Studio: international art (66.1915)

Reviews and Notices

the artist’s individuality. The illustrations cover a
wide field, for the work deals, with famous and
historic bridges existing not only in Europe but
also in various parts of the Orient. Students of
Mr. Brangwyn’s work will understand how strongly
such a subject would appeal to him. In these
drawings his fine sense of magnitude and composi-
tion, his wonderful gift of colour, his keen appre-
ciation of the romantic element) which is present in
all the great works of man, are displayed ; and it is
satisfactory to find that these splendid qualities
are well suggested in the colour reproductions,
most of which are excellent. As an example of
Mr. Brangwyn’s broad and vigorous handling, the
frontispiece, Pont St. Benlzet over the Rhdne at
Avignon, could hardly be surpassed.

The Songs and Sonnets of William Shakespeare.
Illustrated by Charles Robinson. (London:
Duckworth and Co.) 7s. 6d. net.—Exactly fifty
years have passed since the late F. T. Palgrave
edited his selection of Shakespeare’s purely lyric
poetry, adding a title of his own to each song and
sonnet. In justification, Mr. Palgrave wrote of
himself, “ He has tried to make his titles ex-
planatory to the lovers of poetry, either by way of
hint or of more direct statement; he submits this
intrusion upon Shakespeare to their good-nature.”
But, however good-natured we may be, and how-
ever grateful to the gifted editor of the Golden
Treasury, “Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven’s gate
sings ” will never recall itself to us by such a title
as “ Reveillez,” nor will “ Sigh no more, ladies,” as
“ Man and Woman”—Shakespeare’s opening lines
to each immortal song or sonnet compels its own
remembrance, individualising the poem. Albeit,
this favourite old edition it is that Messrs. Duck-
worth and Co. have just brought out as a sumptuous
Christmas gift-book, with illustrations and paginal
decorations by Mr. Charles Robinson. As might
be expected from this artist, grace and a delicate
decorative charm distinguish the end-papers, the
title-page,, the frontispiece to the Songs, the initial
lettersjand little tail-pieces, but one cannot help
thinking that black ink would have done more
justice to Mr. Robinson’s line-work than pale blue.
As for the coloured illustrations, they make gener-
ally for prettiness of effect,—“ She burned with
love,” is charmingly Japanese in its manner of
design—but it can hardly be said that Shakespeare’s
poetry has greatly inspired the artist’s imagination
to pictorial interpretation. Mr. Robinson is
happier with fable and fairy-tale or his own imagin-
ings. But it is a pretty and a pleasing picture-
book, and the type is good and comfortable to read.

The Dreamer of Dreams. By the Queen of
Roumania. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac.
(London: Hodder and Stoughton.) 6s. net.—-
That the Queen of Roumania possesses in unusual
degree the gift of imagination her charming fairy-
story, “ The Lily of Life,” has already proved, and
this gift is further manifested in “ The Dreamer of
Dreams.” This is a fairy-story of a different type ;
in it are related the adventures of a youthful Court
painter, “ Eric of the Golden Locks,” who, sud-
denly forsaking his luxurious surroundings and
leaving unfinished a marvellous frieze painting
representing the Triumph of Love, wanders forth
over the wide world in quest of two eyes he had
seen in a dream, and ultimately, having after all
kinds of hardship discovered the ideal he was
seeking only to be cheated by death, returns in the
guise of a beggar and completes his frieze with a
presentment of Triumphant Love crowned with a
wreath of thorns. The narrative of this romantic
pilgrimage is told with much force, rising at times
to poetic fervour. Mr. Dulac has done six illus-
trations in colour, but we are not so much im-
pressed by these as with other work of his which
we remember with pleasure, although in certain of
them his feeling for colour is admirably displayed.

Great Pictures by Great Painters. With de-
scriptive notes by Arthur Fish. (London:
Cassell and Co.) 12r.net.—In the selection of
pictures represented in this album of colour
reproductions—fifty in number—the chief public
galleries of Great Britain have been drawn upon
for the most part, but they also include some
notable works from the collections of the Louvre
and Luxembourg in Paris and the Rijks Museum
in Amsterdam. Half of them are by painters of
the British School—Hogarth, Reynolds, Gains-
borough, Lawrence, Constable, Creswick, Webster,
Paton, Landseer, Millais, Sam Bough, Orchardson,
Watts, Herkomer, and a small number of artists
now living; the French school is represented by
David, Fragonard, Millet, Harpignies, Lhermitte,
Meissonier, Troyon, Van Marcke, Vernet; the
Old Masters of Holland by Pieter de Hoogh,
Nicolas Maes, Rembrandt, Teniers the Younger,
Van Ostade, Van de Velde the Younger; the
Modern Dutch Masters by James Maris, Josef
Israels, and Anton Mauve; and the remainder
include works by Raphael, Veronese, and a con-
temporary Belgian painter, Ferdinand Willaert.
The selection is a very interesting one, even if all
the pictures cannot be described as masterpieces.

Rabbi ben Ezra, and other Poems. By Robert
Browning. With illustrations by Bernard

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