DOI Heft:
No. 4 (July, 1893)
DOI Artikel:New publications
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17188#0181
New Publications
should be by the hon. treasurer of the Japan to illustrate the subject. It is instructive to read
Society, London, and with such credentials for their a sound critic's opinion of some English painters,
authenticity there is little doubt that the sounds although one cannot by any means accept his state-
from the East will charm educated ears, as the ment that " Mr. Watts is an artist of no mean
new motives in ornament charmed the eyes of ability, but a poor painter," or " that he paints every-
our artists long before the public did its best to thing alike with the same brush-strokes and the
vulgarise them by cheap imitations. The taste- same heavy impenetrable pigment." The author
ful presentation of the music within a charming is, as he himself says, " disagreeably particular"
wrapper adds to its attractions. in calling Holman Hunt and Burne-Jones
The Tourist's Art Guide to Europe. By Nancy "painters with a popular and exaggerated reputa-
Bell (N. D'Anvers). (London: George Philip & tion who are notably faulty in picture painting;"
Son.)—A happy thought, well carried out, makes but leaving personalities, when he declares that we
this handy volume of three hundred pages as have " been educated more on line than upon
useful for reference on one's shelves colour or light," and cultivate severity at the ex-
as for its original purpose to be a pense of the sensuous which makes more of form
guide for travellers. It is freely than of colouring or texture, we feel he is attack-
illustrated, although its pictures ing British art with sound knowledge of his subject,
are open to criticism, and it is to The book is technical and therefore of more
be regretted that the concise sum- than literary interest, but at the same time it is
mary of the text was not supported well written and distinctly interesting to laymen,
by photographic records of the Twenty-four excellent engravings add to its attrac-
objects and places described, tiveness. Entirely different in style from Modern
Apart from this not absolutely es- Painters, or Modern Painting, recalling Mr. Ruskin
sential detail in such a work, the as little as Mr. George Moore, it is in its own way
book deserves full praise. As far as full of suggestion as either. To confine one's
as personal intimacy with the places reading either to one's opinions reflected in the
so tersely described enables one to words of others or the opinions we have outlived
criticise its wide range of facts, it set forth in faultless style, is not so nourishing as to
is singularly full and complete, study a new line of argument that has a non-British
while escaping the conventional standpoint and yet a distinct sympathy with the
rhapsody dear to the compiler of aims of our own younger school. America has
art guides. Its printing and bind- displayed unusual felicity in reviewing contem-
ing deserve notice, since both are porary authors, and this book promises no less
far above the level of their class, valuable assistance in the formation of a logical
and the bold attempt to record the system of criticism applied to living artists. Of
art treasures of the greatest and the very few books on art that painters and critics
least of European countries within should on no account leave unread this is surely
a prescribed compass, justifies its one, and since the last ten years has produced at
audacity by its success. most two or three that deserve to be recommended
Art for Art's Sake. By John in the same way, it is needless to say more in its
C. Van Dyke. (London: Samp- praise, especially as it addresses a wide public and
son Low & Co.)—Did not the name is couched in less dogmatic form than either of
of its author betray the fact, inter- those others one has in mind as being well worthy
nal evidence would soon show this of frequent perusal,
book to be the work of an Ameri-
can. It is a sane and lucid expo-
sition of a subject that as experience
shows too often lures a sentimental
pen to rash utterances. It would
■candlestick of hildesheim be pleasant to quote passage after
("tourist's art guide") passage in proof. "Through the
mother country England," says Mr.
Van Dyke, "we have been educated more in
literature than in art, and we conceive ideas more
by words than pictorial forms." This one sen-
tence alone shows lucid insight into the ideal of art
accepted by the majority of English-speaking
people to-day. The author goes on to discuss the
change that is now taking place in that ideal, and
while fully appreciating the poetry of art which is
oftener literary than pictorial, sets forth clearly the.
new gospel of paint which is so actively preached ceiling in the alhambra ("tourist's art guide")
by a few to-day. The work is in the form of
lectures on the theory and practice of art, and Angelica Kauffmann. By Frances A. Gerald.
modern as well as earlier works are freely instanced (London : Ward cS: Downey.)—This new edition of
163
should be by the hon. treasurer of the Japan to illustrate the subject. It is instructive to read
Society, London, and with such credentials for their a sound critic's opinion of some English painters,
authenticity there is little doubt that the sounds although one cannot by any means accept his state-
from the East will charm educated ears, as the ment that " Mr. Watts is an artist of no mean
new motives in ornament charmed the eyes of ability, but a poor painter," or " that he paints every-
our artists long before the public did its best to thing alike with the same brush-strokes and the
vulgarise them by cheap imitations. The taste- same heavy impenetrable pigment." The author
ful presentation of the music within a charming is, as he himself says, " disagreeably particular"
wrapper adds to its attractions. in calling Holman Hunt and Burne-Jones
The Tourist's Art Guide to Europe. By Nancy "painters with a popular and exaggerated reputa-
Bell (N. D'Anvers). (London: George Philip & tion who are notably faulty in picture painting;"
Son.)—A happy thought, well carried out, makes but leaving personalities, when he declares that we
this handy volume of three hundred pages as have " been educated more on line than upon
useful for reference on one's shelves colour or light," and cultivate severity at the ex-
as for its original purpose to be a pense of the sensuous which makes more of form
guide for travellers. It is freely than of colouring or texture, we feel he is attack-
illustrated, although its pictures ing British art with sound knowledge of his subject,
are open to criticism, and it is to The book is technical and therefore of more
be regretted that the concise sum- than literary interest, but at the same time it is
mary of the text was not supported well written and distinctly interesting to laymen,
by photographic records of the Twenty-four excellent engravings add to its attrac-
objects and places described, tiveness. Entirely different in style from Modern
Apart from this not absolutely es- Painters, or Modern Painting, recalling Mr. Ruskin
sential detail in such a work, the as little as Mr. George Moore, it is in its own way
book deserves full praise. As far as full of suggestion as either. To confine one's
as personal intimacy with the places reading either to one's opinions reflected in the
so tersely described enables one to words of others or the opinions we have outlived
criticise its wide range of facts, it set forth in faultless style, is not so nourishing as to
is singularly full and complete, study a new line of argument that has a non-British
while escaping the conventional standpoint and yet a distinct sympathy with the
rhapsody dear to the compiler of aims of our own younger school. America has
art guides. Its printing and bind- displayed unusual felicity in reviewing contem-
ing deserve notice, since both are porary authors, and this book promises no less
far above the level of their class, valuable assistance in the formation of a logical
and the bold attempt to record the system of criticism applied to living artists. Of
art treasures of the greatest and the very few books on art that painters and critics
least of European countries within should on no account leave unread this is surely
a prescribed compass, justifies its one, and since the last ten years has produced at
audacity by its success. most two or three that deserve to be recommended
Art for Art's Sake. By John in the same way, it is needless to say more in its
C. Van Dyke. (London: Samp- praise, especially as it addresses a wide public and
son Low & Co.)—Did not the name is couched in less dogmatic form than either of
of its author betray the fact, inter- those others one has in mind as being well worthy
nal evidence would soon show this of frequent perusal,
book to be the work of an Ameri-
can. It is a sane and lucid expo-
sition of a subject that as experience
shows too often lures a sentimental
pen to rash utterances. It would
■candlestick of hildesheim be pleasant to quote passage after
("tourist's art guide") passage in proof. "Through the
mother country England," says Mr.
Van Dyke, "we have been educated more in
literature than in art, and we conceive ideas more
by words than pictorial forms." This one sen-
tence alone shows lucid insight into the ideal of art
accepted by the majority of English-speaking
people to-day. The author goes on to discuss the
change that is now taking place in that ideal, and
while fully appreciating the poetry of art which is
oftener literary than pictorial, sets forth clearly the.
new gospel of paint which is so actively preached ceiling in the alhambra ("tourist's art guide")
by a few to-day. The work is in the form of
lectures on the theory and practice of art, and Angelica Kauffmann. By Frances A. Gerald.
modern as well as earlier works are freely instanced (London : Ward cS: Downey.)—This new edition of
163