DOI issue:
American section
DOI article:Book reviews
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28250#0404
Book Reviews
in the foreground, or the less distinct outlines of
the Langeais. Yet certainly the sign manual is
unmistakeable on such a drawing as that of Blois:
Renaissance Buildings, where the hushed aspiring
remoteness of the buildings piled up into the tran-
quil air of a moonlit night is heightened by the
single touch of warmth below—one sharp triangle
of sober radiance cut in a sheet of cool greys by the
flare of an open doorway.
The World’s Painters Since Leonardo : Being
a History of Painting from the Renaissance to
the Present Day. By James William Patti -
SON. 8vo. Pages xi, 288. With 100 full-page
Illustrations. New York: Duffield & Com-
pany. $4.00 net. Post, 24 cents.
Among the attractive publications which Duffield
& Company, of this city, have succeeded to in
taking over the business of Herbert S. Stone & Co.,
of Chicago, readers of The International
Studio will be particularly interested in the history
of painting since the Renaissance, which James
William Pattison, lecturer at the Chicago Art Insti-
tute and an occasional contributor to these col-
umns, has written under the title, “The World’s
Painters Since Leonardo.” The author has taken
up the long succession of artists of whom he treats
in chronological order, without regard to nation-
ality, schools or character of work. In this he has
sought to present the influence exerted by contem-
poraries upon one another, even at great distances,
often, of course, a most difficult matter to trace. He
breaks away from the arrangement by schools so
completely that he relegates the whole matter,
except for the appearance of the early Italian, the
Barbizon and the Hudson River schools in the text,
to a summary in a final chapter, which by virtue of
its detachment from the rest of the book is in reality
a little appendix wherein the more conventional
method is scornfully explained. It is as though he
had produced an abridged Bryan’s Dictionary of
Painters, arranging by date instead of alphabet,
and giving the whole affair the lively inspira-
tion of alert thought and ready sympathy. The
book, in short, is designed, not as an elaborate
exposition of a thesis of art development, but
rather as a brief digest and convenient compen-
dium for reference, struck through at every point
with the author’s individuality; in fact, he has suc-
ceeded in condensing facts and judgements regard-
ing some five hundred painters in a space averaging
three-fifths of a page to each, while making a book
that is at many points most readable. No one, to be
sure, unless it might be he were reviewing it, would
sit down and read the book through. Its appeal lies
as a book of reference, which is not merely a tool
for work, but has the characteristic personal touch
of an informed man of decided opinions. The
measure of ex cathedra, which recalls the lecturing
platform, keeps the saving grace of a human ele-
ment to the fore.
Particularly interesting are, naturally, the
author’s comments on his contemporaries. Speak-
ing of the remarkable seizure of character in Sar-
gent’s portraits, he cries, “ How does it happen that
people allow a man to paint such pictures of them-
selves ? ” In the note on Chase is a compact review
of the turn of art affairs in New York from the fad-
ing of the Hudson River school to the rivalries of
the Academy. In a two-line commendation of
Edward Simmons the author finds time to say that
decorative work for public buildings is the present
best hope of American art. He may be severe
directly, too, as in the case of Will Low.. Often a
glimpse of habits or methods is accorded, as in the
mention of Winslow Homer’s manner of painting
surf “ in dangerous proximity to it.” At other times
this concreteness is rather an obstacle. Childe
Iiassam is represented by a longish paragraph
describing one painting, and he lacks any list of
works, such as are appended here and there. Over
a dozen “principal works,” for example, are cited
under Alexander Harrison. But, as we have inti-
mated already, this book has not the precision of a
machine gun; the author has not desired it.
Obviously, also, he has not bothered himself in
the historical sections with any hair-splitting over
attribution and similar questions. Disputes on de-
tail do not concern him. He is too busy with the
heart of the matter. He speaks of Holbein’s Meyer
Madonna at Dresden, without deliberately stating
that it is a copy of the Meyer Madonna. He refers
to Correggio’s Reading Madalene, without glancing
at the question of dating it a century later; he con-
tinues to call Titian’s painting by the questioned title,
Sacred and Profane Love; he does not differentiate
between Stuart’s five portraits of Washington, four
of which were replicas; he speaks of Van Dyck’s
Children of Charles I—the one with the baby Stuart
—being at Dresden and Windsor, without noting
that the original is at Turin. There are occasional
positive statements which could be challenged.
Rembrandt’s Night Watch is at Amsterdam, not
Antwerp. Scheffer, set down as Dutch, of German
extraction, is French under the civil law. The
Raphael tapestries were made at Arras rather than
at Brussels. Such points are noted for the sake of
frankness in recommending a welcome book. The
xxiv
in the foreground, or the less distinct outlines of
the Langeais. Yet certainly the sign manual is
unmistakeable on such a drawing as that of Blois:
Renaissance Buildings, where the hushed aspiring
remoteness of the buildings piled up into the tran-
quil air of a moonlit night is heightened by the
single touch of warmth below—one sharp triangle
of sober radiance cut in a sheet of cool greys by the
flare of an open doorway.
The World’s Painters Since Leonardo : Being
a History of Painting from the Renaissance to
the Present Day. By James William Patti -
SON. 8vo. Pages xi, 288. With 100 full-page
Illustrations. New York: Duffield & Com-
pany. $4.00 net. Post, 24 cents.
Among the attractive publications which Duffield
& Company, of this city, have succeeded to in
taking over the business of Herbert S. Stone & Co.,
of Chicago, readers of The International
Studio will be particularly interested in the history
of painting since the Renaissance, which James
William Pattison, lecturer at the Chicago Art Insti-
tute and an occasional contributor to these col-
umns, has written under the title, “The World’s
Painters Since Leonardo.” The author has taken
up the long succession of artists of whom he treats
in chronological order, without regard to nation-
ality, schools or character of work. In this he has
sought to present the influence exerted by contem-
poraries upon one another, even at great distances,
often, of course, a most difficult matter to trace. He
breaks away from the arrangement by schools so
completely that he relegates the whole matter,
except for the appearance of the early Italian, the
Barbizon and the Hudson River schools in the text,
to a summary in a final chapter, which by virtue of
its detachment from the rest of the book is in reality
a little appendix wherein the more conventional
method is scornfully explained. It is as though he
had produced an abridged Bryan’s Dictionary of
Painters, arranging by date instead of alphabet,
and giving the whole affair the lively inspira-
tion of alert thought and ready sympathy. The
book, in short, is designed, not as an elaborate
exposition of a thesis of art development, but
rather as a brief digest and convenient compen-
dium for reference, struck through at every point
with the author’s individuality; in fact, he has suc-
ceeded in condensing facts and judgements regard-
ing some five hundred painters in a space averaging
three-fifths of a page to each, while making a book
that is at many points most readable. No one, to be
sure, unless it might be he were reviewing it, would
sit down and read the book through. Its appeal lies
as a book of reference, which is not merely a tool
for work, but has the characteristic personal touch
of an informed man of decided opinions. The
measure of ex cathedra, which recalls the lecturing
platform, keeps the saving grace of a human ele-
ment to the fore.
Particularly interesting are, naturally, the
author’s comments on his contemporaries. Speak-
ing of the remarkable seizure of character in Sar-
gent’s portraits, he cries, “ How does it happen that
people allow a man to paint such pictures of them-
selves ? ” In the note on Chase is a compact review
of the turn of art affairs in New York from the fad-
ing of the Hudson River school to the rivalries of
the Academy. In a two-line commendation of
Edward Simmons the author finds time to say that
decorative work for public buildings is the present
best hope of American art. He may be severe
directly, too, as in the case of Will Low.. Often a
glimpse of habits or methods is accorded, as in the
mention of Winslow Homer’s manner of painting
surf “ in dangerous proximity to it.” At other times
this concreteness is rather an obstacle. Childe
Iiassam is represented by a longish paragraph
describing one painting, and he lacks any list of
works, such as are appended here and there. Over
a dozen “principal works,” for example, are cited
under Alexander Harrison. But, as we have inti-
mated already, this book has not the precision of a
machine gun; the author has not desired it.
Obviously, also, he has not bothered himself in
the historical sections with any hair-splitting over
attribution and similar questions. Disputes on de-
tail do not concern him. He is too busy with the
heart of the matter. He speaks of Holbein’s Meyer
Madonna at Dresden, without deliberately stating
that it is a copy of the Meyer Madonna. He refers
to Correggio’s Reading Madalene, without glancing
at the question of dating it a century later; he con-
tinues to call Titian’s painting by the questioned title,
Sacred and Profane Love; he does not differentiate
between Stuart’s five portraits of Washington, four
of which were replicas; he speaks of Van Dyck’s
Children of Charles I—the one with the baby Stuart
—being at Dresden and Windsor, without noting
that the original is at Turin. There are occasional
positive statements which could be challenged.
Rembrandt’s Night Watch is at Amsterdam, not
Antwerp. Scheffer, set down as Dutch, of German
extraction, is French under the civil law. The
Raphael tapestries were made at Arras rather than
at Brussels. Such points are noted for the sake of
frankness in recommending a welcome book. The
xxiv