Studio: international art (71.1917)

Reviews

Ranshyu has introduced this beautiful bit into
his Summer Landscape. The sunshine upon
the shoulder of the mountain filtering through
the early morning mist rising from the valley
below greatly fascinated me with its mysteri-
ous brilliancy.

Another painting which attracted much
attention at the exhibition was on a pair of
screens by Murase-Gyokuden entitled Autumn
Dusk. It was purchased by the Imperial
Household Department, and depicts a flock of
wild geese in a wind-blown autumnal field at
dusk, when the moon was beginning to gain
lustre—a favourite subject for Oriental artists.
The Autumn Landscape of Inagaki-Rampo,
which is included among our illustrations, was
also purchased by the Imperial Household
Department. With economy of strokes Rampo
has succeeded in giving an autumnal brocade,
with which the Japanese hills are richly clothed
towards the end of each year. Following the
custom of our nanga artists, Rampo has intro-
duced a figure in a Chinese robe (scarcely dis-
cernible in the reproduction), not necessarily in
order to suggest a Chinese landscape, but more
likely as the result of an endeavour to retain
a flavour of idealism in the painting, or it may
also be as a means of reminding us of Chinese
classic literature, from which a quotation is
often taken and written on the upper part of
the picture.

There were a few drawings in black mono-
chrome^—in the true nanga style. A good
example was found in An Autumn Scene by
Sato-Kwagaku, which is also reproduced here.
Kwagaku has painted a group of cormorants
under a willow-tree waiting for rain. In the
picture, a kingfisher, perched upon the willow,
looks down upon its big competitors with envy.
The feeling of a dull autumnal day, such as we
often get in the monochrome drawings of similar
subjects by the old masters, is here well ex-
pressed. Another reproduction included is of an
interesting painting of a snow scene, shown at
the same exhibition. It was painted by Miki-
Bunkwa, who belongs to the Shijo school. The
faint glow of the western sky at sunset is deli-
cately suggested on the white brow of the
mountain. The snow-laden trees seem to wait
the approaching night with tremulous anxiety.

Harada-Jiro.

80-

REVIEWS.

The Practical Book of Early American Arts
and Crafts. By Harold Donaldson Eber-
lein and Abbot McClure. (Philadelphia and
London : J. B. Lippincott Company.) 25s. net.
The subject-matter of this volume—one of a
series of " Practical Books of Home Life En-
richment "—is of exceptional interest as show-
ing the great diversity of the arts and crafts
practised in America prior to the modern era of
machine production. These comprise pottery
and glass-making, decoration, metal-work and
needlecraft, silversmith work, pewter, decora-
tive painting on household gear, portrait and
allegorical painting, weaving, " fractur" or
pen and brush illumination, hand block printing
on fabrics and paper, wood and stone carving,

' AN AUTUMN SCENE " BY SATO-KWAGAKU