"Going to Work (Punjab)," "In Time of Drought," and "In a Good Season," by John Lockwood Kipling

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Going to Work (Punjab)

John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911)

1891

Illustration for Beast and Man in India, p.168

This is one of many illustrations for Chapter VI, "Of Cows and Oxen," in which Kipling explores the vital importance of these creatures for Indian life: "The people have a passion, — no other word is strong enough, — for the possession of cattle" (115). The original works for the book were not just pencil but "pen-and-ink, wash, and watercolor on paper" (see James 371).

Scanned images and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Left: In Times of Drought (p.152). Right: In a Good Season (p.155).

In this pair of drawings, both illustrating verses by Rudyard Kipling, the older Kipling shows just how dependent the people are on the weather, and how interdependent the men and their oxen are. Coming close together, the to illustrations make a vivid contrast.

As can be seen, various types of illustrations are found in the book, from full-page ones to others inserted, with or without borders, into the text (both the above are inserted into the text). Perhaps these circular ones are the most attractive — there is only one other, in Chapter VIII. Elizabeth James believes them to have been taken from a series of drawings ("Scenes from Indian Life") that Kipling had "exhibited in Simla and elsewhere" (369). Besides the larger illustrations, there are also decorated capitals (see the opening "T" in the chapter on elephants), and a sad endpiece. James points out that Kipling's home in Lahore was adorned with nursery rhyme illustrations by Walter Crane and that he was evidently influenced by Crane's belief in "illustrations which are also book ornaments" (qtd. in James 373). The whole book is a treasure.

Bibliography

Bryant, Julius, and Susan Weber, eds. John Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London. New York: Bard Graduate Centre Gallery; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2017.

James, Elizabeth. "Kipling and Book Illustration." In Bryant and Weber. 361-99.

Kipling, John Lockwood. Beast and Man in India: A Popular Sketch of Indian Animals in Their Relations with the People. London: Macmillan, 1891. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. Web. 22 January 2017.

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Created 22 January 2017