DOI issue:
No. 96 (February, 1905)
DOI article:Book reviews
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26963#0492
Book Reviews
the year. Mr. Watts-Dunton is well known as the
intimate friend of the poet Swinburne, with whom
he has lived for many years at The Pines, Wimble-
don, near London. During his long life he has been
closely associated with almost all the distinguished
workers in the great fields of art, whether literary
or pictorial, including such names as Whistler,
Rossetti, William Morris, Burne-Jones, and Madox
Brown; Tennyson, Browning, Lowell, Bret Harte,
George Meredith, Borrow, William Black, and
Lord De Tabley. The work comprises: (i) Rem-
iniscences and anecdotes concerning Watts-Dun-
ton’s distinguished friends and associates; (2)
Watts-Dunton’s last words about Rossetti, and the
campaign of slander in connection with his relations
with his wife; (3) Unpublished Poems by Watts-
Dunton; (4) Letters from George Meredith,
Thomas Hardy, and other distinguished men; (5)
An account of the life at The Pines, and the rela-
tions between Swinburne and Watts-Dunton; (6)
Extracts from Watts-Dunton’s articles in the Lon-
don Athenceum.
The numerous illustrations include photographs
of rooms at The Pines, which have been taken
specially for the volume; art treasures which be-
longed to Rossetti; photogravures of Rossetti’s
pictures; and a number of other plates. There is
no doubt whatever that Mr. Watts-Dunton’s
reminiscences, collected and arranged by one so
eminently able as Mr. James Douglas, form a very
important addition to contemporary records of the
leading lights of the nineteenth century in the litera-
ture and art of America and England.
The Art of the Louvre : Containing a Brief His-
tory of the Palace and of Its Collection of Paint-
ings, as well as Descriptions and Criticisms of
Many of the Principal Pictures and Their Art-
ists. By Mary Knight Potter. i2mo. Pages
418. Illustrated. Boston: L. C. Page & Co.
$2.00 net.
There is scarcely any more formidable task for
the sightseer and traveller than that presented by
the study of the various art collections housed in the
Palace of the Louvre at Paris. So numerous are the
various fields of art and antiquity covered by the
treasures, and so fully is each field represented
(somewhat to the detriment, be it said, of the value
of the museum as a whole) that, for their intelligent
study, it is absolutely necessary to approach them
in some classified order. Mary Knight Potter, in
her volume entitled “The Art of the Louvre,” has
restricted herself to the exclusive consideration of
the collections of the pictures; and here again the
CII
scope is so vast that it has been necessary in the
treatment of the material to divide it into several
classes: a considerable number of pictures and
paintings have been given extended notice and
description; others have been treated more cur-
sorily; while some have been merely mentioned; of
course a few have had to be ignored altogether.
In her classification and treatment the author has
been’guided chiefly by the great art critics of the
Western world, from whose opinions, sometimes at
variance, she has aimed at choosing what seemed
to her most generally true and reliable, and of
special value to readers who are not connoisseurs
or deep students of painting. Besides this careful
culling of authorities the writer has not hesitated to
record her own ideas and feelings in describing a
favourite picture or discussing the masters. As the
sub-title of the book indicates, only the oil paintings
have been considered; neither pastels, water-colours,
nor mural decorations have been included. Con-
siderable space has been given to the French School,
because, in the opinion of the author, the traveller
and the general student are usually less familiar
with it than those of other countries. Opening with
a history of the Palace itself, and with the origin
and growth of the picture collection, the author’s
method has been to conduct her readers through
the various galleries and rooms which constitute it.
The volume includes also a bibliography and a
complete index, so that it will be useful not only as
a book of reference, but to travellers on the spot.
The profuse illustrations are of adequate quality
for the purpose of the volume.
Ornament and its Application. By Lewis F.
Day. 8vo. Pages 319. Illustrated. New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons (Imported).
$3.25 net.
“Ornament and its Application” will be found
to contain a great deal of information at once
necessary to the student and interesting to the more
general reader. Its purpose is not to cram the
student with knowledge, profitable only in propor-
tion as it comes to him through personal experience
or individual study; not so much to inform the
reader, as to stir in him a desire to inform himself;
to indicate how much there is in ornament which
nearly concerns him, did he but know it; to suggest
directions in which search will be fruitful. What
the author has endeavored to do is to show the
close relation of design to workmanship; to arouse
interest in a side of art which, regarding it in the
rather forbidding light of “technique,” lovers of
art are accustomed to dismiss from their minds as
the year. Mr. Watts-Dunton is well known as the
intimate friend of the poet Swinburne, with whom
he has lived for many years at The Pines, Wimble-
don, near London. During his long life he has been
closely associated with almost all the distinguished
workers in the great fields of art, whether literary
or pictorial, including such names as Whistler,
Rossetti, William Morris, Burne-Jones, and Madox
Brown; Tennyson, Browning, Lowell, Bret Harte,
George Meredith, Borrow, William Black, and
Lord De Tabley. The work comprises: (i) Rem-
iniscences and anecdotes concerning Watts-Dun-
ton’s distinguished friends and associates; (2)
Watts-Dunton’s last words about Rossetti, and the
campaign of slander in connection with his relations
with his wife; (3) Unpublished Poems by Watts-
Dunton; (4) Letters from George Meredith,
Thomas Hardy, and other distinguished men; (5)
An account of the life at The Pines, and the rela-
tions between Swinburne and Watts-Dunton; (6)
Extracts from Watts-Dunton’s articles in the Lon-
don Athenceum.
The numerous illustrations include photographs
of rooms at The Pines, which have been taken
specially for the volume; art treasures which be-
longed to Rossetti; photogravures of Rossetti’s
pictures; and a number of other plates. There is
no doubt whatever that Mr. Watts-Dunton’s
reminiscences, collected and arranged by one so
eminently able as Mr. James Douglas, form a very
important addition to contemporary records of the
leading lights of the nineteenth century in the litera-
ture and art of America and England.
The Art of the Louvre : Containing a Brief His-
tory of the Palace and of Its Collection of Paint-
ings, as well as Descriptions and Criticisms of
Many of the Principal Pictures and Their Art-
ists. By Mary Knight Potter. i2mo. Pages
418. Illustrated. Boston: L. C. Page & Co.
$2.00 net.
There is scarcely any more formidable task for
the sightseer and traveller than that presented by
the study of the various art collections housed in the
Palace of the Louvre at Paris. So numerous are the
various fields of art and antiquity covered by the
treasures, and so fully is each field represented
(somewhat to the detriment, be it said, of the value
of the museum as a whole) that, for their intelligent
study, it is absolutely necessary to approach them
in some classified order. Mary Knight Potter, in
her volume entitled “The Art of the Louvre,” has
restricted herself to the exclusive consideration of
the collections of the pictures; and here again the
CII
scope is so vast that it has been necessary in the
treatment of the material to divide it into several
classes: a considerable number of pictures and
paintings have been given extended notice and
description; others have been treated more cur-
sorily; while some have been merely mentioned; of
course a few have had to be ignored altogether.
In her classification and treatment the author has
been’guided chiefly by the great art critics of the
Western world, from whose opinions, sometimes at
variance, she has aimed at choosing what seemed
to her most generally true and reliable, and of
special value to readers who are not connoisseurs
or deep students of painting. Besides this careful
culling of authorities the writer has not hesitated to
record her own ideas and feelings in describing a
favourite picture or discussing the masters. As the
sub-title of the book indicates, only the oil paintings
have been considered; neither pastels, water-colours,
nor mural decorations have been included. Con-
siderable space has been given to the French School,
because, in the opinion of the author, the traveller
and the general student are usually less familiar
with it than those of other countries. Opening with
a history of the Palace itself, and with the origin
and growth of the picture collection, the author’s
method has been to conduct her readers through
the various galleries and rooms which constitute it.
The volume includes also a bibliography and a
complete index, so that it will be useful not only as
a book of reference, but to travellers on the spot.
The profuse illustrations are of adequate quality
for the purpose of the volume.
Ornament and its Application. By Lewis F.
Day. 8vo. Pages 319. Illustrated. New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons (Imported).
$3.25 net.
“Ornament and its Application” will be found
to contain a great deal of information at once
necessary to the student and interesting to the more
general reader. Its purpose is not to cram the
student with knowledge, profitable only in propor-
tion as it comes to him through personal experience
or individual study; not so much to inform the
reader, as to stir in him a desire to inform himself;
to indicate how much there is in ornament which
nearly concerns him, did he but know it; to suggest
directions in which search will be fruitful. What
the author has endeavored to do is to show the
close relation of design to workmanship; to arouse
interest in a side of art which, regarding it in the
rather forbidding light of “technique,” lovers of
art are accustomed to dismiss from their minds as