International studio (50.1913)

Reviews and Notices

ing, by Mr. Wontner Smith, and a double sheet by
Mr. Leslie Wilkinson giving portions of the palace
of Charles V at Granada. The fact that many of
the drawings included in these Sketch Books are
made to scale gives them an especial value in the
eyes of the architect.
The Four Gardens. By Handasyde. Illus-
trated by Charles Robinson. (London : Heine-
mann). 6^. net.—The Haunted Garden, The
Old-Fashioned Garden, The Poor Man’s Garden,
and The Rich Man’s Garden are the titles of the
four quaint stories which compose this book. The
chief attraction for us, however, lies in the
illustrations, decorations and ornaments. Mr.
Robinson’s work has a character of sympathy and
charm peculiarly its own, and the drawings he has
executed for this book are delicate in draughtsman-
ship and very decorative in composition. The
volume is tastefully got up and an agreeable type
has been used for printing the letterpress.
Old Houses and Village Buildings in East Anglia.
By Basil Oliver, A.R.I.B.A. (London: B. T.
Batsford.) 215. net.—Norfolk, Suffolk, and rural
Essex furnish the material for this volume, a com-
panion, as regards the general plan of the book, to
those interesting volumes on “ Old English Cottages
and Farmhouses,” which Mr. Batsford has published
during recent years, though its scope has been ex-
tended to include habitations of a more imposing
size and character. The three counties represented
are rich in relics of Old English domestic archi-
tecture, and Mr. Oliver’s aim has therefore been
to bring together a series of typical examples
originating between the latter part of the fifteenth
century and the beginning of the eighteenth century.
A great amount of care has been lavished on the
illustrations, which leave nothing to be desired.
Most of them are collotype plates from photographs
specially taken by Mr. Horace Dan, Mr. S. A.
Driver and others, and there are in addition
numerous illustrations interspersed in the text.
Besides the many views of individual houses there
are some of larger and smaller groups, and a
specially interesting feature of the book is the
series of illustrations of market crosses. Mr. Oliver
devotes more than half his text to a careful study
of the timber-framed buildings for which Essex
and Suffolk were noted, while other topics dis-
cussed are stone and flintwork, woodwork and
wrought-iron work as met with in East Anglian
buildings.
Rembrandt s Handzeichnungen. Herausgegeben
von Kurt Freise, Karl Lilienfeld, Heinrich
Wichmann. i Band. Rijksprentenkabinet zu

Amsterdam. (Parchim i M. : Hermann Freise’s
Verlag.) 8 marks.—The volume before us, con-
taining reduced facsimile reproductions of the whole
of the drawings by Rembrandt preserved in the
State Cabinet of Prints at Amsterdam, inaugurates
a series which the editors tell us will include, when
completed, every drawing by the great Dutch
Master now extant, including not only all those
described by Hofstede de Groot in his catalogue
of 1906, but also some not there described but
believed to be authentic, and others again which
came to light after the publication of the catalogue.
The drawings comprised in this first volume number
fifty-six and represent various stages in the master’s
career. About one third of them are biblical
subjects, and a particularly fine example is one
described by Hofstede de Groot simply as “A
woman who has fallen down in a faint,” but is here
said by Dr. Lilienfeld to represent Queen Esther
fainting in the presence of King Ahasuerus, a
scene recorded in chapter iv of the apocryphal
“ Fragments of the Book of Esther.” The majority
of the originals are pen drawings, with in many
cases the addition of a wash, and the reproductions
though small (averaging about one-third) are ex-
cellent, the tint of the original paper being faith-
fully rendered. If the editors succeed in carrying
out their undertaking they will earn the gratitude
of the host of admirers of the great Dutchman’s
genius, which is no less evident in his drawings
than in his finished masterpieces.
In connection with a recent exhibition at their
establishment Messrs. Probsthain and Co., of 41
Great Russell Street, London, have issued a
Catalogue of Old Chinese Paintings and Drawings
(65.), containing three reproductions in colour and
others in monochrome of works of particular
interest among those exhibited. The catalogue
also includes a comprehensive list of books on
Chinese Art which will prove of much use to
students and collectors.
A Catalogue of an Exhibition of Sixty Drawings
by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (55’.), is published
by the proprietors of the Edward Gallery in King
Street, St. James’s, where the drawings described
were recently on view. This catalogue contains
several full-page reproductions and numerous others
on a smaller scale, with descriptive notes by Mr.
Algernon Graves, F.S.A. In a foreword Mr.
Reginald Grundy expresses the hope that English
owners of drawings by Lawrence will “keep and
conserve them as being among the most precious
examples of British Art.”

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