International studio (81.1925)

mceRHACioriAL

painting m oil which comes from that master. Very
briefly and in a manner which the layman can easily grasp,
he discusses the technical difficulties which the painter
has mastered in this amazing picture. This is the kind of
artistic criticism which one finds only too seldom. The
majority of writers on art are either too fond of coining
clever phrases or else feel called upon to make the subject
as difficult to understand as possible. Mr. Lucas foregoes
the pleasure of being mysterious.

The volume on Rembrandt is almost entirely bio-
graphical, and the half of a volume given to Madame Vigce
Lebrun is also largely narrative. Other volumes in the
series which are soon to appear are on Da Vinci, Van Dyck,
A'lurillo, Hals, Andrea del Sarto and Giorgionc.

ART AND MAN; Essays and Fragments. By
C. Anstruther-Thomson. With an introduction
by Vernon Lee. E. P. Button & Company,
New York. Price, $4.

(T^he collected writings of C. Anstruther-Thomson
/ appear for the first time under the friendly auspices
of her long-time fellow-worker, Vernon Lee, who in
his long and most interesting introduction paints a glowing
and absorbing portrait of this amateur in art, this amateur
whose zeal for knowing the "whys and wherefores"
amounted to a sort of genius. Her passing some few years
ago has made possible the bringing to light the life story
of this extraordinary Englishwoman, her many-faceted
career, her deep absorptions in the various phases of art
that appealed to her. Throughout the course of her inves-
tigations in art she was possessed with the burning desire
to plumb the depths of these matters, to discover more and
more of the nature and influence of art because she wanted
to initiate others into "art's beneficent and ennobling
activities." She was a familiar figure in London and in the
various European centres of culture, a commanding per-
sonality, an indefatigable worker in many fields. Mr.
Lee's sympathetic portrait contains many revealing strokes,
many intimate glimpses of Miss Anstruther-Thomson in
the throes of her investigations on the course of her more
or less fragmentary literary career. He makes clear how
she came to discover the interplay of figure and ornament
in Greek fifth-century pottery for instance, and of how she
finally collaborated with him in their joint life effort, the
essay "Beauty and Ugliness." Her writings include such
subjects as "The Connection Between Man and Art,"
"More About Greek Vases," "Architecture," "Painting,"
"Imagination and Emotion in Art," and "Imaginative
Criticism." Several portraits and sketches of the author
are included, several from the hand of John Singer Sargent.

AMERICAN HOMES OF TODAY. By Augusta
Owen Patterson. The Macmillan Company, New
York. Price, $15.

"Q^iie one clear sentence which has emerged from the
/ mist of over twenty centuries of discussion is to the
effect that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. I f
we modify that to read that those things are considered in
good taste which satisfy the urge to beauty of the educated,
traveled, gently nourished of one's generations and locality,
we probably come as near to a definition of the aesthetic
standard as may be. . . . This book is devoted to . . .
showing . . . what is now considered the best by con-
temporaneous owners and architects." Surely this is a
clear enough statement of the author's purpose, even if it

seems somewhat to contradict the statement in the preface
that "This is a book rather on aesthetics than on archi-
tecture." In spite, however, of the author's confusion
between fashion and art, a not uncommon mistake, due to
the excellent work which has been done by American
architects, the book, so long as it sticks to architecture,
becomes, indirectly, concerned with esthetics.

With the possible exception of Luytens, in England,
American architects are today preeminent in domestic
architecture. Therefore a book of this sort, which shows
excellent illustrations of a good selection from among the
large houses which have been erected here since 1900, is a
valuable record of an important architectural period. It
is quite true that, as the author states, we have created no
distinctive style; our great houses are, almost all of them,
inspired in their design by European motives. But, with
much of the same spirit with which the builders of Amer-
ican homes in the late eighteenth century adapted English
styles to American conditions, our present-day architects
have adapted and fused English, French, Italian and
Spanish designs to fit contemporary needs. In this book
the author has divided the houses into examples of seven
styles which she calls Colonial (including all American
work to 1830); English (Adam and Georgian); Italian;
French; Elizabethan Picturesque (1485-1714); Modern Pic-
turesque (derived from European cottage building); Medit-
erranean (chiefly Spanish). These periods, while they will,
in all probability, pain the serious student of architecture,
emphasize the salutary decrease of eclecticism among our
architects. Evidently the period house is following the
period room into the discard.

THE ART TREASURES OF EDINBURGH.
By W. G. Blaikie Murdoch. J. & J. Gray,
Edinburgh.

(TJ—'his volume of Scottish art will doubtless help many
/ students to acquire a closer, more connected idea of
what may be found of real worth among the art
possessions of Edinburgh. The author states in his preface
that his labors have been undertaken with the purely
unpretentious spirit of giving a helping hand to those
sojourning in the Scottish capital rather than delving,
catalog-wise, into all the artistic data available. There are
omissions, as is perhaps inevitable in a work of this kind
and size, ones which will cause comment in many quarters,
yet the individual manner of presentation and the large
store of unusual facts that the author has gathered together
will more than compensate for any losses along the way.
He begins his investigations as far back in point of time as
possible and ranges step by step the history of Scottish art
with the enthusiasm to be expected of one of his race.
Although this volume appears for the first time in 1924,
Mr. Murdoch is able to state in his opening chapter that
"no Russian painters, sculptors or architects have im-
pressed their names on the memory of mankind" and that
"France, opulent in fine writers and painters, has brought
forth no musicians to rank with the outstanding of Ger-
many." It will readily appear that the author has a dis-
tinctly individual point of view in estimating art. Three
chapters are devoted to portraits illustrating Scottish his-
tory, another to portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots. The
art of Italy, Spain and France comes under another head-
ing, and there is a consideration of Dutch and Flemish art
and of Oriental objects. Certain antiquities and architec-
ture comprise the final chapter, and show the author's
interesting viewpoint in still another direction.

june I925

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