Studio: international art (6.1896)

Reviews of Recent Publications

original intention of the book-plates too often
lost sight of to-day. A lithograph in colours
and gold, by Joseph Sattler, is somewhat too
ornate for English taste, but a capital example
of that distinguished artist's purely decorative
manner. Mr. Sherborn is represented by
three plates displaying his accomplished
methods. Of other illustrations, mostly from
pen-drawings, the plate of Lilian Moorat by
Paul Woodroffe shows a firm grasp of con-
ventional style, with most graceful drawing.
The plate by H. Granville Fell, shown at the
last Royal Academy, and others by Harold
Nelson, Marian Reid, H. Napper, A. Maude,
C. E. Levetus, G. C. Gaskin, Isabel Adams,
&c, are excellent. Of better known artists,
the " May Morris" design by Walter Crane,
three by Miss Kate Greenaway, a very
charming composition by W. H. Margetson,
a graceful design by J. Walter West, and
many by R. Anning Bell (some already fami-
liar in these pages), are perhaps the most
noticeable. The volume might serve as a
text, and here and there as a warning to the
new school of designers for ex libris. Their
chief fault is over-elaboration and a lack of
reticent simplicity in idea, as well as execu-
tion. Yet by the side of the average order of
plates here fully illustrated, he must be a very
pessimistic critic who would not say that on
the whole we are better than our fathers in
the so-called " pictorial " designs. The book

is an admirable instance of exhaustive treat- " ladies' book-plates" (bell and sons)

5

1ARGETSOM

design by w. h. margetson

ment, and shows that a subject which appeals
directly to a small number can be treated as

to become quite a popular picture-book. study, provided always that they are accepted as

Movement. By E. J. Marcy. (London: Heine- scientific truths which may become fallacies

mann. ("js. 6d.)—The manual, excellently put into when regarded from another standpoint, that

English by Eric Pritchard, is more concerned with of art.

science than art. Yet amid its two hundred illus- Old- World Japan Legends of the Land of the

trations there are a few that touch directly upon Gods. Retold by Frank Rinder. With Illustra-

the representation of movement in man and tions by T. H. Robinson. (London: George

animals. Our old friend, the Muybridge photo- Allen.)—It was a daring experiment on the part of

graph, is here once more compared with the frieze a Western designer to illustrate the mythology of

of the Parthenon, and once again we find that the Old Japan. It was treading on dangerous ground

apparent truth of the trained sight of an artist is when he sought to interpret what has been so

more satisfactory than the literal but impossibly abundantly and characteristically portrayed through

accurate record of the lens. If only to dis- many centuries by her own greatest artists. Al-

prove the case for the camera, as opposed to the though Mr. Robinson has struggled manfully, he

artists' version, it is worth perusal. Leaving all could stand no possible chance in the illustration

thought of picture-making, and reading it on its of such a subject against the Japanese designer,

own merits, it is a fascinating book, and the For the rest, the legends have been well selected

thousand and one incidental facts of movement by Mr. Rinder, and are told by him in a pleasant

which it records are most valuable auxiliaries to and popular manner.

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