DOI Heft:
No. 202 (January, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Reviews and notices
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0362
Reviews and Notices
The French Pastellists of the Eighteenth Century.
By Haldane MacFall. Edited by T. Leman
Hare. (London: Macmillan.) 425. net.—It is
significant that the dainty ephemeral craft of pastel
should have been introduced into France at a time
when the whole country was seething with unrest,
and those whose grace and beauty were to be
immortalised by it were aiding in bringing about
the upheaval that was to bring ruin to the monarchy
and the old noblesse. " Pastels," says Mr. MacFall
—" the very word raises the rustle of silk and satin
and brocade from the dead past . . . and to under-
stand the significance of pastels and of those that
wrought in them to such consummate purpose, we
must know the significance of France in the age
that employed it." He therefore begins his
review of the masterpieces produced by La Tour,
Perronneau, Chardin, and their less celebrated
contemporaries, with a brief but able essay on
France as it was when Louis Quatorze passed
away, describing particularly the environment in
which the great pastellists first saw the light.
He then traces the fortunes of each, repro-
ducing in colour more than fifty examples of
their work, and devoting, as is but fitting, the
greater portion of his space to Quentin La Tour,
greatest of all French pastellists. Chardin, too,
though he but rarely used pastel, is considered at
length, and his exceptional position recognised as
the one artist who, in an age devoted to frivolity
and superficiality, upheld the simple truths of
every day. Incidentally Mr. MacFall brings out
the personalities of those who sat to the pastellists,
noting some saving grace in the most depraved,
some touch of weakness in the most cynical, and
lighting up his narrative with many a characteristic
anecdote.
London. By Alvin Langdon Coburn. Intro-
duction by Hilaire Belloc, M.P. (London:
Duckworth & Co.) 255. net—Is photography
worthy to be ranked among the arts ? The question
has been raised a thousand times during the past
few years and has been answered now with ah
emphatic Yes, and just as often with an equally
decided No. For our own part we should answer
with both Yes and No. We should certainly deny
the appellation of art to a very large proportion of
the pictures produced by the camera, just as we
should to a great many that are produced by the
brush and pencil. But if it be true that art is
"nature seen through a temperament," then it
becomes not so much a question of the means or
the instrument employed as the mind which
controls the means or the instrument. If such a
contention holds good, then there can be no
question that the impressions of London which
Mr. Coburn has recorded with his camera and
reproduced in the photogravure plates of this
volume are entitled to be ranked as art. Mr.
Coburn has given us in all 20 plates (printed from
plates produced by himself in his studio) which,
collectively are a revelation as to the possi-
bilities of the camera when controlled by an
artistic mind. Each print is mounted on a stiff
grey paper which sets it off to advantage.
In the Canaries with a Ca?nera. By Margaret
D'Este. With Photographs by Mrs. R. M. King.
(London: Methuen.) "js.6d.net.—Formerly such
a book as this would have been written in the form
of a Journal to be handed round among and
perused by relations and friends alone, but
nowadays it is become the fashion to give our
impressions.of countries we visit to the world at
large through the medium of a published book.
The authoress has succeeded in justifying her
contribution to the large store of literature of this
nature, by writing an exceedingly entertaining
account of a six months' stay in the Canaries, and
with the excellent photographs by Mrs. R. M. King
her narrative forms an interesting and informing
record.
Pure Folly ; the Story of those remarkable People,
The Follies. By Fitzroy Gardner. (London:
Mills & Boon). 2*. 6d. net.—Mr. Pelissier and his
delightful company have deservedly attracted a
great deal of public attention and have now estab-
lished themselves as popular favourites. Mr.
Fitzroy Gardner's book will therefore be a source
of delight to the very large following of these
clever people, and his amusing history of the troupe
and of their "great" chief, Pelissier, embellished
as it is with many drawings by Geoffrey Holme,
Norman Morrow, Arthur Wimperis and John Bull
and several photographs, should be in the hands
of all " the Follies' " numerous admirers.
Messrs. L. & C. Hardtmuth, the makers of the
celebrated " Koh-i-Noor " pencils, have entrusted
Mr. J. S. Gibson, architect, of Old Bond Street,
with the designs for a building which they are
putting up in Kingsway, London. This building
is to be on a scale worthy of the magnitude of the
firm's business and when finished will bear the
appropriate title of " Koh-i-Noor " house. Messrs.
Hardtmuth are also the sole European representa-
tives for the famous Waterman Ideal Fountain
Pens, the signal merits of which have secured for
them universal favour.
339
The French Pastellists of the Eighteenth Century.
By Haldane MacFall. Edited by T. Leman
Hare. (London: Macmillan.) 425. net.—It is
significant that the dainty ephemeral craft of pastel
should have been introduced into France at a time
when the whole country was seething with unrest,
and those whose grace and beauty were to be
immortalised by it were aiding in bringing about
the upheaval that was to bring ruin to the monarchy
and the old noblesse. " Pastels," says Mr. MacFall
—" the very word raises the rustle of silk and satin
and brocade from the dead past . . . and to under-
stand the significance of pastels and of those that
wrought in them to such consummate purpose, we
must know the significance of France in the age
that employed it." He therefore begins his
review of the masterpieces produced by La Tour,
Perronneau, Chardin, and their less celebrated
contemporaries, with a brief but able essay on
France as it was when Louis Quatorze passed
away, describing particularly the environment in
which the great pastellists first saw the light.
He then traces the fortunes of each, repro-
ducing in colour more than fifty examples of
their work, and devoting, as is but fitting, the
greater portion of his space to Quentin La Tour,
greatest of all French pastellists. Chardin, too,
though he but rarely used pastel, is considered at
length, and his exceptional position recognised as
the one artist who, in an age devoted to frivolity
and superficiality, upheld the simple truths of
every day. Incidentally Mr. MacFall brings out
the personalities of those who sat to the pastellists,
noting some saving grace in the most depraved,
some touch of weakness in the most cynical, and
lighting up his narrative with many a characteristic
anecdote.
London. By Alvin Langdon Coburn. Intro-
duction by Hilaire Belloc, M.P. (London:
Duckworth & Co.) 255. net—Is photography
worthy to be ranked among the arts ? The question
has been raised a thousand times during the past
few years and has been answered now with ah
emphatic Yes, and just as often with an equally
decided No. For our own part we should answer
with both Yes and No. We should certainly deny
the appellation of art to a very large proportion of
the pictures produced by the camera, just as we
should to a great many that are produced by the
brush and pencil. But if it be true that art is
"nature seen through a temperament," then it
becomes not so much a question of the means or
the instrument employed as the mind which
controls the means or the instrument. If such a
contention holds good, then there can be no
question that the impressions of London which
Mr. Coburn has recorded with his camera and
reproduced in the photogravure plates of this
volume are entitled to be ranked as art. Mr.
Coburn has given us in all 20 plates (printed from
plates produced by himself in his studio) which,
collectively are a revelation as to the possi-
bilities of the camera when controlled by an
artistic mind. Each print is mounted on a stiff
grey paper which sets it off to advantage.
In the Canaries with a Ca?nera. By Margaret
D'Este. With Photographs by Mrs. R. M. King.
(London: Methuen.) "js.6d.net.—Formerly such
a book as this would have been written in the form
of a Journal to be handed round among and
perused by relations and friends alone, but
nowadays it is become the fashion to give our
impressions.of countries we visit to the world at
large through the medium of a published book.
The authoress has succeeded in justifying her
contribution to the large store of literature of this
nature, by writing an exceedingly entertaining
account of a six months' stay in the Canaries, and
with the excellent photographs by Mrs. R. M. King
her narrative forms an interesting and informing
record.
Pure Folly ; the Story of those remarkable People,
The Follies. By Fitzroy Gardner. (London:
Mills & Boon). 2*. 6d. net.—Mr. Pelissier and his
delightful company have deservedly attracted a
great deal of public attention and have now estab-
lished themselves as popular favourites. Mr.
Fitzroy Gardner's book will therefore be a source
of delight to the very large following of these
clever people, and his amusing history of the troupe
and of their "great" chief, Pelissier, embellished
as it is with many drawings by Geoffrey Holme,
Norman Morrow, Arthur Wimperis and John Bull
and several photographs, should be in the hands
of all " the Follies' " numerous admirers.
Messrs. L. & C. Hardtmuth, the makers of the
celebrated " Koh-i-Noor " pencils, have entrusted
Mr. J. S. Gibson, architect, of Old Bond Street,
with the designs for a building which they are
putting up in Kingsway, London. This building
is to be on a scale worthy of the magnitude of the
firm's business and when finished will bear the
appropriate title of " Koh-i-Noor " house. Messrs.
Hardtmuth are also the sole European representa-
tives for the famous Waterman Ideal Fountain
Pens, the signal merits of which have secured for
them universal favour.
339