Studio: international art (62.1914)

Reviews and Notices

censorship to which all such were subjected in the
seventeenth century, Mile. Duportal proceeds to
a discussion of methods and of the work, both
religious and secular, of the artists who nourished at
this period, in particular the draughtsmen Daniel
Rabel, Claude Vignon, and the engravers Thomas
de Leu, Leonard Gaultier, Michel Lasne, Claude
Mellan, Abraham Bosse, Gregoire Huret, Stefano
I >ella Bella, Francois Chauveau, and Robert
Nanteuil. The letterpress is illustrated by forty-
five fine reproductions in facsimile of the original
engravings (among them a superb work Constanti-
nople, engraved by Nicolas Cochin after G. de la
Chapelle from the latter's Portraits des Dames de
la Porte published in Paris in 1648), and the volume
is supplied with appendices giving a list of the
principal draughtsmen and engravers, the chief
publishers of the period, a bibliography and index.
The work bears evidence of profound research and a
wide knowledge of the subject.

Geschichte der Gartenkunst. Von Marie Luisk
Gothein. (Jena : Eugen 1 liederiehs.) 2 vols.,
stitched, 40 marks, cloth, 48 marks.—In these two
volumes, containing between them not far short of
a thousand pages, the author has courageously
essayed to trace the history of the art of gardening
from the earliest times of which any definite records
are available down to the days in which we live.
A task of this magnitude demanded infinite patience
and perseverance for its satisfactory performance,
and the successive chapters make it abundantly
clear that the author is well endowed with these
virtues. The numbered notes appended to each
volume, giving the sources from which the state-
ments in the text are derived, furnish indeed ample
evidence of the extraordinary range of her researches,
and the care she has bestowed on the preparation
of the book entitles her to the grateful acknow-
ledgment of all students of this fascinating subject.
Her work, however, reviewing as it does the de-
velopment and progress of gardening among all the
civilised races, ancient and modern, beginning with
the Ancient Egyptians and ending with the author's
compatriots of to-day, has a greater significance
which cannot fail to be appreciated by all who study
the evolution of art in its widest sense, for the
truth that emerges from this historical survey is that
gardening is in its highest development a fine
art. In its incipient stages amongst savages and
semi civilised races—with which, however, the
author does not deal in this work—the economic
or utilitarian motive is almost exclusively operative,
if not wholly so, but with advancing civilisation we
see the aesthetic factor gradually coming into play

until at length it assumes the chief r61e, or perhaps
it would be more correct to say that the aesthetic
objective becomes differentiated from the economic.
As implied by the title of the work, A History of
Garden Art, it is of course with the aesthetic side
of gardening that the author is mainly concerned.
Besides an extensive knowledge of the historical
aspects of the subject she displays an intimate
acquaintance with developments which have taken
place in recent times; in particular she seems to
have made a special study of garden design in
England at various periods. The letterpress is
accompanied by a multitude of interesting illustra-
tions gathered from a great variety of sources.

Les De'corateurs. Par Achille SEGARD. (Paris :
Librairie Ollendorff.) 5 francs. — This volume
would appear to be the first of a series in which
M. Achille Segard proposes to treat of modern art,
by grouping together artists who have some com-
munity of aim. In the present volume the author
deals with the work of Besnard, La Touche, Jules
Cheret and Paul Baudouin, drawing a comparison
between their respective talents and discussing the
position they take among artists of the present day.
The volume contains numerous reproductions in
monochrome of works by these four decorators.

The Hermits and Anchorites of England. By
Rotha Mary Clay. (London : Methuen and Co.)
■js. 6d. net.—We have often spoken in laudatory
terms of the admirable series of "Antiquary's
Books," and we find this additional volume in every
way worthy of its predecessors. The author,
whose work in the same series upon the Medireval
Hospitals of England was reviewed in these pages
some time ago, gives in this volume the same
evidence of painstaking research and thoroughness
in the compilation of this interesting history.

In connection with the recent publication from the
offices of this magazine of the " Landscapes of
Corot," we are asked by the author, Mr. Croal
Thomson, to allow him to modify his statement in
the text respecting The Bent Tree by Corot, in
the Melbourne Gallery. Mr. Bernard Hall, the
Director of the Gallery, wishes it to be known that
in his mind there was never any official misunder-
standing about the reception of this beautiful
picture, and that it is now, and always has been,
held in the highest honour. When the picture
arrived in Australia several letters questioning its
artistic and money value appeared in the Press, and
it was the publication of these letters that prompted
Mr. Thomson to write of the hesitancy with which
this masterpiece was at first received.

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