International studio (60.1916/1917)

Book Reviews

OOK REVIEWS
Joseph Pennell’s Pictures oe ti-ie
Wonder of Work. (J. B. Lippincott
Co., Philadelphia.) $3.00.
This latest addition to the little literary monu-
ment erected by Mr. Joseph Pennell is very
worthy of notice inasmuch as it shows in repro-
duction a few charming drawings, lithographs and
etchings for which this artist is so justly famous.
In these days of specializing it is not surprising
that he has followed the popular bent, and nothing
could be more American and democratic than
work. Many visions that enthused the artist,
however, will hardly appeal to outsiders even
though sufficiently sophisticated as to avoid
“pretty bits” and the too picturesque. The won-
der of work will hardly provide beauty in scaf-
folding as seen in plates 1 and 2. Plate 3 with its
steel skeletons is equally uninteresting as an artis-
tic record. Plate 4, shewing an infinity of tall
chimneys belching forth their evil smoke is no
relief, and the oil wells of Alberta, though pleasing
to the shareholders, are scant subject for the
artist. When we come to The Jaws, Chicago, we
have something dramatic and intense. Grim
mystery surrounds Under the Bridges, Chicago,
and gives excuse to the drawing. The stockyards
may have been fascinating to draw, but why do
it? In such a subject as the steel works at Johns-
town Pennell is at his best and has executed some-
thing worth while. The Flour Mills, Minneapo-
lis, The Incline, Cincinnati, the Victor Emmanuel
Monument, Rome, the Leipzig Railway Station,
all testify to his wonderful grasp of difficult prob-
lems, but even a Pennell is unable to do much
more than prove his cleverness. Actual colour, not
the mere suggestion of it, is the only salvation in
most of the fifty and more plates produced. Of
artists who have dedicated their attention to the
subject of work, few have made a deeper impres-
sion than Jonas Lie when he returned from Pan-
ama some three years ago with a fine array of
canvases, which ought to find perpetual shelter
in some national museum of art. The text ac-
companying the illustrations is of negligible qual-
ity excepting where he indulges in sarcastic
sallies and petulant outbreaks such as over the
ignorance of Spruce Street and the scarcity of art
editors owing to the fact that they actually pub-
lish the work of “imitating thieves” rather than
the real goods, namely the work of Joseph Pennell.

Saints and Their Emblems by Maurice and
Wilfred Drake. (J. B. Lippincott Company,
Philadelphia.) $10.00.
A very handsome folio has resulted with twelve
plates, some coloured, being a development of
the Dr. Husenbeth method by inserting place
names with which the different saints are asso-
ciated and by references to printed sources where
the lives of each saint may best be traced. Fur-
ther than this the compilers have increased the
Husenbeth list threefold. It will be readily
granted therefore that the present volume far
outstrips its predecessor in usefulness as a book
of reference and is indispensable to the church-
man and the craftsman, be he glass painter or
image maker.
Sketches in Poetry, Prose, Paint and Pencil
by James H. Worthington and Robert P.
Baker. (John Lane Company.) $6.00.
The poems and prose are of varying character
and the work of a traveler, a scientist and a man
of the world; the illustrations are by a sculptor
who has attained to high standing amongst the
younger artists in England to-day. The combi-
nation is particularly happy, each complementing
the other. The planet of Mars is the ruling
thought in much of the poetry and has influenced
the splendid drawings that accompany the text.
The appearance of the book is unusually fine and
makes it in fact one of the handsomest specimens
of bookcraft that this season has produced.
The Woodcarver of Salem by Frank Cousins
and Phil M. Riley. (Little, Brown & Co., Bos-
ton.) $6.00.
The lifework of Samuel McIntire is opportunely
revealed in these pages. As one generation suc-
ceeds another greater difficulty of research is
necessarily to be reckoned with. Landmarks
remain longer in districts like Salem, remote from
the battle of life waged in large cities, but fire,
forgetfulness and the auctioneer’s hammer may do
much to impede the labours of the investigators
and to rob posterity of their records. The book
is a sumptuous, well-illustrated account of the
men who have left such splendid signs manual
upon the old houses of Salem; houses which can-
not be expected to exist permanently but which
are forever closely allied with the remarkable his-
tory of America. By the joint labour of Mr.
Cousins and Mr. Riley, data of all kinds have been


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