Studio: international art (13.1898)

Reviews of Recent Publications

Among the professors at the Academy arc several
remarkable teachers, including W. von Ruemann,
who holds a position equally high both as in-
structor and as artist. He has the gift of laying
a solid foundation for his pupils to work upon,
and this without in any way thwarting their inde-
pendence or their individuality, the result being
that their works show the utmost variety and cha-
racter. For the most part Ruemann's pupils devote
themselves from preference to the monumental
branch of sculpture, in which the professor himself
has achieved so much renown ; others, however,

"the violin player" bronze statuette

HY l UK< >dor von gosen

there are who most successfully study and produce
genre and ornamental work in the shape of small
statues in the style of the antique Tanagra ware.
Among the latter is a young Munich artist, Theodor
von Gosen, whose speciality, apart from portrait
busts, is the fashioning of graceful little bronze
figures of undraped women, holding ornamental
shells, to serve as sealing-wax trays ; or figures of
youths modelled in decorative rococo style. An
example of the last-named variety is the Violin-
player, illustrated here. In this year's competition
among the students at the Munich Academy the
first prize was awrarded to Von Gosen.

G. K.

REVIEWS OF RECENT
PUBLICATIONS.

A History of Dancing from the Earliest Ages to
our Own Times. From the French of Gaston
Vuillier. (London : William Fleinemann. 1898.)
—It is rare to find a book with a technical motive
which can be praised as really complete and ex-
haustive. Specialism often breaks down at the
critical moment and leaves undone many things
that are necessary for the proper presentation of a
wide and engrossing subject. But in this history
of dancing there is scarcely a lapse that can be
detected. It comprises an extraordinary amount
of material, is considered carefully from every point
of view, and reveals an extent of study which argues
an amazing industry on the part of its author.
Nothing has been omitted that is required to
establish the book as authoritative, and no pains
have been spared to make it as attractive in appear-
ance as it is complete in arrangement. Artistically
it must be reckoned a most important achievement,
for its pages abound with extremely well rendered
reproductions of the works of those artists of all
times who have found in the dance the happiest
suggestions for pictorial effort. The saltatory
customs of all countries, whether religious, military,
or merely inspired by a desire for enjoyment, are
illustrated more than adequately; and the artists
represented include every one of note from classic
times to the present day, from the painter of Greek
vases to Lancret and Watteau, and even to Mr.
Whistler and Mr. Sargent. The book is likely to
remain for a very long time the standard work on
its special subject.

Highways and Byways in Devon and Carnival/.
By Arthur II. Norway. With illustrations b)
Joseph Pennell and Hugh Thomson. (London:

127