International studio (15.1901/1902(1902))

American Studio Talk

engaging pictures crowded with figures in animated
movement. Of the subject pictures I must also
specify Clara T. McChesney’s Baby's Toilet, and
A Co77irade, by Henry Poore, the latter containing
a figure of a man excellently drawn and full of ex-
pression. Albert Herter’s highly finished Anemones,
with the profile of a pretty girl, is superficially
attractive.

Of the miniatures nothing can be said in praise.
They are as ordinary a collection as could well have
been gathered.

III. Book Notices.

FRENCH FURNITURE AND DECORA-
TION in the XVIII Century. By Lady Dilke.

George Bell and Sons. Imported by the Mac-
millan Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Preceded by “ French Painters of the XVIII
Century,” and “ French Architects and Sculptors of
the XVIII Century,” the present volume is the third
of a series that is to be completed by “ French
Draughtsmen and Engravers.” Those who are ac-
quainted with the earlier volumes will need no
introduction to the author, whose systematic study
and critical appreciation are producing a review of
French art of the XVIII century that has no rival
in the English language. In this volume Lady
Dilke has treated furniture in relation to decoration,
for, as she says, “ a cabinet, or a table, demands, if
it have character, the accessories which determined
that character, or it becomes a mere curiosity.” In
her selection of objects she has restricted her study
to those which are distinguished by a sense of style
and respect for the laws of construction. Thus the
book is in many respects a rehabilitation of the
art, which has suffered so much through its popu-
larity and the poor imitations which the same has
engendered, whereas in its original choiceness it
represents the French genius in its most elegant and
tasteful form. The volume is sumptuously manu-
factured, and will prove as entertaining to the gen-
eral reader as it is invaluable to the student.

LANDSEER. A Collection of Fifteen Pictures
and a Portrait of the Painter with Introduction
and Interpretation by Estelle M. Hurll.
Houghton, Mifflin & Company. Boston and
New York.

This book may fill a long-felt want, but such want
from an artistic standpoint is one that had better
not been felt. Its aim is to appeal to the imagina-
tion through the story-telling interest of these pic-
tures, and the author’s efforts in this direction are a
mixture of facts, surmise, and dragged-in allusions
to all and sundry things supposed to be improving,
brought down to the level of the infant mind. It
is very banal.

BRUNELLESCHI. By Leader Scott. George
Bell and Sons. Imported by the Macmillan
Company.

This is volume seventeen of the great masters,
in Painting and Sculpture, edited by G. C. William-
son. In form conveniently brief, it collates the scat-
tered data of Brunelleschi’s youth and education ;
notes his work as a sculptor and his obligation to
tne antique, vivifying the narrative by a sketch of
the contemporary artist life in Florence and Rome.
Prominence is given to the great episode of his
career, the building of the dome of the Duomo,
and then is taken up his work as City Architect,
Church Builder, and Palace Builder; the review
finishing with an estimate of his influence upon
succeeding architects.

PAINTING IN FRANCE and CONTEMPO-
RARY FRENCH PAINTERS. By Philip
Gilbert Hamerton. Little, Brown, & Company,
Boston.

This is a reprint, in two handy volumes, of a
work that scarcely justifies reprinting. Hamerton
was an agreeable writer, but his knowledge of
French art was very superficial, and his estimate
inadequate, and not always reliable even as far as it
went.

I