Studio: international art (62.1914)

Reviews and Notices

Lichtdrucktafeln. (Leipzig: Klinkhardt und Bier-
mann). 30 Mk.—Wenban's name is little known to
amateurs of etching in England. He was the son
of English parents, and born at Cincinnati, U.S.A.,
in 1848. The earlier part of his life was devoted
to drudging in the studios of various photographers
in Cleveland and Chicago, retouching photographs,
and drawing the crayon portraits, in the photo-
grapher's manner popular in the latter part of the
nineteenth century. Happily he joined his friend
Otto Bacher in a pilgrimage to Europe in 1878,
and thereafter remained in Munich or the
neighbourhood for the rest of his life. He kept
almost exclusively to landscape, both as painter,
draughtsman, and etcher, but secured little recog-
nition until quite the end of his life, and then only a
limited circle. He cannot, we think, be regarded as a
great individuality, nor take high rank as an etcher.
Occasionally his etching fails through overloading
with detail, through a certain prettiness, which
shows some kinship with the weaker kind of
Seymour Haden's etchings, such as the Rivers in
Inland. Wenban's Lake with Swans (No. 343,
Plate xxi) is one of these. but in general he uses
a free and flowing line with great clearness and
simplicity, somewhat in the manner of Corot
Excellent examples are Nos. 54 (Plate iv), 113
(Plate ix), 128 (Plate xviii), and 227 (Plate v),
while an occasional plate such as No. 145 (Plate
xxviii) show s a sense of atmosphere almost worthy
of Camille Pissarro. The catalogue by Dr.
Weigmann, which contains the descriptions of 371
etchings, 76 reproductions, and a biographical
and critical introduction, is an exemplary piece of
work, and purports to be the first of a series devoted
to modern painters and etchers.

Survey of London. Vol. V. Thi' Parish of St.
Giles-in-the-Fields (Part II). Edited by Sir
Eaurence Gomme (London : London County
Council) jQi. is. net.—This new volume of the
Survey of Eondon forms part of the series which is
being issued by the Joint Publishing Committee
representing the Eondon County Council and the
Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of
Greater Eondon under the general editorship of
Sir Laurence Gomme and Mr. Philip Norman.
The illustrations consist of over a hundred plates
and numerous illustrations inserted in the text, which
occupies over two hundred pages and is replete
with information relating to the buildings illustrated,
the historical notes being supplied by Sir Eaurence
Gomme and the architectural descriptions by Mr.
W. E. Riley, the Council's architect. The chief
interest of the volume from the point of view of

modern domestic architecture lies in the matter
dialing with Bedford Square, which though not
wholly in the parish of St. Giles is here treated as a
whole. This square was laid out between 1775 and
1 780 as part of a general scheme for developing the
I )uke of Bedford's Bloomsbury estate, which is rightly
referred to as an excellent example of earlytown plan-
ning and as affording an illustration of the advantages
gained by the community when a large area such as
this (112 acres) is dealt with on generous lines by
the owner. Thomas Leverton is said to have been
the author of the general scheme and designer of the
houses not the Brothers Adam as one authority
has stated, though the style associated with their
name was adopted by Leverton, who also employed
many of the designers who worked for the brothers.
Numerous illustrations of these houses and details
therein are given.

The Architectural Association Sketch-Book for
1913 contains 72 plates, and the chief contributors
are Mr. Alan Binning and Mr. James MacGregor,
both of whom possess an eye for artistic effect in
addition to that precision of draughtsmanship
which is called for in measured drawings like most
of those in the volume. More than half the plates
are concerned with British edifices, and most of
these are of an ecclesiastical character, the chief
being St. Mary's Church at Finedon, Northants,
an interesting fourteenth-century structure. The
Sketch-Book is issued in four quarterly instalments
to annual subscribers of one guinea.

Photograms of the year for 1913, edited by
F. J. Mortimer, F.R.P.S., contains as usual a
large number of full-page prints selected from the
best output of many countries. Many well-known
workers are represented and there is a pleasing
diversity of subject. This annual is published at
25. 6d. net by Messrs. Hazell, Watson and Viney.

The Grand Duke Ernst Eudwig of Hesse
Darmstadt, who is a great patron of art, has
arranged an extremely interesting Pine Arts Loan
Exhibition at Darmstadt, comprising paintings,
drawings, miniatures, sculpture, and examples of
handicraft which originated in Germany, Austria
and Switzerland between 1650 and 1800, that is,
during the period intervening between the Thirty
Years' War and the time of Napoleon. Many of
the exhibits come from the castles of the reigning
princes of Germany and the private collections of
the Emperor of Austria, and have never been
publicly exhibited before ; after the close of the
exhibition early in October they will probably not
be visible again to the general public for a long time.

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