Studio: international art (56.1912)

Reviews and Notices

“ THE ROSE ”

BY ALEXANDRE DE RIQUER
(Fayans Caiala, Barcelona)

Smyth; The Spirit oj the Wind (18), by Mr. E. V.
Pearce; Holywell Ferry (47), by Mr. J. A. Heir;
Jerusalem (7), by Mr. J. R. Dunning; and On the
Shore (24), by Mr. J. T. Macdonald. Two etchings
of London, Westminster (9) and Tower Bridge (12),
by Mr. C. H. Barraud, also deserve commendation.

W. T. W.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Rembrandfs Etchings. An Essay and a Cata-
logue, with some notes on the drawings, by Arthur
M. Hind. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd.)
Two vols. 21 s. net.—Those students and collectors
who have already felt themselves greatly indebted
to Mr. Arthur M. Hind for his invaluable “ Short
History of Engraving and Etching ” must realise,
when they study his latest work, “Rembrandt’s
Etchings,” that their debt of gratitude is considerably
increased. For there is no English book on the
subject—a subject which has already evoked a
literature to itself—at once so comprehensive, com-
plete, authoritative, and conveniently accessible.
Of course Middleton-Wake’s Catalogue of 1878 is a
valuable possession, and some eight years ago that
impeccable authority, Mr. Campbell Dodgson, with
his annotated catalogue, greatly enhanced the value
of the late P. G. Hamerton’s book; but in this

compact work Mr. Hind seems
to have garnered, from his own
studies and researches, as well
as from those of every other first-
hand writer on the etched work
of Rembrandt, all the knowledge
needed to guide the student and
collector. His erudition is
amazing. He has a positive genius
for bringing together the helpful
evidence, weighing and sifting it,
and eliciting the essential fact, as,
for instance, when he is discussing
the identification of Rembrandt’s
father with the old man of so many
etched plates, or arguing the
authenticity or otherwise of the
doubtful prints, or discussing the
work done on others, such as Christ
before Pilate, or the portrait of
Uytenbogaert the Gold Weigher,
possibly by Rembrandt’s pupils
and assistants. But, though Mr.
Hind would seem to spare no
labour or patience in this search
for evidence that should help to
elucidate every question concerning Rembrandt’s
etchings, he is no dry-as-dust. He is, on the con-
trary, a happy enthusiast, and if he makes us realise
that he takes his work very seriously, and that with
him a date is not, as Whistler sneered, “ an accom-
plishment,” but possibly an important factor in
tracing some point in the master’s artistic develop-
ment, it is because his human sympathy with
Rembrandt is as strong and deep and active as his
aesthetic admiration. This enthusiasm permeates
Mr. Hind’s work, and alike in the Iconographical
chapter, the survey of the etched work, the notes
on the drawings relating, as studies, to the etchings,
and the chronological catalogue of the etchings
themselves, in the British Museum order, and all
reproduced in the second volume, his scholarly
method, his aesthetic equipment, and his clarity of
expression prove ideal for the task he has per-
formed with so much advantage to English students
of the greatest master of etching.

Baroque Architecture and Sculpture in Italy. By
Corrado Ricci. (London : William Heinemann.)
251-. net.—The name of the erudite Director of the
Fine Arts and Antiquities of Italy is of course a
guarantee of intimate acquaintance with the
national heirlooms under his care and accurate
knowledge of their history. It is therefore with a
shock of surprise that the reader, in turning over the

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