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  • Man Reading a Newspaper in Crowd

  • 1896
  • Philip (also Philipp) William May, called Philmay (British 1864-1903)
  • Ink with graphite under drawing
  • 26.7 x 15.5 cm., 10-7/16 x 6-1/8" sheet
  • Lent Courtesy of Private Collection through Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts

Essay by Kim Weidner, Class of 2006 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Philip William May (Philmay) was an English caricaturist for the escalating production of newspapers and magazines. "Draw firm and live jolly" (Fox 166) was his work-life attitude. At the time of this illustration, he was primarily working for the comic periodical, Punch, in the tradition of Charles Keene and George du Maurier. Like Keene, May's illustrations generally portray single situations, forcefully and economically conveyed without moral overtones. Situations are taken from the stage, sporting events and London street life.

May's illustrations are more complex than the apparently simple, seemingly spontaneous appearance they suggest. He made and revised many pencil sketches prior to "taking down the scaffolding," (Fox 166) as he called it. He paid little attention to background details. He would strip any elements that were unessential before tracing what remained with ink. The resulting illustration is a striking composition of bold black lines and stark white open spaces.

Man Reading a Newspaper in Crowd demonstrates May's distinctive pen-and-ink style. Like a photograph, it crops the edges and accurately captures a typical London street of the day. In the foreground, we observe a heavily outlined figure of an apparently intelligent, upper-class, worldly man intent on reading the newspaper before him. He seems completely uninterested in the bustling street scene around him. A young boy with rosy cheeks in the foreground seems immersed in his own thoughts and equally disinterested in the hustle and bustle.

A woman in the middle ground gazes toward the man and the boy as she advances along the walkway. She is also clearly intent on her own daily agenda. Directly behind her is a concert sign, suggestive of refined London city life. Less immediate are the faint suggestions of a man and his horse on the right and a figure far off in the background. May used the tree line, along with atmospheric perspective through fading ink color, to gently draw the viewer to the distant white background. The faint graphite outlines suggest this illustration is unfinished, since May generally erased such lines upon completion.

May suffered with fragile health throughout his life, further compromised by his bohemian lifestyle and alcoholism, tragically leading to consumption and his death before age forty. His brilliant, striking pen-and-ink illustrations established his reputation as one of the most talented illustrators of nineteenth-century city life. Deriving his style from Keene's beautiful hatching and detail, he filtered these qualities into a more reductive and modernist aesthetic.