Studio: international art (55.1912)

Reviews and Notices

Vols. vii. and viii. (London: T. C. and E. C.
Jack.) 7s. 6d. net per vol.—Mr. Macfall took
up a task that was awaiting fulfilment when he
set about writing this popular history and couched
it in a style studiously “ fresh,” with the view to
its being read in the right quarter. Art, however,
is a thing of such fine shades of feeling—being in
fact the,, language of these shades—that some
injustice must be done to it in the interpretation
of a rather too confident pen like Mr. MacfalPs.
He has, however, “something to say,” and says it
to the point—by way of performing that intro-
duction of “ the masses ” to Art which is so much
more sensible than introduction of Art to “the
masses.” In volume vii., which, as becomes a book
of so democratic an intention, is dedicated to Mr.
Asquith, the subject is “ The British Genius.” It
takes us from the British genius before Van Dyck
to the dawn of modern painting. In the final
volume we come to “ The Modern Genius.” Here
Mr. Macfall takes quite the right line, but
entangles it with a good deal of irrelevant criticism
of fellow-writers. The reader will benefit greatly
in going over the ground of Impressionism with
the author, and will be led up to it in the neatest
manner.

John Opie and his Circle. By Ada Harland.
(London: Hutchinson and Co.) 2 it. net,—That
the “ Cornish wonder,” as Opie was called in his
lifetime, would not have won the high position he
did but for the romantic circumstances of his
career is now generally acknowledged, and though
he certainly had a considerable amount of versatile
talent, few will, in this comparatively exacting age,
concede to him the title of genius claimed for him by
his new biographer. Due allowance being made,
however, for the over-enthusiastic estimate of the
painter’s powers, the book is a very valuable publi-
cation, containing a large number of hitherto unpub-
lished letters of great interest, and giving a series of
very vivid pictures of the environment in which the
ambitious and painstaking artist lived. The earlier
chapters are certainly the most fascinating, dealing
as they do with the boyhood of the future Royal
Academician in his remote Cornish home and his
experiences after he had been bought out of his
apprenticeship to his father the village carpenter
and practically adopted by the erratic Dr. Walcot,
better known as Doctor Pindar, but the story ot
his unhappy life with his first wife and his divorce
from her is also told in a very effective manner.
The decision to leave for a later volume the full
account of the second Mrs. Opie, who played a very
important part in his later activity, unfortunately
338

gives a sense of incompleteness to a book other-
wise almost redundant in its detail.

Notes on Pictures m the Royal Collections.
Edited by Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Surveyor of the
King’s Pictures and Works of Art. (London:
Chatto and Windus.) 12 s. 6d. net.—Published
by the special permission of H.M. King George V.,
the excellent reproductions of typical paintings
owned by him, issued under the able editorship ot
their custodian, will supplement those included in
the earlier and more important publication for
which the Fine Art Publishing Co. was responsible.
The critical essays accompanying them are ampli-
fications of notes that have already been pub-
lished, and amongst them one of the most inter-
esting is certainly that from the pen of the German
expert, Herr E. von Dobschiitz, on the Copy
of the supposed Likeness of Christ, the original
of which is in the Convent of S. Bartolommeo
degll Armeri at Genoa, renderings being given for
the sake of comparison of other reputed portraits
of Our Lord, as well as of some quaint interpreta-
tions of the Legend of Abgarus from illuminated
MSS.

Vmice and Venetia. By Edward Hutton.
(London : Methuen.) 6r.—This is the fifth of a
series of books which Mr. Hutton is writing on
Italy. They are essentially books for the traveller,
though by no means to be classed as guide-books.
The author’s knowledge of the great schools of
Italian Art is immense, and he writes with en-
gaging fluency on the treasures encountered in the
course of his travels. The present volume, which
deals with an extremely interesting region, contains,
in addition to reproductions of old works of art, a
number of coloured illustrations by Mr. Maxwell
Armfield of various places and scenes.

Cameo Book-Stamps. Figured and described by
Cyril Davenport, V.D., F.S.A. (London:
Edward Arnold.) 21J. net.—Mr. Davenport has
brought together in this volume a large and in-
teresting collection of stamps used as centre-pieces
on leather book-covers, and usually produced by
means of sunk dies of wood or metal. Some
hundred and fifty examples are figured, and with
but few exceptions they all belong to the sixteenth
century and are from the British Museum collec-
tion. They are arranged throughout in alpha-
betical order according to the subject represented,
and each drawing is accompanied by a description.
The first is a German stamp representing Abraham’s
Sacrifice of Isaac, with the legend “ Ie grosser Noht,
ie neher Gott.” The majority of the motives are,
like this, religious, a curious one being a coat-of-