Frank Reynolds, R.I. | Page 2

for Frank Reynolds the unique position
which he occupies amongst the humorous artists of to-day.
[Illustration: LITTLE WILLIE: You'll catch it, Gerald, when mother
sees you!
GERALD: Why? Is my collar dirty?
From "Punch."]
For unique his position is. Other men are as funny as he, perhaps
funnier. For when a determined man sets out with a fixed and
unshakeable resolve to tickle your fancy, there is no limit to the means
he may adopt to catch you unawares, and it shall go hard with him but
he extorts from you a laugh, however tardy. Frank Reynolds makes no
such desperate efforts. One might say, indeed, that he makes no effort
at all. His simple method is to set down--with the most refined and
delicate art--just one of those little scenes or incidents which everyone
may every day everywhere witness.

[Illustration]
Spectators of such a scene in real life, it is possible--probable, in
fact--that we were in no way edified or amused. Not the veriest ghost of
a smile, it is likely, flickered across our faces. But reproduced by the
subtle humour of the artist, the inherent comedy of the situation stands
revealed, and we chuckle. And our enjoyment is the greater for the skill
with which the means are concealed by which this magical
transformation is effected. We feel that we have discovered the comedy
ourselves, not that it has been shown to us. The characters are so
perfectly natural, so precisely as we know them and have seen them
day after day. The secret lies in the artist's power of restraint. He
exaggerates, he caricatures,--he must do so to bring his point home to
our dull wits. But he does it with such nicety that the exaggeration and
the caricature are unnoticed. Indeed, the terms are misleading. It is
better to say that he emphasises.
Frank Reynolds reminds me, if he will forgive my saying so, of a
certain profane 'bus-driver whom I have the privilege to number
amongst my acquaintance. With this close student of human nature I
have had the good fortune to enjoy frequent conversations, and many
are the gestures which I recall of the whip-hand towards the pavement,
accompanied by the remark (in effect), "Lumme, what funny things a
bloke do see!" I confess freely that often I should entirely miss, but for
the observant jerk of the whip, the said "funny thing"; and it is just that
service which the friendly busman renders to me, as it appears to my
mind, that Frank Reynolds performs for the community at large. It is
precisely those commonplace "funny things," whether they be persons,
scenes, incidents, conversations, or casual remarks, that happen under
our very noses, which he excels in depicting; and it is precisely the
commonplace familiarity of them that invests them with their peculiar
flavour and charm.
[Illustration: THE INTRODUCTION. Time Sketch: London Sketch
Club.]
Of the fine qualities of Frank Reynolds' technique the reader can judge
for himself from the varied specimens of the artist's work which are

reproduced in the present volume. His pencil drawings represent,
perhaps, his more familiar style, one reason of the association of his
name with this medium in the public mind being the comparative rarity
of its use for the purposes of reproduction. Certainly it will be
conceded that pencil, soft and amenable, with its opportunities for
delicate manipulation, is admirably adapted to the interpretation of
those refined shades of meaning and expression which constitute the
characteristic charm of Reynolds' drawings, and of his masterly
handling of it there can be no two opinions.
[Illustration]
His early drawings for publication were in line, and it was not until his
work in the illustrated press had appeared for some time that he began
to substitute pencil for pen-and-ink. His first experiments in pencil
were made at the Friday evening meetings of the London Sketch Club,
and it was at the suggestion of a fellow member of that cheery coterie,
his friend John Hassall, that he adopted the softer medium for the
purposes of reproduction.
The excellence of his pencil drawings notwithstanding, it is in
pen-and-ink that Frank Reynolds appears to me to be at his best. There
is a quality about his work in this medium which gives it a peculiar
distinction. Always instinct with the most subtle and delicate feeling,
there are occasions when his expressive line does more than satisfy. It
arrests: revealing in its simple transcription of pose or expression a
significance which had previously escaped our shallow observation, but
of which the truth is forced upon us. By comparison, one feels that,
despite the fine finish of his pencil work, in the latter medium he loses,
to a certain extent, the opportunities for that incisive sureness--so suited
to his own unerring vision--which pure line affords him.