International studio (52.1914)

Reviews and Notices

known except to a favoured few. But of the
earliest stages of Chinese painting, reaching back
to a far more -remote antiquity than Japanese
painting, our knowledge is based almost entirely
on tradition. The number of still extant originals
which can be definitely assigned to a date anterior
to the T’ang dynasty is very small, and of these
only two or three at most have found their way
to the West, one being the remarkable scroll
painting in the British Museum attributed to
Ku K’ai-chih, who flourished in the fourth cen-
tury a.d. This painting, of which a complete
facsimile reproduction has been published by the
Museum authorities, has been closely investigated
by scholars since the first edition of Mr. Binyon’s
book made its appearance, and. in the new revised
edition he therefore devotes special attention to it
when dealing with Chinese painting prior to the
T’ang dynasty. In regard to this dynasty a
very important source of information has become
available in the interval as a result of the wonderful
discoveries made by Sir Aurel Stein and M. Pelliot
in Chinese Turkestan. The paintings recovered
from the Cave-temple at the “ Halls of Thousand
Buddhas ” after nearly a thousand years of seclusion
include some which are supposed to be of great
antiquity, but a considerable number are definitely
assigned to the T’ang period (618-905)—the period
of China’s “ greatest poetry and of her grandest and
most vigorous, if not, perhaps, her most perfect art.”
In these paintings Buddhist ideas are paramount,
but the T’ang was also a period when landscape
was favoured, and two exceedingly interesting ex-
amples are included among the illustrations. In
dealing with this and subsequent periods in his
revised edition, Mr. Binyon has consulted other
important sources of information, such as the
fine collection sent over by the Japanese Govern-
ment to the Japan-British Exhibition, the Boston
Museum Collection and that of Mr. Freer at
Detroit, and the valuable series of reproductions
of ancient masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese
painting published by the “ Kokka,” the Shimbi
Taikwan, etc., in Japan. The aim and scope of
the book may best be stated in the author’s own
words : “ My chief concern,” he says, “ has been,
not to discuss questions of authorship or archaeo-
logy, but to inquire what aesthetic value and signifi-
cance these Eastern paintings possess for us in the
West. Therefore in each period I have chosen a
few typical masters who concentrate in their work
the predominant ideals of their time rather than
bewilder the reader with lists of unfamiliar names.”
It is indeed an illuminating survey of an intensely

interesting field of study that he here presents to
students of Eastern art, who will be grateful for
the thought and care he has bestowed on it.
The illustrations have been selected with admirable
discretion.
Robert and Andrew Foulis and the Glasgow Press.
With some account of the Glasgow Academy of Fine
Arts. By David Murray, M.A., LE.D. (Glasgow:
Jas. Maclehose & Sons.) ios. 6d. net.—This
interesting account of the life of the brothers, Robert
and Andrew Foulis, was prepared by the author
over twenty-five years ago, but owing to a variety of
circumstances its publication has been thus long
delayed. The brothers started their career as
book-dealers in days when the business was largely
carried on by means of auctions; in close touch
with the University they became in due course the
accredited University booksellers. Soon they
became publishers, and the next step was the start-
ing of their own press. The history of all this and
of the founding by Robert Foulis, an enthusiastic
lover of art, of the Glasgow Academy of Fine Arts,
and the story of that excellent but ill-starred venture
is all set forth most interestingly in this volume.
First Steps in Collecting. By Grace M. Vallois
(London : T. Werner Laurie.) 6s. net.—In this
book the author has provided a useful companion
volume to her work on the “ Antiques and Curios
in our Homes” which appeared some time ago.
The very wide scope of this book naturally pre-
cludes anything in the nature of an exhaustive
study of the different subjects and as almost all
branches are dealt with it is only to be expected
that some receive rather scant notice. The frank
admission of its mission as a primer, however,
disarms criticism on this score, and as the pages
are filled with a variety of useful hints and
suggestions as well as much matter descriptive of
■works of different periods, illustrated by more than
sixty reproductions from photographs of old
furniture, ceramic and glass ware and other objects
and curios, the book should prove decidedly help-
ful to those who are taking their first steps in
collecting. _
We have received from Messrs. A. and C. Black
a copy of the new issue of that indispensable store-
house of contemporary biography, Who’s Who (15s.
net), and with it a copy of the companion hand-
books, Who’s Who Year Book and Writers’ and
Artists’ Year Book (each is. net.). The English-
woman’s Year Book and Directory for 1914 (25. 6<7.
net) adds some new features to its extensive fund
of useful information.

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