Studio: international art (17.1899)

Reviews of Recent Publications

men many of whose names have often been before
the readers of The Studio.

The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley. With a
prefatory note by H. C. Marillier. (London
and New York : John Lane.) Price gir. 6d. net.
-—So much has been written in The Studio upon
the work of Aubrey Beardsley that it is unnecessary
at this time to descant upon its merits and demerits.
Suffice it now to say that the art-critic will find in
Mr. Lane’s volume ample material to illustrate
either the praise or the blame he may be inclined
to accord to this artist’s productions. The large
number of drawings made by Beardsley for various
publications issued by Mr. Lane are here brought
together, and the collection is further supplemented
by some notable work from the pages of The
Studio, the Pall Mall Budget, and from drawings
hitherto unpublished. It is, in short, the most
remarkable and representative collection we have
yet seen. The volume is a portly one and each
illustration is carefully printed upon fine Japanese
paper. Mr. Marillier states in his preface that the
Beardsley “ craze ” is just beginning. We are
sorry if this be the case. “ Crazes ” in art matters
are more injurious than beneficial to the right
cause. They eclipse the real good underlying
a movement by the absurd exaggeration of certain
manifestations, which, while they may accompany
that movement, are in no sense vitally necessary
to it. The “ aesthetic craze ” of twenty years ago
is an excellent illustration of this fact. The sun-
flower and the lily were to the public the outward
manifestations of the decorative movement then
slowly gathering force; the senseless representa-
tion of them upon ladies’ dresses, mirrors, door-
panels, and umbrella-stands in no way enhanced
that movement, but rather brought it into un-
deserved disrepute. A Beardsley “ craze ” is
terrible to contemplate, because it is certain that
the votaries of such a “ craze ” would copy the
exaggerated idiosyncrasies of the Beardsley style,
rendering them even more outre than they are,
and would entirely overlook those points of his
art which are the most commendable and alone
worthy of study.

Highways and Byways in North Wales. By A.
G. Bradley. With illustrations by Joseph Pen-
nell and Hugh Thomson. (London : Macmillan
& Co., Limited.) Price 6s.—This volume, uni-
form with the Highways and Byways in Cornwall,
issued some time ago by the same publishers, is of
especial value and interest during the holiday
season. Starting from Shrewsbury, the author de-
scribes a tour which includes Llangollen, Abergele,
208

Llandudno, Bettws-y-coed, Bangor, Carnarvon,
Snowdon, Tremadoc, Tenbryn, Harlech, Barmouth,
Aberdovey, Bala, Llanfyllin, and numerous inter-
mediate places. The account is full of valuable
information pleasantly written, and the large
number of illustrations with which the pages are
brightened add greatly to the charm of the book.

The Natural History of Selborne. By Gilbert
White. Edited by Grant Allen. Illustrated
by Edmund H. New. (London and New York :
John Lane.) Issued in parts. Price ir. 6d. net,
or 50 cents.—The artistic success of Mr. New’s
illustrations to Mr. Lane’s edition of the Co7nfleat
Angler seemed to make it almost a foregone con-
clusion that White’s Selborne would be issued in
a uniform manner. The two works have so much
in common, each appealing in quaint simple
language to lovers of country life, that one comes
to regard them almost as inseparable companions.
Judging from the parts which have already appeared,
the illustrations to Selborne are in every respect as
beautiful and appropriate as those to the Compleat
Angler. There is a certainty of touch, a directness
of intention in Mr. New’s black-and-white work
which is singularly attractive. He draws with un-
failing precision ; and although his line is a heavy
one, there is no lack in it of tone or chiaroscuro.
In these days of process-blocks it is rarely the case
that illustrations are so limned that they can be re-
produced and printed satisfactorily upon a rough
paper. The wood-blocks of a few years ago
had an advantage in this respect over the class at
present in use. But Mr. New’s drawings are
simply admirable for reproduction from the point
of view of both block-maker and printer ; and when
the excellence of his work is considered, it is only
right that this fact should be borne well in mind.
The best is that which is most adapted to the
purpose intended.

Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the
Bictterfly. (Paris: Louis-Henry May.)—The only
point of especial value to artists and the picture-
buying public in this account of a famous lawsuit
is the final judgment given by the French Court
that an artist may be discharged from all obliga-
tions to give up a portrait which has been executed
by him upon a commission; but that so long as
the work remains incomplete the painter can make
no use of it, public or private. In other respects,
the book before us is chiefly admirable for the
dainty manner in which the type is displayed upon its
pages, and for the presentments of the butterfly cour-
teous, the butterfly jubilant, and the butterfly scorn-
ful, which are its only form of pictorial embellish-