International studio (58.1916)

Reviews and Notices

believe that there are heights and depths possible
to Sir Rabindranath that go uninterpreted in the
six drawings under review. The drawings are
sensitive—that is their charm. The refinement of
execution gives them a great artistic value, but they
still seem to leave us standing quite at the threshold
of the Eastern mind which they seek to penetrate.
Cubists and Post-Impressionism. By A. J. Eddy.
(London : Grant Richards.) 2oy. net.—From the
point of view of interesting the plain man in the
questions with which it deals, this book could
not be surpassed. It is written in a clear and
aphoristic style. It does not aim at more than
inviting an attitude of receptivity to newer move-
ments of art. Many of the apologies would apply
almost equally well to Pre-Raphaelitism or any
other phase of painting. The author sets out the
principles of Cubism at some length. But when
all is said the Cubists have only abstracted and
isolated principles which could be abstracted from
almost any picture. Their failure to infect the
world with their own enthusiasm, as did the first
Impressionists, is due to their intense self-con-
sciousness. The rights of subjective emotional
art are, however, well advocated in this book,
rights as against demands for imitation of nature,
or even for intelligibility. The author is happy in
the discussion even when the illustrations in the
book seem to give his case away. To claim to
paint trees that will give “ the feeling, the dignity,
the power of trees,” and then to paint something
which breaks down every association of the mind
with trees is to betray either the believer in the
“ manifesto ” or the spectator of the picture. It
must always be difficult to .translate into words
the effect of painting on the imagination, because
the effect is to be received most directly from
painting. The need for a manifesto-writer between
us and a picture condemns the picture. Emotional
experiences can be expressed but cannot be ex-
plained. Whistler himself never really attempted
to explain his pictures, but only, very patiently,
the intellectual shortcomings of those who failed
to appreciate them.
An Art Philosopher1 s Gabinet. Passages from
the works of George L. Raymond. (New York
and London : G. Putnam’s Sons.) 6j. net.—This
volume consists of a classified selection of subjects
from the works on Comparative ^Esthetics of George
Lansing Raymond, who was Professor of /Esthetic
Criticism in Princeton University. The quotations
have been brought together by Miss Marion Mills
Miller, Litt.D. Written in the simplest language,
and addressed to the general public, they cover

a great deal of ground in relation to all the arts.
The book can be opened at almost any page and
be found suggestive.
The Survey of London. Vol. VI. The Parish
of Hammersmith. (The London County
Council.) 2iy. net.—Now a thickly populated
London borough, Hammersmith was until
eighty years ago a hamlet forming part of the
parish of Fulham. In the seventeenth century
many of the citizens of London had their resi-
dences there, and the portion along and near the
river, nowadays a favourite haunt of artists, seems
to have been to the wealthy merchant of those
days very much what places higher up the river
are to his successor of the present. It is with the
old buildings of this riverside locality that this new
volume of the Survey of London mainly deals,
and the numerous illustrations which, as in all the
preceding volumes, form a valuable feature of the
Survey, show that among these old residential
structures still extant are many of extreme interest,
either on account of their architectural character
or their associations or both. Prominent among
them is the charming Georgian structure which
since the year 1878 has been known as Kelmscott
House, a name given to it by William Morris,
whose home it became in that year, and whose
memory is indelibly associated with it and the
cottage near by, where the Kelmscott Press was
carried on. It is stated that the dining-room is
still hung with the original “ pimpernel ” wall-
paper which Morris placed in it when he first went
to reside in the house. There are other interesting
houses close by, some a good deal older, while
in the near vicinity there are numerous quaint
passages which, with their humble abodes, serve to
give this part of London an old-world appearance.
The new volume of Who’s Who, published by
Messrs. A. and C. Black (155-. net), is larger by more
than a hundred pages than the last pre-war issue, in
spite of the fact that the toll of death as indicated
by the obituary list has been much heavier. The
utility of this annual biographical dictionary is so
universally acknowledged that further commenda-
tion is entirely unnecessary. And the same may
be said of those handy works of reference which
always make their appearance in its company—
Who’s Who Year-Book, The Writers’ and Artists’
Year-Book (both iy. net), and The Englishwoman’s
Year-Book and Directory (ys. 6d. net), the last
being of especial interest this year as containing a
“ War Supplement,” with its gratifying evidence of
the splendid part played by women in the great
crisis through which the country is passing.
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