Studio: international art (54.1912)

Reviews and Notices

interesting form a complete outline of the history
of the fascinating craft of wood-carving from pre-
historic to late Gothic times. His illustrations
alone form a pictorial and chronological record of
the best achievements of sculptors in wood of every
period, and include the wonderful Egyptian statue
known as the Sheik el Beled, that bears witness
with other similar works to an art already in an
advanced stage of development long centuries
before the Christian era; typical examples of
medieval carving, such as the twelfth-century
Scandinavian doorway in the Christiania Museum;
fifteenth-century Flemish retables in which Mr.
Maskell sees the very finest expression of the genius
of the greatest exponents of the craft, although
their actual authors were unknown; altar-pieces
by Veit Stoss, Tillmann, Riemenschneider, and
their less celebrated contemporaries, with numerous
single figures by various masters, and a very great
variety of details of Gothic and Renaissance
ecclesiastical decoration such as the carvings on
rood-screens, choir stalls, bench ends, &c. Perhaps
one of the most notable chapters in the book is
that in which the question is discussed of the
authorship of the fine busts said to represent Adam
and Eve in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the
writer differing from most of his fellow experts in
attributing them, not to Riemenschneider, but to
a nameless leader in a movement with which that
overlauded master was not even in sympathy.

Art, Artists and Landscape Painting. By W. J.
Laidlay. (London : Longmans and Co.) 5.?. net.—
A warning against, rather than encouragement to
the adoption of art as a profession, Mr. Laidlay's
new publication is as noteworthy for its clearness of
reasoning and incisiveness of expression as any of
its predecessors. Its author combines with the
practical experience of a professional artist, the
insight of a lawyer into the intimate correlation
between cause and effect; he is a passionate
devotee of art for its own sake, and is ever ready
to sympathise with the aspirations and struggles of
his fellow wielders of the brush. His Preface is very
typical of his literary skill, aesthetic feeling, and keen
sense of humour, and incidentally is a revelation of
the generous nature of the writer eager to save the un-
wary from the manypitfalls in their path, the detailed
descriptions of which are lit up with many amusing
and characteristic anecdotes of Mr. Laidlay's own
experiences in the Paris studios and elsewhere.
Those who, after reading the whole book, are still
bent on pursuing the uphill and thorny road of art,
will do well to follow the useful suggestions of its
author.

A History oj Architecture in London. By
Walter H. Godfrey, Architect. 7.?. 6d. net.
London Houses from 1660 to 1820. By A. E.
Richardson and C. Lovett Gill. x$s. net.—
Mr. Godfrey's handbook is to be commended as a
very able and trustworthy account of London
architecture down to the close of the eighteenth
century, and is especially welcome having regard
to the paucity of books dealing systematically with
the subject. We are not sure, in fact, whether any
other work does cover the ground in the way this
one does. The book contains between two and
three hundred excellent illustrations, chiefly from
photographs, showing how rich London is in
interesting examples of architecture, domestic as
well as public, of various periods antecedent to
the Victorian, and a special feature which will
prove of much value to the student is the series of
maps of the metropolis and surrounding districts on
a scale of one inch to the mile, indicating by means
of plainly printed figures the location of numerous
important buildings. Messrs. Richardson and
Gill's book has a more restricted range, and deals
with the various types of town house which came
into existence at a time when a movement in the
direction of " town-planning " was taking place in
London. The subject is illustrated by an extensive
series of collotype plates from photographs expressly
taken for the volume, showing external and internal
views of many of these town residences, a number
of which are located in one or other of the numerous
squares which one by one were laid out in the
West-end from 1666 onwards.

Sir Hubert von Herkomer has recently executed
a reproduction, by his autographic method 01
drawing on stone, of the remarkable portrait of
Lord Fisher, which he exhibited last spring at the
Royal Academy ; and with his permission a limited
issue of this reproduction is being published by
Messrs. Tatton and Chisman, of Craven House,
Kingsway. As an example of Sir Hubert's method
of handling lithography the plate is exceptionally
successful. It is extremely personal in manner
and retains all the effectiveness and vigorous
characterisation of the original picture.

The makers of the universally popular Waterman
Fountain Pen have put on the market a novelty
which will commend itself to those who find the
filling of the ordinary type of fountain pen irksome.
This is a " self-filling " pen which by means of an
ingenious but simple arrangement is replenished
in an instant by dipping the pen into the ink and
pressing a button.

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