Studio: international art (53.1911)

Reviews and Notices

Japanese painting. Although there are already a few
books of unquestionable merit on the subject, it must
be conceded that the student of Japanese pictorial
art has long felt the lack of a definite and accurate
account of the leading painters of its various
schools. Not only the students of the West, but
the Japanese also acknowledge themselves to have
been confronted by the same difficulty. Because
of this fact, and because of its appearing at this
time when public interest in Oriental art is so keen,
we welcome Mr. Morrison's work, which goes far
towards meeting a very distinct want.

Mr. Morrison has set forth the importance of
realising that in "Japanese pictures we must look
for the spirit and poetic sense of things, rather
than for a needless report of their external
appearance. For art in any form is nothing but
a language—the vehicle of transcendent message
from mind to mind." The fundamental difference
in the outlook of the painters of East and West is
also noted—" in the eye of the Western, mankind
is the centre of the universe, and the chief sub-
ject of his art, the rest of creation making a little
more than a background to man; while for the
Eastern the universe itself is his subject, in which
man holds a place, and no more, with the rest
of creation." With an illuminating introduction
on the spirit and ideals of Japanese art, the first
volume deals with the Early Period ; and the pains-
taking care with which the author has proceeded
in face of extreme difficulties can well be con
jectured by reading his paragraphs on Kanaoka.
The chapter is followed by others on the Tosa
School, the Chinese School of the Ashikaga Period,
the School of Sesshiu, and the Kano School. The
second volume contains chapters on the School of
Korin, the Ukiyoye School, the later Chinese
School, the Maruyama and Shijo Schools, the
Kishi School or the School of Ganku, and minor
schools, giving the distinguishing characteristics of
each, school and the work of its masters, and at the
same time tracing its history down to the present
so as to include its living followers.

The numerous illustrations contained in the
volumes appear to be chiefly from the author's
own extensive and valuable collection. We could
even have wished that the illustrations had been
still more numerous and had included many
masterpieces from Japanese collections. We may
join with Mr. Morrison in expressing the hope that
" perhaps on some future day the Japanese painters
and their work will be treated in twenty volumes
in place of these two, with a thousand illustrations
produced by some miraculous process as yet un-
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dreamed, which shall do justice to Yamato Yeshi."
If this should come to pass, may the author of
that new work be endowed with an insight and
understanding of Japanese painting as shrewd and
penetrating and be possessed of a vocabulary as
graceful and convincing as that of the author of
the present volumes.

The New Inferno. By Stephen Phillips.
With sixteen drawings by Vernon Hill. (London :
John Lane.) 21^. net.—The Starlit Mire. By
James Bertram and F. Russell. With ten
drawings by Austin O. Spare. (London: John
Lane.) is. 6d. net.—Perhaps if Mr. Stephen Phillips
did not match himself in themes always against a
Dante or a Milton he would attain to the beautiful
freedom of verse to which he always seems on the
point of attaining, and which would make all the
difference in the world to his claims to be regarded
somewhere amongst their successors. Mr. Vernon
Hill, his illustrator, seems to have come under the
influence of both Blake and Beardsley, though
they represent opposite poles in artistic feeling.
Though his title-page design reminds us of
one of the illustrations Beardsley made for
"Salome," yet consciously Mr. Hill may not be
that draughtsman's disciple, and in any case he is
a designer of exceptional and original force. But
pleasure in horror was the discovery of mediaeval
genius, and artists with classical sympathies like
Mr. Vernon Hill are not the natural illustrators of
Infernos. Mr. Austin Spare may be said to be a
successful artist of the same Beardsley School,
though his temperament expresses itself very
differently from Mr. Hill's. Beardsley's art was
very Gothic in character, he could allow himself the
utmost familiarity with the sinister without being
repulsive; it is a familiarity which Mr. Austin
Spare's book proves he cannot allow himself with
the same success. There are two kinds of ugliness ;
art sometimes takes pleasure in one kind but the
other arises out of incompleteness of technique.
Since it is in the passages where Mr. Spare's pen
can be felt to be most completely at home that
there is least ugliness, we must infer that this
quality does not contribute to his success, but is
in his case a blemish compromising it.

English Pastels, 1750-1830. By R. R. M. See.
(G. Bell and Sons.) Limited edition, £2 2s. od.
net.—The author of this work has had unusual
opportunities of studying at first hand the produc-
tions of the English School of Pastellists, for to him
was entrusted the task of bringing together from
numerous private collections that brilliant assem-
blage of pastels which was offered to view during the