Studio: international art (43.1908)

Reviews and Notices

great care bestowed on the preparation of the book,
which we presume will in due course be followed
by a volume or volumes embracing the rest of the
families, will ensure for it a warm welcome from
naturalists, to whom also its convenient size will
be an attraction.

Messrs. George Bell & Sons are to be congratu-
lated on the admirable series of illustrated reprints
of French classics which they are issuing under the
editorship of Mr. Daniel O’Connor. Three volumes
of these “Classiques Frangais Illustre's ” have made
their appearance, viz., George Sand’s Les Maitres
Sonneurs and La Mare au Diable, the one con-
taining a preface by M. Faguet of the Academy
and illustrations by M. V. Wheelhouse, the other
an analytical introduction by C. A. Sainte-Beuve
and illustrations by Gertrude Leese; and lastly
Balzac’s Les Chouans, illustrated by J. Blake
Greene. A certain number of the illustrations to
each volume are in colour; the text is printed in a
clear type, and the generally attractive get-up of
the volumes, which cost 55-. net each, should ensure
the success of this novel enterprise. In the cheaper
re-issue of Messrs. Bell’s Handbooks of the Great
Masters in Painting and Sculpture,” twenty volumes
have appeared, the latest being those on Bru-
nelleschi, by Leader Scott; Wilkie, by Lord Ronald
Sutherland-Gower; Gaudenzio Ferrari, by Ethel
Halsey ; and Gerard Dou, by Dr. W. Martin. At
the moderate price of 35. 6d. net each these
volumes, each containing numerous illustrations,
should command an extensive sale.

Under the title of Broderies des Paysannes de
Smolensk (Fr. 25) the Librairie Centrale des
Beaux-Arts, Paris, has recently published a small
portfolio containing sixty coloured reproductions
of embroideries executed under the direction of
Princess Mary Tenisheff by the peasant women ol
Smolensk. This gifted lady, whose ateliers at
Talashkino were the subject of an article in these
pages a few months ago, has devoted herself with
the utmost zeal to the revival of the industrial arts
of Russia upon traditional lines, and these em-
broideries are an eloquent testimony to her good
work. The reproductions disclose an agreeable
diversity of design both as regards form and colour,
in which due respect for tradition is shown to be con-
sistent with modern needs and ideas. An interesting
introduction to the portfolio is contributed by M.
Denis Roche, who brieflyanalyses the characteristics
of this peasant needlework.

The Year’s Art (Hutchinson & Co. 35-. 6d.
net) has securely established itself among the in-
dispensable annuals. In the new volume recently

issued there is the usual mass of information
relating to all art-matters, carefully brought up to
date, and among the special topics dealt with are
the Kann Collection and the Modern Gallery of
Art just established in Dublin. The directory of
art-workers fills nearly two hundred pages. Two
other useful annuals are The Writers’ and Artists
Year-Book (A. & C. Black) and Willing’s Press
Guide (James Willing, Junr., Ltd.), both published
at is. net, and both carefully compiled.

Dr. Hans W. Singer has contributed to the
“ Modern Cicerone ” series of picture-gallery guides
published by the Union Deutsche Yerlags Ge-
sellschaft, Leipzig, a little volume on the Royal
Picture Gallery at Dresden (Mk. 2.50). This
gallery, he points out, differs from other great public
galleries in being essentially a prince’s private
collection. Dr. Singer’s wide knowledge of the
various schools of painting and his critical insight
have invested this little guide-book with an in-
terest far beyond that of the ordinary run of
guides.

The fourth volume of the Lnternationale Bib-
liographic der Kunstwissenschaften, just issued by
Behr’s Verlag in Berlin (18 Mk.), under the editor-
ship of Dr. Otto Frohlich, contains no fewer than
6,500 references to books, articles in periodicals,
etc., published in relation to art during 1905. Dr.
Frohlich pays a well-deserved tribute to the late
Herr Jellinek, by whom this immensely useful
work of reference was initiated and carried on as
far as the third volume. The utility of the book is
enhanced by the admirable system of classification
adopted.

Die Mode is the title of a dainty little volume
issuing from the establishment of Bruckmann &
Co., Munich (Mk. 4.80 and Mk. 6), and giving an
account of fashions in dress from 1818 to 1842. It
contains an unusually interesting series of illustra-
tions, numbering over two hundred, of which thirty,
six are in colours; they are all reproduced from
pictures and engravings of the period. This period
is that to which a later generation in Germany gave
the nickname “ Biedermeier,” in allusion to the
“worthy” characteristics associated with it.

Since its introduction into this country a few
years ago the Waterman Fountain Pen has steadily
gained in popularity, and the wide favour it now
enjoys testifies to public recognition of its many
sterling qualities. Having put this pen to the test
of continuous use, we can endorse the claims made
for it by the makers.

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