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Commentary

At this point in Barnard's career, he was already in the deep depression that led to his opium addiction, and yet the wood-engraving shows Fred Barnard's habitual irreverence for officialdom and his tendency to satirize establishmentarian institutions such as a parish council of the Church of England.

Such a group of stalwart, black-clad bourgoisie ought, of course, to be sedate and businesslike in their deliberations about parish finances, but these belligerent council members are moved by a spirit quite other than Holy. In the midst of the altercation, the only calm man present is the village clergyman (identified by his collar), miraculously dozing off, even as members on both sides of the question appeal to him. Beyond the room in which the nine council members gesticulate and fail to agree lies the church itself, its spire pointing serenely heavenward, its message of brotherhood, amity, and redemption completely ignored by the irascible pack charged with the responsibility of conducting the financial affairs of the rural parish. To Barnard, the Church of England is a "tied house" rather than a vehicle for personal salvation.

Publishing in The English Illustrated Magazine

Illustrators of The English Illustrated Magazine included such luminaries of British commercial art as Walter Crane, Carlo Perugini,  Alma-Tadema, Louis Davis, Louis Wain, and Fred Barnard. This last veteran illustrator published chiefly in three series: XII (October 1894-March 1895), XIII (April-September 1895), and XIV (Oct. 1895 – March 1896). From October 1893 through September 1898 The English Illustrated Magazine was published by Shorter's chief periodical, The Illustrated London News. Although it carried the occasional lithograph, its standard illustrations were composite woodblocks illustrations such as Barnard's satirical A Meeting of the Parish Council. Its early emphasis on quality illustration and new, avante-garde short fiction forced it to up its price from one shilling to 6d in October 1893. Although it had a distinguished editorial history, its chief force as an illustrated periodical was its third editor, Clement King Shorter  (October 1893 – August 1899), who increased its monthly page-count to 94 between October 1894 and September 1896.

Related Material

• The Technologies of Nineteenth-Century Illustration: Woodblock Engraving, Steel Engraving, and Other Processes
• The English Illustrated Magazine

Bibliography

Barnard, Fred. "A Meeting of the Parish Council." The English Illustrated Magazine 12 (November 1894): 84.

Gissing, George. "The Fate of Humphrey Snell." Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The English Illustrated Magazine. No. 145 (Oct., 1895): 1-10.

_______. "An Inspiration." Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The English Illustrated Magazine. No. 147 (Dec., 1895): 268-75.

Jacobs, Naomi. "Periodicals: Monthly Magazines." Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. Sally Mitchell. New York and London: Garland, 1988. 590-92.

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Created 22 May 2013

Last modified 22 January 2021