International studio (54.1914/1915)

Book Reviews


LOOKING UP BROAD STREET FROM SPRUCE STREET
LITHOGRAPH BY JOSEPH PENNELL

below the surface as seen by the ordinary dweller
in the midst. We see the Philadelphian of fifty
years ago exactly as he lived his span of years,
careful to do everything in the “Philadelphia
way,” to live in exact concord with a set of unwrit-
ten regulations more binding, if possible, than
those of the Medes and Persians. The house
must be situated within the sacred limits of
“Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce and Pine.” Any
other locality would condemn all social claims.
Two big parlours, separated by folding doors,
ottomans topped by white arum lilies in Berlin
wool, a “Rogers group” on a blue stand, im-
mensely high vases, engravings of Gilbert Stuart’s
Washington and, of course, a garden of roses
and johnny-jump-ups, marked the red-brick
white-and-green-shuttered homes of every Phila-
delphian of distinction.
The reader who applies himself to “Our Phila-
delphia” in the hopes of exciting adventures
had better refrain from the task, for his disap-
pointment will be intense. But for all who are
interested in this wonderful and historical city and
in the people and fashions, passed or passing, that
have contributed to its unique standing in the
America of to-day, a few hours spent with the
writer, who devoted many years to watching and

studying her surroundings, must be of vital inter-
est. Until the Centennial, the Philadelphia way
had been the only way. The necessary stimulus
was afforded by this great event, upon which the
writer has laid the requisite stress.
The Enchantment of Art. By Duncan Phil-
lips. (John Lane Company, London and New
York.) $2.50.
Air. Phillips has written an exceptional work on
art embodying many years of thought and study.
It is the impressionism of art that gives beauty to
life and which the author intended to be his title,
but to prevent conflict with other titles that carry
the word impressionism, it was decided very hap-
pily at the eleventh hour to rechristen the book,
and certainly the new title covers the leit motif
admirably. The author has been at pains to
express a new philosophy rather than merely to
discourse upon painting and sculpture. In a num-
ber of correlative essays he has admitted us to his
Palace of Art in which he dwells in happiness, and
has endeavoured to proselytize us to his ways of
thinking upon truth and beauty, upon life and art,
the inseparable constituents of our kosmos. The
book, is neither technical, historical, nor argumen-
tative. As he appreciates life, so he invites us to
appreciate life with him, and holds out a helping
hand, without knowing it, to many who approach
the realm of art falteringly, dazed and bewildered
by the obtrusive shibboleths and abracadabra with
which so many writers disguise the simplest mat-
ters appertaining to art. In “The Enchantment
of Art,” books hold as much place as do paintings,
which fact broadens very considerably an interest

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Illustration in "Temple Treasures of Japan"
LANTERN UPHELD BY THE DEMON TENTOKI

XCVII