Studio: international art (10.1897)

Reviews of Recent Publications

engraving, are beginning to realise that there is a
wealth of untold beauty to be found in the books
and broadsides of the far East. What they erst-
while declined to purchase at a few shillings they
are now eager to buy at as many pounds.

Reliable information upon these treasures is, on
the whole, somewhat meagre. The best accounts
we possess are too short and too general, and they
lie, for the most part, hidden away in the pages of
the transactions of learned societies and little read
books. That such information should be collected
and presented in a convenient form to those in-
terested in the subject was a happy idea, and Mr.
Strange, in the work before us, has succeeded in
making a most readable book out of the material
at his command. The subject he has ventured to
treat upon is such a very large one and has so
many ramifications, that we feel it to be a matter
of regret that he should not have limited himself
more severely to one section of it. The chapter
upon the " Early Illustrated Books," already
recently treated upon by Professor Anderson, is too
" sketchy" to be of real value, and the space it
occupies might have been very well filled by further
information upon what forms the main portion of
the work, namely, colour-prints and their designers.
As it is, in the limited space at his command, the
author has been compelled to condense far too
much his information upon men of repute, while of
lesser known ones he makes only the barest men-
tion or omits them altogether.

In his researches into his subject, the author has
made sundry "discoveries," some of which are
certain to meet with adverse criticism. He tells
us, for example, that he considers that two well-
known designers of colour-prints of the last century,
namely, Harunobu and Koriusai, are one and the
same man. In support of his theory, he adduces
certain resemblances in the manner of drawing, trace-
able alike in the work signed by each of the artists.
Perhaps the most remarkable coincidence to which
he refers is in regard to a peculiar white line in the
delineation of the ladies' coiffeurs and the shading
of the hair behind the ears. Apart from the fact that
there are other designers whose works present the
same peculiarities—Ip-pitsusai Buncho being a
notable example—there are so many differences
of general treatment between the works signed by
the two names in question, that the hypothesis re-
quires much fuller confirmation than it has at
present received, before it can be finally accepted.
It is only necessary to compare the illustrations on
pages 30 and 33, signed respectively by the two
artists, to note that the composition by Harunobu
268

is more classic and formal in arrangement than
that by Koriusai, and this difference, besides others
which we have not the space here to particularise,
will be readily noticeable in the careful comparison
of a collection of drawings bearing the two signa-
tures. Japanese painters are essentially stylists.
Their daily education is an instruction in style.
The mannerisms and methods of masters are those
which are first learnt, and it is only when the
artist arrives at maturity that his individuality be-
comes developed. The tricks of technique are
copied by one from another, and it is therefore
dangerous to arrive at important conclusions from
any apparent similarities of technique.

We do not complain that Mr. Strange should
give expression to the opinions formed by him.
On the contrary, such opinions, whether they be
accepted by others or not, cannot fail to give rise
to healthy discussions upon subjects which are in-
teresting to all true lovers of art.

French Wood Carvings. Third series. (London :
B. T. Batsford.)—Without contradiction of the
principle which in the main supplies the text of
every article in The Studio—namely, that the art
of the present should be absolutely governed by
the mood of to-day, one may yet give very appre-
ciative welcome to the third and last volume of
Miss Eleanor Rowe's French Wood Carvings from
the National Museums. She has done her self-
allotted task admirably; for only with full knowledge
of the past can any new genius create a style of his
own. Before you can make a rule with dignity,
you must recognise it. In wood-carving at present
new inspiration is especially important, but know-
ledge of past triumphs will save a would-be inno-
vator from many disasters. Only two courses are
open to an artist: the one loyal obedience to pre-
cedent, the other a fixed purpose to disregard
tradition ; but at the same time to equal or surpass,
in a new way, the best works of all periods. Very
few dare attempt the second of these, and for the
majority it is safer to rely on experience of the past.
It would take pages of The Studio to express
adequately the advantage of such a publication as
this. At the same time, the real future of any
craft must needs lie in the direction of progress out
of retrospection Miss Eleanor Rowe by her
admirable recognition of the best qualities of the
masterpieces of French carving, pleads indirectly,
not for imitation of the art of a bygone century,
but for the spirit which used the idiom of its day
to express its sense of beauty as we should do in
ours. We only second her purpose in directing
students to study the admirably chosen examples