the Lady tells the story of Valeria Brinton, who marries a man named Eustace Woodville only to discover his real name is Macallan. She plays the part of detective to find out first why he changed his name— he was on trial for the murder of his first wife, given the Scotch Verdict of “Not Proven,” and allowed to go free, neither criminal nor absolved—and then to obtain a means to prove his innocence and clear his name. To do so she enlists the help of her family friend, Benjamin, the ladies’ man Major Fitz-David, the lawyer Mr. Playmore, and the legless semi-madman Miserrimus Dexter and his devoted cousin, Ariel.

At least five different artists illustrated The Law and Lady, creating 25 illustrations total. Signatures are difficult to distinguish on some of the earlier images, but include F. W. Lawson, H. Woods, and William Small. The first image of Miserrimus Dexter, for chapters 17 and 18, begins the run of illustrations by Sydney P. Hall, who finished out the novel and gave the character depictions some uniformity. While many of the earlier artists’ characters seem a bit stiff or posed (rather doll-like), Hall’s illustrations in contrast show more movement, detail—even, perhaps, mystique.

Hall was a prominent artist for The Graphic, working with the periodical almost from the beginning. Little, if anything, has been written about Hall in recent years, but 30 years after Hall’s illustrations for The Law and the Lady, he was still a known artist and still on staff with the magazine, as evidenced by a 1905 article in the The Art Journal by Lewis Lusk discussing Hall’s career. The Graphic sent Hall to the Franco-Prussian war to make sketches, and Hall became a significant part of The Graphic’s subsequent success due to these images. He also wrote accounts of his experiences which were published in the periodical. He became known for his portraits of political leaders, especially Parnell. Of course, he also illustrated fiction; Lusk notes, “Readers of Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Law and the Lady,’ a Graphic serial, will not easily forget the awesome figures of the madman Miserrimus Dexter and his grim servant Ariel” (181). Lusk’s writing is clearly a tribute to Hall: “His landscape studies of the South Downs, like his portraits, are strong and simple pieces of character in nature, suggesting even romance in certain moods” (181). Hall brought particular skill and experience to his illustrations of Collins’s novel in 1875.