The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 | Page 6

happily supplied by Mr. Humphry
Ward as the heading to the preliminary notice he wrote for the Times.
At the last moment I called in my fellow-worker on Punch, Mr. E. J.
Milliken, to assist me with some of the letterpress of the catalogue and
write the verses for it. I had all but a small portion of the catalogue
written before he so kindly gave this assistance, but at the suggestion of
a mutual friend I gave him half the profits of the catalogue, which
amounted to several hundred pounds. I am obliged to make this point
clear, as to my astonishment it was reported that the whole Exhibition
was a joint affair, no doubt originated by Mr. Punch in a few lines:
"When two of Mr. Punch's young men put their heads together to
produce so excellent a literary and artistic a joke as that now on view at
the Gainsborough Gallery----" This was accepted as a matter of fact by
many, not knowing that this "joke," my work of years, was a secret in
the Punch circle as outside it. The false impression which Mr. Punch
had originated he corrected in his Happy Thought way: "The Artistic
Jubilee Jocademy in Bond Street.--The fire insurances on the building
will be uncommonly heavy because there is to be a show of Furniss's
constantly going on inside. Why not call it 'Furniss Abbey Thoughts?'"
[Illustration: POTATO GANG IN THE FENS.
TWITCH-BURNING IN THE FENS.

A FLOOD IN THE FENS.
THE PICTURES BY R. MACBETH.
Reproduced by permission of the Artist.]
[Illustration: MACBETH IN THE FENS.
My parody in "An Artistic Joke" of Mr. Macbeth's composition and
style of work, showing that in my "Academy" I did not parody one
subject, but designed a picture embodying all the characteristics of the
Artist.]
The following brief correspondence passed between the President of
the Royal Academy and myself:--
"Mr. Harry Furniss presents his compliments to Sir Frederick Leighton
and trusts he will forgive being bothered with the following little
matter.
"Sir Frederick is no doubt aware of Mr. Furniss's intention to have a
little Exhibition in Bond Street this spring,--a good-natured parody on
the Royal Academy. The title settled upon--the only one that explains
its object--is
"HARRY FURNISS'S "ROYAL ACADEMY, "'AN ARTISTIC
JOKE.'"
"In this particular case the authorities (Mr. Furniss is informed) see no
objection to the use of the word Royal pure and simple, but as a matter
of etiquette he thinks it right to ask the question of Sir Frederick
Leighton also.
"March 11th, 1887."
[Illustration: LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL
ACADEMY.]
A word or two may not be out of place here on the practical difficulties

which beset an artist who opens an Exhibition on his own account, and
is forced by circumstances to become his own "exploiteur." Men may
have worked with a more ambitious object, but certainly no man can
ever have worked harder than I did at this period. Outside work was
pouring in, my current Punch work seemed to be increasing, but I never
allowed "Furniss's Folly" (as some good-natured friend called my
Exhibition at the moment) to interfere with it. I had only arranged with
a "business man" to take the actual "running" of the show off my hands,
and he was to have half the profits if there should happen to be any. At
the critical moment, when I was working night and day at my easel,
when in fact the "murther was out" and the date actually settled for the
"cracking" of my joke--in short, when I fondly imagined that all the
arrangements were made, I received a letter from my "business" friend
backing out of the affair, "as he doubted its success." Half-an-hour after
the receipt of this staggerer (I have never had time to reply to it) I was
dashing into Bond Street, where I quickly made all arrangements for
the hire of a gallery and the necessary printing, engaged an advertising
agent and staff, and myself saw after the thousand and one things
indispensable to an undertaking of this kind. And all this extraneous
worry continued to hamper my studio work until the Exhibition was
actually opened. Of course I had to make hurried engagements at any
price, and consequently bad ones for me. Every householder is aware
that should he change his abode he is surrounded in his new home by a
swarm of local tradespeople and others anxious to get something out of
him. Well, my experience upon entering the world of "business,"
hitherto strange to me, was precisely the same. All sorts of parasites try
to fasten themselves on to you. Business houses regard you as an
amateur, and consequently you pay dearly for your experience. You are
not up to the tricks of the trade,