MR GEORGE DU MAURIER.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7246, 28 February 1889, Page 2

MR GEORGE DU MAURIER.

Mr George dv Maurier has been on the staff of punch twenty-two years. When John Leech died the editor invited Mr dv Maurier to join them. He had worked for the paper before ;-his first drawing having appeared in the number for Dec. 5, 1863 ; but it was two days after the death of Leech that he joined the regular staff, Mr dv Maurier'a house is at Hnmpstead, but about the beginning of the new year he migrates to the West-end, where be is to be found till the London season wanes. The artist is a well-known figure at society functions, where he studies character. Ladies keep him posted up in all the changes of fashion, and if Mrs Ponsonby deTomkins* drese. has a pleat too many or a pleat too few, the morning's post corrects the error. The artist has just had the mysteries of a new and wonderful hat explained to him, which- we shall soon see Iα Mr Punch's pages. " However does Mr dv Maurier think of his subjects Tie a question often asked. He depends almost entirely on his own imagination. Suggestions are frequently sent to him, but they are seldom serviceable. On the mantelpiece of the pleasant studio at New Grove House is a blue vase, known as the "joke pot." Into it go all the letters he receives containing jokes, and when the artist is hard up for a subject this vase is very useful. Mr da Maurier likes to have three or four drawings always ready. To properly appreciate the beauty of the work, one must see the originals, or, better still, the first sketch in pencil. In the reproduction, however skilful the engraver may be, much of the delicacy of the drawing is lost. The artist has to consider the engraver almost as mach as the pictorial character of his drawings. The costume that causes Mr dv Maurier most trouble is man's evening drese.

The studio at Harapstead is hung with some of the original punch drawings, which are made at a little desk by the window. Mr dv Maurier, on the advice of a famous oculist, never works for more than three hoars a day. Many years ago, while studying at Dusseldorf with Mr Whistler andMr Poynter, his eyesight became seriously affected, so that for a time he was obliged to abandon, all work." He was condemned," says Mr Henry James, "to many dark days, at the end of which he learned that he should have to do his work for the zest at hia life with less than halt a man'a portion of the cent* most

valuable to the artist." The fact that Mr dv Maurier depicts only fashionable life is an accident more than anything else. He has made that branch so popular that the public insist upon bis continuing it. " I would like to draw the poor," he says. "Apart from my sympathy with them, their costume is so much less troublesome. One has to be so very accurate in drawing fashionable folk."

In appearance Mr dv Maurier bears a striking resemblance to Mr Alma Tadema. This likeness has given rise to many amusing complications. Some time ago, at a dinner party, he happened to sit next to a daughter of bis host. "I cannot understand," remarked the young lady, "how people can be so absurd as to mistake you for Mr Tadema. To mc the likeness is very slight." A little later she said: " Oh, I bought your photograph the other day. Would you mind—er—-putting your autograph to it." Mr dv Maurier expressed his willingness, and later on in the evening the young lady conducted him to a writing table and handed him the photograph for his signature. Mr <lv Maurier looked at it, sighed, and then laid it very gently on the table. "That," he eaid, "is Mr Alma Tadeuia's portrait."— THE GLOBE.