These
drawings are taken form a sort of retrospective of his career published
only five years before his early death. In this context the personal statement
is poignant.
May was
immensely influential in developing sharper and more spontaneous brush
and penwork in British Illustration which was often bogged down in heavy
hatching and even heavier jokes. In many ways he could not have developed
much further, and I doubt his ability to sustain a larger project than
one-off illustrations. But what illustrations they were
Masters of Black and White a selection,
Caricature of May from Punch May 28th 1898p.250,
portrait by J.J.Shannon, from Drawing and Design 1921
DAVID CUPPLEDITCH MONOGRAPH biblio |