Studio: international art (35.1905)

Reviews

recent work we have much pleasure in giving an
illustration. In the monument which, executed in
bronze, adorns his mother’s grave, and which has
also been secured by the National Gallery and by
the Glyptothek of Copenhagen, Tegner has rendered
a beautiful and poetical interpretation of the fate
of all mortals: “To dust thou shalt return !” The
female form that obediently again becomes one with
Mother Earth is possessed of a touching and gentle
sadness, of an exquisite grace. Some of the same
qualities are found in the Portrait-bust of a Lady,
so essentially womanly in its whole conception.
The Portrait - bust of a Man is of a somewhat
different stamp, and more in common with some of
Tegner’s larger groups; it is powerful and deter-
mined, and the individuality of the sitter is very
cleverly underlined. G. B.

MELBOURNE.—Two small exhibitions of
some interest to art-lovers were recently
held here. The first was Mr. Mather’s
exhibition of studies and sketches of
Victorian landscape. As a water-colourist Mr.
Mather undoubtedly takes a very high place His
handling of the medium and his knowledge of its
possibilities and limitations have enabled him to
vividly record some splendid impressions of the
country around Yarra Glen and Healsville. His
oil pictures are, perhaps, less pleasing than his
360

water-colours; they seem to lack the charm which
radiates from these.

The other exhibition was that of Mr. Blamire
Young, who showed work in colour and black-and-
white decoratively treated. His large colour com-
position, Tennyson Reading “Maud” to his Friends,
was lacking alike in unity and repose, though
certain other qualities went far to redeem it. Pro-
bably few things have been more exquisitely inter-
preted than his Bush Scene and his large upright
Pumpkin Patch. J. S.

REVIEWS.

Style in Furniture. By R. Davis Benn
(Longmans, Green, & Co.) 21s. net.—The author
of this most useful volume explains in his Preface
that he had two distinct aims in view in its prepara-
tion—namely, to enable his readers to distinguish
one style from another, apportioning to each its
proper period; and to prove that “ domestic
furnishing, particularly that of the past, may be
regarded as an outward and visible expression of
the spirit underlying all national life.” It is in the
weight given to the latter branch of the subject
that the distinctive charm of Mr. Benn’s work con-
sists; for, as in the case with the far more ambitious
and expensive volumes of the late Lady Dilke
and other enlightened specialists, it vividly reflects