DOI Heft:
No. 215 (February, 1911)
DOI Artikel:Reviews and notices
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20972#0101
Revietvs
l'Abbe ? " Le Billet JDoux, EHeureux Moment,, and
La Consolation de PAbsence, Fragonard's Les Has-
ards Heureux de I'Escarpolette, and La Bonne
Mere, and Baudouin's L'JEpouse Indiscrete, and Le
Carquois Epuis'e. Baudouin's animated Boucher-
inspired designs are also conspicuously repre-
sented by Ponce's L'Enlevement Nocturne, and
the celebrated Le Coucher de la Mari'ee, etched
by Moreau le jeune, and engraved by J. B. Simonet;
while the graceful vitality of Lavreince's pictorial
illustrations of the social atmosphere is admirably
seen in Guttenberg's charming print Le Mercure
de France, and Dequevauviller's LAssemblee an
Concert, and L'Assemblee au Salon, two of the
most delicate and decoratively interesting prints
of their genre. Then, there is the vivacious
serenity of Augustin St. Aubin's designing, ex-
emplified in Duclos's two delightful prints Le
Conce?-t, and Le Bal Pare; and, through the
medium of his own engraving, in Au mains soyez
discret, and Comptez sur mes Serments. All the
prints comprising Le Monument du Costume are
also given. In his well-informed and discriminating
introduction, Mr. H. W. Lawrence wisely does not
claim for these prints any great artistic import-
ance in the history of engraving; but, while
admitting that the development of the art under
the licentious influences of Louis XV.'s Court was
"frivolous and artificial," he justly claims that it
was alive with delicate charm, refinement, and the
decorative sense. "The work was sincere, but not
serious; genius of a high order was absent,
and the artists of the period appear to be
content to sink their individuality in the pro-
duction of works pleasing to their patrons." The
engravers inevitably broke away from the great
traditions of line-engraving, for it would have
been impossible to interpret the dainty, elusive
charm of Fragonard or Lavreince, Boucher or Bau-
douin, Greuze, St. Aubin, or Moreau, through
subtlety of character in the graven line alone; so
they obtained the necessary lightness and freedom
of design by etching, then they used the graver
with elaborate artifice, as it had never been used
before, to produce effects of tone. Mr. Lawrence
says he is " strongly of opinion that the etching
needle was not used in these engravings, but that
the work in the earliest state was engraved with
the burin, the line being afterwards bitten into the
copper." We find it difficult to agree with this
supposition. May not the bitten lines have been
carried on cunningly by the burin, as was the
practice of Sir Robert Strange, who learnt from
Le Bas—the master of many of these French
and Notices
engravers—how to use etching as an aid to line-
engraving ? But, whatever the technique, its elab-
orate character seems to have allowed little indi-
viduality of touch, and it is exceedingly difficult
to distinguish the work of the several engravers.
The medium was admirably adapted to these seines
galantes and genre subjects, but we must question
Mr. Lawrence's assertion that the technique of
mezzotint wculd have been " almost useless" for ren-
dering these things. It is not a question of the
medium, but of a sympathetic vivacity of tempera-
ment in the interpreter, a lightness and refinement
in his touch. Mr. Lawrence has studied his
subject enthusiastically, and we recognise Mr.
Dighton's fine taste and extensive knowledge in
the compilation of this valuable volume.
A Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the most
Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.
By C. Hofstede de Groot. Translated and
edited by Edward G. Hawke. Vol. III. (London :
Macmillan & Co.) 2$s. net. Frans Hals, the two
Ostades, and Adriaen Brouwer are the painters
whose works are enumerated in this third volume
of Dr. Hofstede de Groot's catalogue. The com-
pilation of a volume like this, containing several
thousand entries filling 700 pages, must have
involved an immense amount of labour, and a
debt of gratitude is due to the compiler and his
assistants for undertaking the task, as well as to
the translator, who has made the results of their
labours accessible to English readers. Quite recent
transactions in relation to some of the works are
noted (e.g., the sale of the famous Family Group
from Col. Warde's collection and of the four Hals
pictures in the Yerkes collection last April). Cata-
logues without illustrations do not provide enter-
taining reading matter except to a very limited
few, but it is certainly interesting to note the
meagre prices—amounting sometimes to a few
shillings—which many of the works of Hals fetched
a century ago as compared with the thousands of
pounds paid for some of them nowadays.
Mediceval Sicily. By Cecila W^ern. (London :
Duckworth & Co.) 12s. 6d. net.—A truly fascinat-
ing volume with its many excellent black-and-white
illustrations of typical scenes, complete buildings,
and architectural details. The author, in her preface
and introduction, frankly admits how much she
owes to her predecessors in the same field. Her
actual narrative begins with the conquest, in 831
by the Arabs, of the old Roman Capital of Panor-
mus, which they made their headquarters under
the name of Balerm—the future Palermo—the
description of which, by the Arab writer, Ibn
79
l'Abbe ? " Le Billet JDoux, EHeureux Moment,, and
La Consolation de PAbsence, Fragonard's Les Has-
ards Heureux de I'Escarpolette, and La Bonne
Mere, and Baudouin's L'JEpouse Indiscrete, and Le
Carquois Epuis'e. Baudouin's animated Boucher-
inspired designs are also conspicuously repre-
sented by Ponce's L'Enlevement Nocturne, and
the celebrated Le Coucher de la Mari'ee, etched
by Moreau le jeune, and engraved by J. B. Simonet;
while the graceful vitality of Lavreince's pictorial
illustrations of the social atmosphere is admirably
seen in Guttenberg's charming print Le Mercure
de France, and Dequevauviller's LAssemblee an
Concert, and L'Assemblee au Salon, two of the
most delicate and decoratively interesting prints
of their genre. Then, there is the vivacious
serenity of Augustin St. Aubin's designing, ex-
emplified in Duclos's two delightful prints Le
Conce?-t, and Le Bal Pare; and, through the
medium of his own engraving, in Au mains soyez
discret, and Comptez sur mes Serments. All the
prints comprising Le Monument du Costume are
also given. In his well-informed and discriminating
introduction, Mr. H. W. Lawrence wisely does not
claim for these prints any great artistic import-
ance in the history of engraving; but, while
admitting that the development of the art under
the licentious influences of Louis XV.'s Court was
"frivolous and artificial," he justly claims that it
was alive with delicate charm, refinement, and the
decorative sense. "The work was sincere, but not
serious; genius of a high order was absent,
and the artists of the period appear to be
content to sink their individuality in the pro-
duction of works pleasing to their patrons." The
engravers inevitably broke away from the great
traditions of line-engraving, for it would have
been impossible to interpret the dainty, elusive
charm of Fragonard or Lavreince, Boucher or Bau-
douin, Greuze, St. Aubin, or Moreau, through
subtlety of character in the graven line alone; so
they obtained the necessary lightness and freedom
of design by etching, then they used the graver
with elaborate artifice, as it had never been used
before, to produce effects of tone. Mr. Lawrence
says he is " strongly of opinion that the etching
needle was not used in these engravings, but that
the work in the earliest state was engraved with
the burin, the line being afterwards bitten into the
copper." We find it difficult to agree with this
supposition. May not the bitten lines have been
carried on cunningly by the burin, as was the
practice of Sir Robert Strange, who learnt from
Le Bas—the master of many of these French
and Notices
engravers—how to use etching as an aid to line-
engraving ? But, whatever the technique, its elab-
orate character seems to have allowed little indi-
viduality of touch, and it is exceedingly difficult
to distinguish the work of the several engravers.
The medium was admirably adapted to these seines
galantes and genre subjects, but we must question
Mr. Lawrence's assertion that the technique of
mezzotint wculd have been " almost useless" for ren-
dering these things. It is not a question of the
medium, but of a sympathetic vivacity of tempera-
ment in the interpreter, a lightness and refinement
in his touch. Mr. Lawrence has studied his
subject enthusiastically, and we recognise Mr.
Dighton's fine taste and extensive knowledge in
the compilation of this valuable volume.
A Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the most
Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.
By C. Hofstede de Groot. Translated and
edited by Edward G. Hawke. Vol. III. (London :
Macmillan & Co.) 2$s. net. Frans Hals, the two
Ostades, and Adriaen Brouwer are the painters
whose works are enumerated in this third volume
of Dr. Hofstede de Groot's catalogue. The com-
pilation of a volume like this, containing several
thousand entries filling 700 pages, must have
involved an immense amount of labour, and a
debt of gratitude is due to the compiler and his
assistants for undertaking the task, as well as to
the translator, who has made the results of their
labours accessible to English readers. Quite recent
transactions in relation to some of the works are
noted (e.g., the sale of the famous Family Group
from Col. Warde's collection and of the four Hals
pictures in the Yerkes collection last April). Cata-
logues without illustrations do not provide enter-
taining reading matter except to a very limited
few, but it is certainly interesting to note the
meagre prices—amounting sometimes to a few
shillings—which many of the works of Hals fetched
a century ago as compared with the thousands of
pounds paid for some of them nowadays.
Mediceval Sicily. By Cecila W^ern. (London :
Duckworth & Co.) 12s. 6d. net.—A truly fascinat-
ing volume with its many excellent black-and-white
illustrations of typical scenes, complete buildings,
and architectural details. The author, in her preface
and introduction, frankly admits how much she
owes to her predecessors in the same field. Her
actual narrative begins with the conquest, in 831
by the Arabs, of the old Roman Capital of Panor-
mus, which they made their headquarters under
the name of Balerm—the future Palermo—the
description of which, by the Arab writer, Ibn
79