Studio: international art (28.1903)

Reviews

have been purely imitative, and Carlos Haes,
master of so many modern Spanish painters, was a
Belgian and not a Spaniard. Munoz Degrain has
now taken Haes' place in the Central Art School,
and more original, poetical, though more visionary
and less thorough than his foregoer, his healthy
educational ideas have stimulated Spanish landscape
painting.

From the works exhibited in the " Circulo de
Bellas Artes," the optimist would find in the tiny
oil paintings of old-time cities under a glaring
noon-day sun, by Senor Cuervo, in the tranquil
yet sparkling sea pieces by Bertuchi, in the
delicious paintings by Labrada and Martinez Jerez,
much that is promising, and the nucleus of
a national school of landscape painters. Never-
theless, the wanton use of violets and bright
yellows, the absence of all attempt at drawing or
artistic composition, in youths whose eyes can
scarcely yet be familiar with the hidden tints of
nature demand a word of caution from the critic.

C. H.

REVIEWS.

Masterpieces of the National Gallery. With a
Preface by Dr. Karl Voll. (London and
Munich: Hanfstaengl.) 12j-.net.—The preface to
this excellent collection of reproductions of master-
pieces in the National Gallery will be found to
contain much that is interesting and instructive,
as well as a good deal that is surprising. English-
men will probably demur to the learned doctor's
assertions that Raphael is inadequately represented,
and that the Vferge aux Rockers is wrongly
attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. On the other
hand, it is pleasant to note that the English appre-
ciation of Botticelli is recognised, but it seems
strange that in referring to Moroni's Portrait of a
Gentleman and Holbein's Ambassadors no reference
should have been made to the way in which these
two beautiful pictures have been injured by restora-
tion since their acquisition by the Trustees. These
slight blemishes do not, however, detract from the
value of the book as a whole, which will be found
a great acquisition by those who are unable to see
the originals in London. The 222 examples given
are all fairly representative, though it seems a pity
that Boucher's vulgar Pan and Syrinx and the
commonplace portrait by Eastlake were not re-
placed by a Crome and a George Morland. It
would also have been better to give the sizes of the
pictures, for at present there is nothing to show
that there is any difference in dimension between

the small Peace of Minster, which Sir Richard
Wallace carried under his arm when he took it
to its new home, and the gigantic equestrian
Portrait of Charles I. by Van Dyck.

Egypt painted and described. By Talbot
Kelley. (London : A. & C. Black.) 20s. net-
Keenly susceptible to the indefinable glamour that,
to use his own expression, " invests Egypt with a
magnetic attraction, which draws men thither and
renders the country a mine of inexhaustible pictorial
wealth," the well-known artist Mr. Talbot Kelley
has, in this charming volume, brought much of that
wealth within reach of those who are prevented
from yielding in person to the compelling power of
the land of the Sphynx and the Pyramids. The
delightful water-colour drawings of Mr. Kelley,
catch in each case the spirit of the scene
depicted, reflecting with felicity the vivid con-
trasts of colour, blended by the transfiguring effect
of the soft and luminous atmosphere and the
brilliant sunshine, into one harmonious whole.
The fascinating beauty of the illustrations must
not, however, lead the reader to be content with
merely skimming the pages they illuminate; for
the author uses his pen as skilfully as his brash,
and his descriptions of the magic land bring out
very forcibly the general peculiarities setting it
apart from every other country ; whilst the local
characteristics of the different districts and their
inhabitants are touched off with an equally
unerring hand.

Art and its Producers, and the Arts and Crafts
of To-day. By William Morris. (London: Long-
mans, Green & Co.)—This beautifully printed
volume consists of two lectures delivered before
the National Society for the Advancement of Art.
In both lectures the keynote is sincerity, and
the moral the teacher is most anxious to enforce
is the absolute necessity, if good work is to be
produced, that all pretence should be eschewed.
As is well known, Mr. Morris looked upon art as a
means to lighten and beautify labour, and he here
draws a striking parallel between the applied arts
and the satisfying of hunger, urging his hearers
"to follow Nature's example and strive to make the
useful ware they produce pleasant, just as Nature
makes pleasant the exercise of the necessary func-
tions of sentient beings." He concludes the lecture
on the " Arts and Crafts " with an eloquent appeal
to all craftsmen to be good workmen; declaring
" that this will give them real sympathy with all
that is worth doing in art, and make them free of
the great corporation of creative force" which it
was the chief aim of his own life to promote.

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