New Books on Art & Artists

MAGAZINE
The Studio

NEW BOOKS ON ART AND ARTISTS.

In the concise and well-written volume, “SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS” (Seeley), Mr. Claude Phillips has not added much to our previous knowledge of the first president and his time; but he has used his materials easily and with judgment and the result is a study characterized ~ within its limits ~ by the charms of personal touch and independence of view. The growth ~ so rapid and luxuriant ~ of Reynolds's power is traced and exhibited from year to year, while the historical background and accessories, though they are sufficiently laboured to be intelligible, are nevertheless kept in due subordination to the principal figure. It is in purely artistic appreciation that Mr. Phillips is at his best; as, for instance, in the brilliant pages in which he contrasts the art of the two great rivals Reynolds and Gainsborough; or when, differing from the traditional and popular view, he bases Reynolds's highest claim to distinction, not upon his renderings of childish innocence and female loveliness, fascinating as they are, but upon those profoundly studied male heads ~ the Johnson, the Hunter, the Gibbon ~ in which portraiture is raised to the dignity and endowed with the stability of history.

But after all, these appreciations seem to lose something of their brilliancy when embedded here and there in a mass of material, which may be compressed indeed, but which is now far too familiar to be re-shaped. In fact we cannot help regretting that Mr Phillips did not either choose a much larger canvas on which I man “of his literature” ~ if we may revive a phrase which would have sounded familiar to Reynolds ~ could not have failed to produce something solid and remarkable; or on the other hand, confine himself to the exploration of a single corner of this varied and fascinating field. For instance, Reynolds as a writer on Art has received rather scanty treatment it the hands of this his latest biographer, yet there is no theme upon which the minute knowledge, and wide sympathy of Mr. Phillips, could be brought to bear more usefully or more attractively.

“THE CONVERSATIONS OF JAMES NORTHCOTE, R.A.,” by William Hazlitt (Bentley & Son), carefully edited by Edmund Gosse. It is a book for the amateur to read; for Northcote was a man of sense and sympathy, although blunt to a degree. Through Hazlitt's interpetration he becomes eminently entertaining. Mr. Gosse very judiciously confines himself to notes and he introduces the writer in a short, but well-nigh perfect, essay on “Hazlitt as an Art Critic.” He explains that the attitude of Hazlitt towards the leaders of artistic fashion in 1815, was similar to that of the young men of to-day who “cultivate the terrors of the initial signature.” He compares Hazlitt to Mr George Moore and in no uncomplimentary way, for “each is perfectly honed, fearless, and unsympathetic.” We are far from thinking Mr. Moore unsympathetic, but his style of criticism is not unlike that of Hazlitt.

“TENNYSON AND HIS PRE-RAPHAELITE ILLUSTRATORS” (Elliot Stock), by G. S Layard, is a little book of gossip and pleasantly written information about the early days of the “P.R.B.” It gives a varied version of the origin of the Brotherhood; the author's sensible ideas on Millais, Holman Hunt, and Rossetti; and it is illustrated by a sketch, by Rossetti, of Tennyson reading “Maud,” and other plates.

“PICTORIAL EFFECT IN PHOIOGRAPHY,” by that hero of the art, H. P. Robinson [Piper & Carter), has arrived at its fourth edition. “Negative making,” by Captain Abney from the same publisher, is a second edition of a practical “primer.” - The “CATALOGUE OF FANS AND FAN LEAVES” (Longman), presented to the British Museum by Lady Charlotte Schreiber, is a simple list with no general interest attached.

“The first crime of the Revolution,” said Chateaubriand, “was the death of the King; but the most frightful was the death of the Queen.” Such is still the verdict of history on the horrors of the French Revolution, and Maxime de la Rocheterie's “LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE” (Osgood, McIlvaine), paints the period with success. This work, translated by Cora H. Bell, is illustrated with a series of portraits of the personages involved. These plates are carefully selected, but the printing is done very indifferently, and no care has been taken to dry each impression flat. The text is well translated and readable, and the original work was “crowned” by the Academie Francaise.

In the preface to his handsome work on “ANCIENT ARMS AND ARMOUR” (Simpson Low, Marston & Co.), Mr. Edwin J. Brett sets forth his “passionate admiration of the marvellous skill of the armourer of the dark and the middle ages.” “Most men,” he proceeds, “have a hobby: this has been mine, and for twenty-five years it has engaged my unremitting attention.” With such an introductory remark the reader of this volume, with its long series of full-page illusndons, willingly pardons any minor fault of style or setting, to examine with the author's enthusiasm the masterpieces of armour, shields, helmets, daggers, maces and axes in Mr, Brett's extensive collection. Before setting out on the minute description he gives of the uses in war, and in tournament of the various pieces of armour, the author retells a considerable number of anecdotes of chivalry. After a portrait of the writer, successfully set in symbolical arms and armour, 133 plates follow, accompanied by most painstaking descriptions of their uses and designs; and the volume is closed with an intelligent index. If it should be felt that the continual heavy red line running round each page is a little unnecessary, and that the diagramatic effect of the illustrations is a trifle monotonous, the lover of arms and armour will leave such remarks to the hypercritical, and be satisfied in a more than ordinary degree with the loving care Mr Brett displays throughout his well-bound and well-printed volume.

Mr Aldam Heaton's “RECORD OF WORK” is a substantial catalogue or album of decorative work done by him, or under his direction, during tile last few years. It contains some sixty or more plates, in photo-tint, of. Furniture, friezes, wall-papers, stuffs, stained glass, and painted decoration ~ all, one would say, rather out of the ordinary trade way, were it not that his furniture is for the most part deliberately in the manner of those last century cabinet-makers, whom it is now the fashion to imitate. Mr Heaton's prefatory remarks on furnishing are to the point, and what he says is in the main true enough, but he takes rather higher ground than his actual performance, to judge by the selection under review, appears to warrant. After his triumphal celebration of the death of the “drawing-room” mirror, of “the handsome white marble chimney-piece,” “the plaster ceiling rosette,” and so on, one expects something more of him than the gilt over-mantel No.2, the mirror frame No.68, and the generally speaking meagre ceiling decoration which he illustrates. The illustrations on the whole show that Mr Aldam Heaton is responsible for some very good work.

Under the title “JAPANESE ART” (Eyre & Spottiswoode), Mr. E. F. Strange has prepared a most useful list of all the Japanese books and albums of prints in colour in the National Art Library at South Kensington. Mr Strange is one of the younger officials whose zeal and industry lend lustre to the administration. The “GRAPHIC ATLAS” (Walker & Co.) is marvellously complete, handy, cheap, and well printed. “LIST OF BOOKS ON FINE ART” (London: Gay & bird) is complied in Milwaukee and only serves to show that it is not possible, so far from the centre of artistic affairs, to chronicle accurately works on the arts; at the same time there is a great deal of useful information not elsewhere to be found.

“HOME LIFE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS” (Cassell) by it title touches a chord of human interest, and Miss Alice Zimmern's facile translation of Prof. Blumner's work is a complete story to be read from beginning to end. The Grecian home life is plainly depicted, the difficulties of telling the truth are grasped not evaded yet the story is as free from any unpleasant flavour as it is free from cant. The illustrations are chosen with knowledge and reproduced with care. “ IN A CORNISH TOWNSHIP” by Dolly Pentrealth (Fisher Univin), is not very interesting, and in any case the illustrations by P. R. Craft are decidedly unequal, and show a want of skill in producing work in black and white.

A debt of gratitude is due to those who bring us from time to time a genuine message straight from the heart of Nature; distracting our attention for a little from the world which is too much with us. Mr.H. S. Salt's “RICHARD JEFFERIES,” a study (Swan, Sonnenschein & Co.), will interest all ~ and they are not a few ~ who have experienced the subtle charm of some of Jefferies' writings. If Mr. Salt's conclusions will not commend themselves always, we are at least free to admit that he is fair, lucid and on the whole, discriminating. The large paper edition contains reproductions of four rather pretty drawings of scenery near Jefferies' home by Miss Bertha Newcombe.

It is seldom that the designer comes upon so useful a book as F. S. Meyer's “HANDBOOK OF ORNAMENT” (B. T. Batsford). Not that it answers in the least to its title of “handbook.” It might much more properly be called in Encyclopoedia of Ornamental Forms. A designer never knows what he may be called upon to design; and, however little he may be disposed to follow the beaten track, he often finds it convenient before he sets to work, to post himself up, as it were, in what has been done, if only that he may do something different. Accordingly the practical man gets together, by degrees, a collection of examples to which he may refer on occasion. Such a occasion Mr. Meyer (whether for the purpose of practical design or of teaching) has made, and here publishes. It is not complete ~ no such collection could be, for there is no end to such an undertaking; but it contains in a compact and handy form much that even the experienced workman will be glad to have thus systematically arranged; whilst to the student, rightly used, it should be invaluable.

“THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY” (Kegan Paul) forms a stirring record of probably the most quickly successful society ever instituted in London, and the office-bearers may be cordially congratulated on the appearance of this volume. “THE BOOK PLATE ANNUAL” (A. & C. Black) is the first yearly issue of a work which appeals to collectors of Book Plates and lovers of books generally. “SYLVIA'S ANNUAL” (Ward Lock & Bowden), is a monthly magazine conducted on broadly sympathetic lines for ladies, and the illustrations are mostly very well done. The letterpress is almost entirely written by women and about women, but the manly element would lend variety to the publication. “THE STUDIO” (Bell) has successfully reached the end of its first volume, and the articles are chosen and illustrated with both skill and taste.

We strongly recommend Art-masters to obtain the series of reproductions of old Japanese prints, “DOCUMENTS DECORATIF JAPONAIS”, published by L'Art, Paris, in eight pamphlets, at a very small price. For their own artistic enjoyment, and for the education of their older pupils, nothing could be better.