Studio: international art (53.1911)

Reviews and Notices

phrase and rhetorical exuberance. Whatever his
faults, he is certainly a critic with the joy of living
art in him, a critic who makes one want to go
straight to the pictures themselves, and look at
them from his emotional point of view, although
of course he is not the first to proclaim the
emotional basis of art. No wonder a vital artist
like Mr. Frank Brangwyn offers Mr. Macfall the
hand of fellowship and gives his benediction to
this big undertaking. Each volume, it should be
added, contains numerous reproductions in colour of
masterpieces representative of the various schools.

The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray.
The Harry Furniss Centenary Edition. (London :
Macmillan and Co.) In 20 vols., \os. 6d. net each
(in sets only).—The present year marks the
hundredth anniversary of Thackeray's birth, and
perhaps nothing could better befit the occasion
than this complete edition of his works, of which
eight volumes—including those which, like Vanity
Fair, Pendennis, The Newcomes, and Henry Esmond,
have made his fame universal—have already
appeared, to be followed by the remaining twelve
in pairs at monthly intervals. The publishers have
striven to make the edition in all respects a worthy
memorial of the great author, but it is more par-
ticularly in respect of the illustrative matter that
the edition commends itself to admirers of his
genius. All the illustrations—over 1500 in number
—which were designed by Thackeray himself and
others for the original editions of the various books,
are reproduced, and over and above these there
are five hundred plates specially designed for this
edition by Mr. Furniss, whose courage in essaying
so huge an undertaking can perhaps only be
adequately appreciated by those who make book
illustration their especial province. To such the
" Artist's Preface " which Mr. Furniss contributes
to each volume will have particular interest, both
as a commentary on Thackeray's work as an
illustrator of his own books and as explaining the
line he himself has taken in illustrating the suc-
cessive volumes. In connection with Thackeray's
work a feature of peculiar interest is the reproduc-
tion of some of his original drawings for the purpose
of affording a comparison of them with the wood-
cut versions which appeared in the books—a com-
parison which shows that a great deal was lost in
the process of translation at the same time that
certain faults of draughtsmanship were rectified.

Impressions of Mexico. By Mary Barton
(London: Methuen and Co.) ioj-. 6d. net.—Miss
Barton's name will be familiar to readers of The
Studio as writer of an article on " Painting in
170

Mexico " in our August number last year. Certain
of the drawings which appeared then are repro-
duced in colour in this book, as well as others,
twenty in all, forming a record of the winter the
artist spent in the country. Miss Barton does not
touch upon the various questions which are causing
so much unrest in Mexico at the present time, but
her account of her visit is pleasing, though super-
ficial, and one reads with interest her descriptions
of the various places she stayed at, though the
difficulties and many discomforts she had to put
up with in her efforts to fill her sketch-book are
not likely to encourage others to go and do likewise.

The Makers of Black Basalts. By Captain M. H.
Grant (" Linesman "). (Edinburgh and London :
W. Blackwood and Sons.) 425-. net.—It is somewhat
strange that the ware which is the subject of this
interesting and copiously illustrated volume should
have been overlooked by collectors. That it is
" one of the most beautiful and refined in all the
realm of ceramics " is sufficiently evidenced by the
many fine examples reproduced, and the fact that
it is essentially British ought to have saved it from
the obscurity into which it has fallen. Wedgwood,
whose productions furnish the bulk of the illus-
trations, seems to have had a special affection for
this ware, which enabled him to display his real
genius as a potter with far greater effect than other
species of ware. In his preliminary essay on
" The Ethics of Earthenware," Capt. Grant reveals a
keen sense of the qualities which belong essentially
to the potter's craft, and his monograph can be
commended as a valuable contribution to ceramic
literature.

Piranesi. By Arthur Samuel. (London :
B. T. Batsford.) i2.r. 6d.—The wide distribution of
proofs of Piranesi's etchings has given to them a
popularity to which it is now generally recognised
their aesthetic merits do not entitle them, for though
their draughtsmanship is skilful, and as transcripts
of famous classic buildings many of them have an
historic value, their general effect is often marred by
a confusing elaboration of detail. The author of
this monograph displays an enthusiasm for the
etcher that will scarcely be shared by his readers,
who will, however, find in it an interesting record of
a career full of exciting incidents ; the section con-
cerning the etchings known as the Carceri d'lnven-
eione being specially typical of the writer's sympathy
with the various moods of the engraver.

Indian Drawings. By Ananda K. Coomara-
swamy, D.Sc. (Campden, Glos. : The Essex House
Press.)—The twenty-nine collotype plates which
give this volume its raison d'etre, comprise a