Studio: international art (46.1909)

Reviews and Notices

Church of S. Francesco at Assisi, appears insoluble
to him, but he notes that they are attributed by
Arthur Strong and Langton Douglas to a nameless
artist of the school of Pietro Cavallini. The whole
book bears the impress of true scholarship, and
when complete will be a very valuable contribution
to art literature.

Behind the Veil in Birdland. By Oliver G.
Pike, F.Z.S., F.R.P.S. (London: The Religious
Tract Society.) iox. 6d. net.—Whatever may be
said about the claims of photography to rank as
art, there can be no disputing the invaluable
services rendered by the camera in natural history
investigations. In the hands of a competent
naturalist like Mr. Pike it has been used to good
advantage, and the result is seen in this volume
with its exceedingly interesting series of photographs
taken in his excursions into birdland—a term used
by him as synonymous with the countryside. The
illustrations are mounted on brown paper and show
us many of the denizens of wood and field in their
haunts, some familiar enough by name at all events
if not by sight, such as the fox and the badger, the
squirrel, the thrush, and the kite; while others, as
the Fulmar petrel, Richardson’s skua, the puffin,
the white-tailed eagle, and the chough, are year by
year becoming fewer in number and more shy of
man. Mr. Richmond Paton, also an ornithologist,
has contributed some capital little pen sketches
to decorate the pages of this entertaining book.

Le Village dans la Montagne. By Edmond
Bille and C. F. Ramuz. (Lausanne: Librairie
Payot & Cie.) Frs. 30.—This is a volume which
all true lovers of the Alps should possess. It
deals neither with the fashionable mountain resort
nor with what the modern Philistine is pleased to
call “ the Alpine sporting ground,” but with the
simple and picturesque life still to be seen in the
villages on the higher slopes of the Valaisan Alps.
The charm of the book lies in the fact that it is
the combined effort of a Swiss artist and a Swiss
writer to evoke the image of what they know so
intimately, of what, alas ! is beginning to fade out
of its magnificent natural setting ; and it must be
admitted that M. Bille and M. Ramuz have been
entirely successful in their effort. They have pro-
duced a volume which is at once a contribution to
the art of the book and to the artistic treatment of
Alpine life. The text is eminently interpretative
of the subject with which it deals, and the illustra-
tions as eminently interpretative of the text. The
book is profusely illustrated by reproductions in
colour of some of M. Bille’s pictures and by
numerous drawings and sketches by the same

artist. One cannot glance at these without feeling
that M. Bille has lived long in the Valais and has
consecrated his admirable gift to a subject he loves.
The volume is printed in beautiful Grasset charac-
ters, and the binding, with its ornamental designs
by M. Bille, is original and tasteful.

The Gospel in the Old Testament. A Series of
Pictures by Harold Copping. With descriptive
letterpress by Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.,
Bishop of Durham. (London: the Religious

Tract Society.) i6.r. net.—This volume — a neatly
bound folio with letterpress printed in clear type
and twenty-four coloured illustrations mounted on
stiff green mounting paper—is a companion volume
to the Scenes in the Life of our Lord, by the same
collaborators, which was issued by the Religious
Tract Society rather more than a year ago. In this
new series Mr. Copping, who was sent out by the
Society to the Holy Land for the express purpose
of executing the drawings, seems to have given
himself greater rein than he did when treating the
New Testament subjects. Though in these he en-
deavoured, up to a certain point, to free himself
from the conventions which time has sanctified, he
has in dealing with the Old Testament themes
carried his disregard for the conventional still
further. At the same time there is never lacking
in his drawings that spirit of reverence which is an
indispensable qualification for treating such themes
as he has selected, and which are so thoughtfully
handled by Dr. Moule in the letterpress accom-
panying the illustrations.

Art Prices Current, 1907-8. (London: Offices
of “ The Fine Art Trade Journal.”) icg. 6d. net.—
In this volume of over 300 pages are recorded the
works—oil paintings, water-colour and other draw-
ings and engravings—sold at Christie’s from
November 23, 1907, to July 29, 1908. They are
printed in catalogue order, a copious index at the
end facilitating reference to any particular artist’s
works. Such a volume is of course extremely
useful to the collector, but its usefulness would
have been increased if at least the valuable works
sold at other places had been included.

Mr. John P. White sends us from the Pyghtle
Works, Bedford, an interesting and instructive
booklet on Garden Design, containing illustrations
of Japanese gardens and garden structures, and
some examples of summer-houses, etc., designed
for, or carried out in English gardens in the
Japanese style, including several by Mr. C. E.
Mallows. In an introductory essay, Mr. Rowland
Prothero sketches the history of garden design in
this country from Tudor times.

337