ter his final abandonment of commerce for art as the
serious business of his life, Reynolds was a close and persistent
student. That conscientious care which presents itself to those who
are cognisant of his method of work (and, indeed, to any intelligent
critic of his finished drawings) as one of his most salient
characteristics was a feature of his days of apprenticeship at
Heatherley's. Delight at emancipation from uncongenial occupation
was balanced by a sober ambition and a steady purpose. He lived
laborious days, laying to heart the lessons of his craft, but he
laboured always _con amore_.

[Illustration: BETHNAL GREEN.
_From "Sunday Clothes"_]

In his student days at Heatherley's Frank Reynolds received much
valuable help from Professor John Crompton. On the vital importance
of drawing, the latter was especially insistent: this was the dominant
note of his teaching, markedly made manifest in the work of his
pupil. In the matter of draughtsmanship, few men have so sure a
hand, an instinct so unerring.

[Illustration]

Leaving Heatherley's, Frank Reynolds set out, armed with a sharp
pencil, and a yet sharper sense of humour, to make a living out of
black-and-white illustration. His work quickly obtained recognition,
and his drawings were soon appearing with regularity in the illustrated
press. It would have been strange if _Pick-Me-Up_, then in its
sunniest and most audacious days, had not opened its arms to so
keen an observer of life's little comedies, and Frank Reynolds
speedily became one of that clever band which, including at different
times such artists in jest as Raven Hill, S. H. Sime, Dudley Hardy,
J. W. T. Manuel, Eckhardt, and others, succeeded in making, for a
brief but brilliant period, the satirical little sheet in the blue
wrapper the most talked of periodical, perhaps, of its day. One
recalls with relish many of the quaint conceits that were illustrated
in its pages by Reynolds' mirth-provoking line, and thinks, with
regrets for opportunities lost, how admirable a successor he would
have been to Raven Hill and "the man Sime" as collaborator with Arnold
Goldsworthy in those shrewdly flippant theatrical critiques which the
latter contributed over the familiar signature of "Jingle."

[Illustration: THE REAL ARTIST.
_From "Paris and Some Parisians"_]

It is by his work for the _Sketch_, however, that Frank Reynolds is
best known to the public. Credit is due to that enterprising journal
not on