Studio: international art (45.1909)

Reviews and Notices

Ralph Nevill. (London: Macmillan & Co.) 15.J
net.—Combining with a thorough grip of his subject
a mastery of literary style rare amongst art critics, Mr.
Nevill has done far more in his new volume than
its title implies, for in addition to a reliable account
of the best surviving line engravings produced in
the three decades before the fall of Louis XVI., he
calls up many a vivid picture of the society that,
with all its faults, was the most cultivated and
brilliant in Europe in the eighteenth century.
For many reasons the characteristic estampe
galante so popular in France was long held in
low esteem in England, an idea prevailing that
it was not exactly comme il faut with its faithlul
reflection of a corrupt period. “The mist of
Puritanism,” says Mr. Nevill, “which hangs like
a pall over so much of English life, has here
once again exercised its depressing influence ; ”
and apropos of the exquisite series known as Le
Monument du Costume, by the gifted Moreau the
Younger, he quotes the ridiculous verdict of an
English writer, who could see in such refined and
dignified compositions as La Sortie de V Opéra and
Le Souper fin merely “a record of fashionable
licence that leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.”
The result of this unreasonable prejudice was that
much beautiful work which drifted into English
hands was mutilated or destroyed. Fortunately all
this is now changed, and French eighteenth-century
engravings are beginning to be eagerly sought
after. No less than fifty fine examples, that exhale
the very spirit of the ancien r'egiine and are a
trustworthy record of its architecture, costume, etc.,
are reproduced by Mr. Nevill, who, in addition to
interesting biographies of the chief engravers and
eloquent descriptions of their mode of work, has
compiled an exhaustive catalogue raisonné of the
most important extant prints with notes on their
various states.

A Midsummer Might’s Dream. Illustrated by
Arthur Rackham. (London : Heinemann.)

155'. net.—This is not the occasion for an attempted
review of Shakespeare’s comedy, but of the in-
spiration which it has afforded Mr. Rackham,
whose art we remember has before dealt with some
grace with fairies and grotesques. We have several
complaints to make. In the frontispiece the
beautiful figure does not claim our attention as it
should; our attention is deflected to quite sub.
sidiary things. The colour of this picture is not
pleasant, the browny-greeny-yellowy mass of vegeta
tion has no charm. Charm is exactly the quality
that throughout this book appeals in the figures and
their actions and the disposition of drapery, but

this charm has on some pages to fight an almost
losing cause against thunderous black ink and the
gnarled and knotted and congested background.
Can Mr. Rackham remedy this ? It is wrong for
the black ink lines round the trees to come into
conflict with the colour scheme. The washes are
delicate but the lines are coarse. Where these
lines are given without colour, as black-and-white
drawings, they are highly successful, for the white
spaces in these cases do not lose the value which
puts the black lines right. It would not be worth
while to criticise in such detail work less worthy
of commanding the fullest attention than Mr.
Rackham’s. In She never had so sweet a Change-
ling, and She was a vixen when she went to School,
and To hear him to my Bower in Fairyland, we
will not say we get Mr. Rackham at his very best,
because that would not in each case be true, but
we get a pleasant effect ; and what is Mr. Rackham’s
genius for the beautiful worth to him, if his curious
combination of methods sometimes results in effects
which are unpleasant—having regard to the nature
of the publication that he has embellished ?

August Rodin—L’œuvre et L’homme. By Judith
Cladel. (Brussels: G. Van Oest & Cie.) 100 frs. ;
éd. de luxe 250 frs.—The wisdom of publishing an
important work on any artist during his lifetime
has often been brought into question, and the
arguments generally used against it are not easily
disposed of. In the first place, it cannot form a
complete record of his life-work, and, secondly, it
is impossible to anticipate the exact position which
will be assigned to him by posterity, who alone
can really judge. The case of Monsieur Rodin
is an excellent illustration in support of the first
argument. Here we have an artist accepted by a
large body of his confrères and of the critics as the
greatest sculptor living at the present time, and by
his more ardent admirers as the greatest artist the
last century has produced. He has already given
us many works which are unquestionably master-
pieces of his art, and it may reasonably be supposed
that he will produce many more perhaps even finer.
In her volume Mile. Judith Cladel has realised
this, and in avoiding the danger which confronted
her she has produced a book which is not only of
extreme interest to all students of contemporary
art, but one which should be of great value to artists
of this and future generations. She has set forth in
an intelligent and attractive manner the views on
art which Monsieur Rodin expressed in a series of
conversations which she and a companion had with
him. In language simple yet full of meaning the
artist reveals his innermost thoughts, his aims and

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