DOI issue:
No. 161 (August, 1906)
DOI article:Reviews and notices
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0294
Reviews and Notices
enough of the story of her girlhood and early
womanhood to bring the reader into touch with
her aims and ambitions.
The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine and
North Germany. By T. Francis Bumpus. (Lon-
don : T. Werner Laurie.) 6s. net.—Mr. Bumpus
has earned a well-deserved reputation for his
studies of ecclesiastical architecture at home and
abroad, the volumes he has written on the subject
being marked by wide knowledge and a perspica-
cious style of writing which enables the general
reader to follow his narrative with interest. This
work on German cathedrals was originally
published some three years ago, but has been out
of print for some time. The new edition now
published contains a good deal of additional
matter, and the illustrations, which number more
than eighty, include many which make their
appearance for the first time. To the student of
archaeology on tour the work should be a vade
mecum.
Petits Tableaux Valaisans. By Marguerite
Burnat-Provine. (Vevey : Sauberlin & Pfeiffer.)
—This charming little work is especially to be
commended for the very excellent illuminated
initials and ornaments which adorn its pages. The
variety of motifs is great and the decorative treat-
ment of each and all is admirable. The text is
pleasantly written and is printed in a heavy but
readable type, adapted to the character of the
illustrations.
A Handbook of Anatomy for Art Students. By
Arthur Thomson, M.A., M.B. Third Edition.
(Oxford: The Clarendon Press.) i6j-. net.—
Prof. Thomson’s text book is so well known and
appreciated among art students that it would be
superfluous to say anything in its praise. It must
suffice to say that the new edition contains a
number of additional illustrations which will make
the work still more serviceable. Along with other
improvements, the author has introduced a series
of plates showing the female figure in positions
nearly identical with those in which the male
models are represented, and to facilitate comparison
these have been placed in juxtaposition.
The Scottish School of Painting. By William
D. McKay, R.S.A. (London: Duckworth & Co.;
New York : Charles Scribner’s Sons.) 75. 6d. net.
—In spite of the fact that the author has had to
restrict his remarks on this wide and interesting
subject within the limits of a single volume, he has,
on the whole, given us a comprehensive survey of
the Scottish School during the period dating from
Raeburn down to the artists who flourished during
the middle of the last century. It might have
added interest to the work had it been brought a
little nearer to the present day, to include the
pupils of Scott Lauder and the Glasgow School.
It is, however, easily understood that as an artist
Mr. McKay could not discuss a set of painters,
most of whom are his own contemporaries. In
dealing with the various artists the author has
avoided extensive biographical details, and has
dwelt more on the technical qualities of their
work. The chapter on Raeburn is naturally the
most interesting, for few will be disposed to
question the writer’s statement that it is to the
strong and original personality of this master that
we owe the existence of a Scottish school. Many
of the criticisms of Raeburn’s portraits are not only
instructive, but they reveal the writer’s artistic
insight into the aims and inspirations of the great
painter. We are glad to see that Mr. McKay
dwells at some length on the Glengarry portrait in
the National Gallery of Scotland, for it is one of
the finest and most dignified renderings of Scottish
manhood Raeburn has left us. In recent years
there has been a tendency to underestimate the
position which Wilkie holds amongst the leaders
of modern genre painting. Mr. McKay pays a
timely and not unmerited tribute when he says,
“ His exquisite sense of line and form might be
demonstrated from a score of passages in his
best-known pictures, not in the accurate academic
sense, it is true, . . . but in the far higher sense
which brings interior passion to supplement
nature.” The pastor-painter, Thomson of Dud-
dingston, is one of the most interesting figures
in the history of Scottish art, and in spite of
the defects which his work often shows, we are
inclined to agree with Mr. McKay that for vigour
of conception and imaginative power none of his
Scottish followers have excelled him. We have no
hesitation in commending this excellent volume,
not only to the art lover, but also to the student,
who will find much that will assist him in studying
the earlier Scottish painters.
Porcelain : Oriental, Continental and British.
By R. L. Hobson, B.A. (London: A. Constable
& Co.) 12s. 6d. net.—Notwithstanding the great
dimensions which ceramic literature has now
assumed, there is, so far as we are aware, no pub-
lished work which quite answers the purpose which
this “ handy book of reference for collectors ” is
intended to serve. Its object, as the author
explains, is to give in compact form all the facts
really needed by the collector, with as many
practical hints as can be compressed in a general
273
enough of the story of her girlhood and early
womanhood to bring the reader into touch with
her aims and ambitions.
The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine and
North Germany. By T. Francis Bumpus. (Lon-
don : T. Werner Laurie.) 6s. net.—Mr. Bumpus
has earned a well-deserved reputation for his
studies of ecclesiastical architecture at home and
abroad, the volumes he has written on the subject
being marked by wide knowledge and a perspica-
cious style of writing which enables the general
reader to follow his narrative with interest. This
work on German cathedrals was originally
published some three years ago, but has been out
of print for some time. The new edition now
published contains a good deal of additional
matter, and the illustrations, which number more
than eighty, include many which make their
appearance for the first time. To the student of
archaeology on tour the work should be a vade
mecum.
Petits Tableaux Valaisans. By Marguerite
Burnat-Provine. (Vevey : Sauberlin & Pfeiffer.)
—This charming little work is especially to be
commended for the very excellent illuminated
initials and ornaments which adorn its pages. The
variety of motifs is great and the decorative treat-
ment of each and all is admirable. The text is
pleasantly written and is printed in a heavy but
readable type, adapted to the character of the
illustrations.
A Handbook of Anatomy for Art Students. By
Arthur Thomson, M.A., M.B. Third Edition.
(Oxford: The Clarendon Press.) i6j-. net.—
Prof. Thomson’s text book is so well known and
appreciated among art students that it would be
superfluous to say anything in its praise. It must
suffice to say that the new edition contains a
number of additional illustrations which will make
the work still more serviceable. Along with other
improvements, the author has introduced a series
of plates showing the female figure in positions
nearly identical with those in which the male
models are represented, and to facilitate comparison
these have been placed in juxtaposition.
The Scottish School of Painting. By William
D. McKay, R.S.A. (London: Duckworth & Co.;
New York : Charles Scribner’s Sons.) 75. 6d. net.
—In spite of the fact that the author has had to
restrict his remarks on this wide and interesting
subject within the limits of a single volume, he has,
on the whole, given us a comprehensive survey of
the Scottish School during the period dating from
Raeburn down to the artists who flourished during
the middle of the last century. It might have
added interest to the work had it been brought a
little nearer to the present day, to include the
pupils of Scott Lauder and the Glasgow School.
It is, however, easily understood that as an artist
Mr. McKay could not discuss a set of painters,
most of whom are his own contemporaries. In
dealing with the various artists the author has
avoided extensive biographical details, and has
dwelt more on the technical qualities of their
work. The chapter on Raeburn is naturally the
most interesting, for few will be disposed to
question the writer’s statement that it is to the
strong and original personality of this master that
we owe the existence of a Scottish school. Many
of the criticisms of Raeburn’s portraits are not only
instructive, but they reveal the writer’s artistic
insight into the aims and inspirations of the great
painter. We are glad to see that Mr. McKay
dwells at some length on the Glengarry portrait in
the National Gallery of Scotland, for it is one of
the finest and most dignified renderings of Scottish
manhood Raeburn has left us. In recent years
there has been a tendency to underestimate the
position which Wilkie holds amongst the leaders
of modern genre painting. Mr. McKay pays a
timely and not unmerited tribute when he says,
“ His exquisite sense of line and form might be
demonstrated from a score of passages in his
best-known pictures, not in the accurate academic
sense, it is true, . . . but in the far higher sense
which brings interior passion to supplement
nature.” The pastor-painter, Thomson of Dud-
dingston, is one of the most interesting figures
in the history of Scottish art, and in spite of
the defects which his work often shows, we are
inclined to agree with Mr. McKay that for vigour
of conception and imaginative power none of his
Scottish followers have excelled him. We have no
hesitation in commending this excellent volume,
not only to the art lover, but also to the student,
who will find much that will assist him in studying
the earlier Scottish painters.
Porcelain : Oriental, Continental and British.
By R. L. Hobson, B.A. (London: A. Constable
& Co.) 12s. 6d. net.—Notwithstanding the great
dimensions which ceramic literature has now
assumed, there is, so far as we are aware, no pub-
lished work which quite answers the purpose which
this “ handy book of reference for collectors ” is
intended to serve. Its object, as the author
explains, is to give in compact form all the facts
really needed by the collector, with as many
practical hints as can be compressed in a general
273