[Illustration: VIVE L'ARMEE
_From "Paris and Some Parisians"_]
"Art and the Man" was a series of drawings in the vein of farce
rather than of comedy. The intention was to depict various types
of artists rather as fancy might paint them than as they really
are. The "Marine Artist," for example, with his canvas slung from
davits and the entire furniture of his studio of extremely nautical
design, was a purely fanciful conception. The "Pot-Boiler," spending
his days in painting one solitary subject over and over again _ad
infinitum_, comes nearer to life, though his portrait again is
an exaggerated fancy rather than a study from life. One feels,
nevertheless, that if there be indeed such an individual as the
pot-boiler in existence, this, and no other, must be his outward
guise.
The drawings entitled "Dinners with Shakespeare," to which allusion
has already been made, gave scope for a very varied range of character
studies. Meal-time is a happy moment at which to catch human nature
unawares, and the artist made the most of his opportunities. They
add to the debt which the historians of contemporary manners will
owe to Reynolds in the future, for as a sidelight on social habits
of the present day these pictures of the dinner-table will be
instructive. The very triteness of their theme gives them their
interest.
[Illustration: "GAZED ON HAROLD"
_From "Paris and Some Parisians"_]
[Illustration: FROM A PARIS SKETCH-BOOK]
Of late years Reynolds' pen-and-ink drawings have been a familiar
feature of the pages of _Punch_.
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