International studio (48.1913)

Book Reviews


BY MARIANITO FORTUNY

Book is Dedicated by the

Prints and Their Makers. (The
Century Company, New York. $3.50.)
Edited by FitzRoy Carrington.
Perhaps there has been no greater influence
toward a keen and intelligent appreciation of fine
prints in this country than that exerted by the
late Frederick Keppel, and this book now put out
by Century seems to illustrate that here, at least
(to misquote) “the good that men do lives after
them.” To Mr. Kep¬
pel his prints were
far more than mere
stock-in-trade. He
knew nearly all the
great etchers and en-
gravers of his time,
and held them in
warm personal
esteem, which h i s
broad appreciation
and limitless enthu¬
siasm caused to be
no less warmly recip-
rocated.
Mr. Carrington
feels that “Prints
and Their Makers”
should be considered
in the nature of a
memorial to Mr.
Keppel, with whom
he was so long a de-
voted friend and co¬
worker. Following
the title-page, in¬
deed, is this short
and sincere inscrip¬
tion: “To Frederick
Keppel, in Memory
of a Friendship of
Twenty Years, this
Editor.”
That much of the material in the book does not
make its first appearance therein is by no means
detrimental to its value. The subjects which Mr.
Carrington has chosen for its contents are of such
great intrinsic interest that their previous publica-
tion in The Print-Collectors’ Quarterly is imma-
terial. Further, inasmuch as back numbers of the
Quarterly are likely to be very rare within the year,
and as that admirable periodical is, unfortunately,
not so widely known as it should be, a presentation

From “Prints and Their Makers," Centtiry Co.
“AN idyll”

of many of the most interesting of its articles in
permanent library form, under one binding, should
find a warm reception.
The book is rich in material—a variety and
interest of subject worthy of the collector to whose
memory it is dedicated, and the illustrations have
the clean-cut nicety (befitting print reproductions)
so noticeable in the Quarterly. The contents opens
with an article on Dtirer’s wood cuts by Campbell
Dodgson, of the British Museum Print Depart-
ment, and reckoned as the greatest authority on
this phase of Dtirer’s
art. “Early Italian
Engravers ” delves in
a little-known epoch
of the history of en-
graving, and “Jean
Morin” and “Rob-
ert Nanteuil” form
the subjects of a
splendid pair of his-
torical and critical
essays on French
portrait engraving.
Follow “ Rem-
brandt’s Landscape
Etchings” and “Gio-
vanni Battista Piran-
esi” (including many
reproductions of the
famous series of
“The Prisons”) and
there are also re-
printed the two ar-
ticles on the weird
nightmare-like etch-
ings of Goya—sug-
gestive of strange
ideas, sinister, mo-
rose, repellant. A
lighter note is struck
in “The Etchings of
Fortuny.” The value of the book is greatly en-
hanced by the republication of the splendid articles
on “The Characteristics of Sir Seymour Haden,”
written by Mr. Keppel himself. “Meryon and
Baudelaire,” “Felix Bracquemond.” “Auguste
Lepere,” “Herman Webster”—a succession of
brilliant articles, ending the collection with the
remarkable work of “Anders Zorn,” a crescendo
finale, indeed, and making up, in all, a book of the
greatest value and interest, which, it is to be
hoped, may be followed by others of a similar
character.

Book reviews

XLVI