Studio: international art (56.1912)

Reviews and Notices

tact and zeal with which the director has fulfilled
his rdle and the remarkable progress of the school
have attracted the attention of the inspectors of
academies and schools of drawing in Belgium, who
have demanded and succeeded in their desire that
M. Rosier should be nominated their colleague.

F. K.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Rembrandt's 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 now before
us, 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 know-
ledge needed to guide the student and collector.
He displays 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. So, alike in the icono-
graphical 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 performed with so much advantage to English
students of the greatest master of etching.

English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century.
By Herbert Cescinsky. Vol. III. (London :
Geo. Routledge and Sons, Ltd.) 315-. 6d. net.—
The first and second volumes of this important
work have already been noticed in these pages.
The third and concluding volume opens with a
narrative of the brothers Robert and James Adam
and their work, an account of their venture known
as “ The Adelphi Lottery ” forming part of it.
Heppelwhite’s achievements are then dealt with
under their various aspects. The history and work
of Thomas Sheraton and the furniture produced
during the period bearing his name occupy a good
many pages, and there follows an interesting section
on the house of Gillow, with extracts from the cost-
books of the firm which are instructive. A list of
woods used in cabinet-making is appended. Like
the other two volumes, this final one is extensively
illustrated by reproductions of pen-drawings made
by the author, and by photographs which have the
merit of displaying the grain of the various woods
to advantage. The work as a whole contains nearly
1200 illustrations drawn from many sources, and
written as it is by one whose qualifications are
undeniable it fully deserves a place in the standard
literature of British arts and crafts.

The Life and Work of Frank Hoh. By A. M.
Reynolds. (London: Methuen.) 12s. 6d. net.—
This life by the painter’s daughter gives us a fine
portrait of the typical Englishman it describes, and
acquaints us with many conditions not now pre-
vailing under which a young painter formerly rose
into prominence. Of much interest is the chapter
on Holl’s connection with the “ Graphic.” Those
were good days for illustrators. Thirty guineas was
the sum Holl received for his first drawing, A Seat in
the Railway Station. He attributed to his practice in
wood-drawing for journalistic purposes that ability to
work “ directly ” which is so invaluable to a portrait-
painter. The book is a record of a modern portrait-
painter’s habits, and we are afforded many vivid
glimpses of celebrities in its pages, friends of the
painter, and sitters. In 1885 the artist painted
twenty-three portraits, and the virility which was so

25i