Studio: international art (53.1911)

Reviews and Notices

for him the recognition of the Imperial family,
with the result that many of his rolls, scrolls, and
gwacho have found their way to the palace. His
scrolls depicting Shintaka-yama, a mountain in
Formosa, and the scenery of the Boko Islands, are
now in the possession of the Emperor. The
exquisite delicacy with which he treated his land-
scapes can well be appreciated in oui reproduction
of a part of his Omi Hakkei, the eight beautiful
scenes around Lake Biwa.

Though Bunkyo excelled in landscape to the
extent that his name is always associated in the
minds of the Japanese with charming landscape
paintings, his extreme fidelity in realistic portrayal
of animate objects, a strong characteristic of the
Maruyama school, made him famous in bird and
animal subjects as well. An example of his work
in this line may be found in our illustration
showing part of his paintings of the Four Seasons
on fusuma (sliding screens) in the mansion of a
certain prince in Asabu, Tokyo. He painted by
order fifteen birds and animals for the Emperor,
who takes a special delight in paintings of animals
and birds, so much so that when he was at the
mansion of Marquis Mayeda not long ago he
ordered Araki Kwampo to paint chickens, Fukui
Kotei dogs, and Kawabata Gyokusho rabbits, all in
his presence.

Bunkyo was born in Kyoto in 1854, and at
the age of thirteen he became Umegawa Tokyo's
monjin (pupil) and learned the ukiyoye style of
painting. But he distinguised himself under
Shiokawa Bunrin, after whose death he became
the pupil of the famous Mori Kwansai. Bunkyo
is known also by the names of Shishoku and
Sekisen, and was one of the few painters who
held the much-honoured title of " Court artist."
We seldom find in his work the freedom and
bold brushwork of Gyokusho or the detailed
finish of Kwampo. But most of his paintings
possess life in calm repose and strength in dignity
—a true reflection of his personal character, which
was much admired by all who come in contact
with him.

He leaves behind him to uphold the name he
made famous an adopted son, Sekko, who is well
known as a painter of animals, and especially
horses, and among his numerous pupils Fujiyama
Kakujo, Ota BunbS, Kojima Kagenobu, and
Yamaguchi Tosai have already distinguished
themselves. Nan-Kyoku.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

A History of Painting. By Haldane Macfall.
With a Preface by Frank Brangwyn. (London :
T. C. and E. C. Jack.) In 8 vols., Vols. I.-IV., each
7-f. 6d. net.—Defining art as " the emotional utter-
ance of life," in other words, "our emotional means
of communion with our fellows," Mr. Haldane Mac-
fall, in his enthusiastic and searching study of the
particular art of painting, professes to have found
all the critical traditions at fault, and worse than
futile. So, as he proudly tells us, he long since
cast these aside, and set out to discover for him-
self in the works of the masters what painting
really means, and how a picture should be rightly
understood and appreciated according to its signifi-
cance as an emotional expression of life, and how
the craft of it should be distinguished from the
art. And having learnt all this to his own satis-
faction, he has nothing but scorn and contempt for
the scientific critic and the academic professor, while
with him the " ordinary critic " is a term of oppro-
brium for a person who would be far more usefully
employed in sweeping a crossing than in writing
about any matter of art. He revels in his personal
impressions and his independence of opinion,
and he never tires of reminding his readers that
he thinks, feels, and expresses himself in a manner
entirely unlike any other critic, and therefore
he must be right. There is quite a Rabelaisian
sound about his headings. "Which tells of the
Might of Hulking Tom "—here you have Masaccio
and his great frescoes. " The Expulsion from
Paradise. Wherein we are introduced to a Friar
with a Roving Eye "—Fra Lippo Lippi, of course.
" Of a dandified Stiggins of vast hand's skill "—who
would guess that this chapter tells of the wonder-
ful art of Luca Signorelli, which so powerfully in-
fluenced Michael Angelo himself? Then, Sebastiano
del Piombo emerges from the chapter wherein we
" see a toiling Genius come into a Fat Living, and
thereafter fall into the Jovial Life of a Worldly
Friar " ; and in the fourth volume we are introduced
to Hugo van der Goes in a chapter, " Wherein a
Riotous Fellow becomes a Monk to keep him from
the Bottle, but carries the Bottle into the Cloister."
Headings like these might perhaps lead one to
suppose that the author had set himself to write a
Comic History of Painting, but Mr. Macfall is
thoroughly in earnest and he is so entirely sincere
in his love and reverence for art that we are sure
the reader who follows him with an open mind
will be prepared to forgive his habitual tendency to
repetition, as well as his occasional looseness of

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