DOI Heft:
No. 318 (September 1919)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21358#0184
REVIEWS
remarkable personality made on those
with whom he came in contact. 0 0
L’Art pendant la Guerre, 1914-1918.
Par Robert de la Sizeranne. (Paris:
Hachette et Cie.) 4 fr. 50.—The essays
composing this latest volume from the
sagacious pen of M. de la Sizeranne,
whom English readers will remember as a
conscientious student of modern British
art and especially of Ruskin's teachings,
were written at intervals from 1915 to 1918,
and turn upon questions brought into
prominence by the war in relation to art.
In the first of them he discusses the
achievements of modern Germany in the
sphere of the plastic arts, and the verdict
he arrives at that “ l'art allemand d’aujour-
d'hui . . . offre toujours une adaptation,
plus ou moins heureuse, des styles Gran-
gers," coincides with the judgment of
critics who are not open to any charge of
patriotic prejudice, and certainly so far
as the so-called “ applied ” arts are con-
cerned is confirmed by the published
admissions of more than one German
writer. In another essay the writer de-
scribes the famous tapestries of Rheims
which have happily escaped the ravages of
war, after which comes a pathetic account
of the havoc wrought among the glorious
architectural monuments in the war zone.
An essay in four chapters reviews in suc-
cession the output of war caricatures in
allied and enemy countries and among
neutrals, and concludes with a discussion
of the traits common to them all. Survey-
ing the entire field he finds a community
not only in the ideas and sentiments ex-
pressed, but also in the means employed
by artists to express them, and further, that
these means are exactly the same as
formerly—“ Rien n’est venu renouveler
Part depuis la guerre—pas meme celui
de la caricature ! ” Finally, in a paper on
“ La Nouvelle Esthetique de la Bataille,”
he examines the conditions under which
the war was carried on from the point of
view of pictorial art, and closes this in-
teresting and instructive study with the
observation that “ la ‘ Bataille ’ moderne
fait beaucoup pour les ecrivains, psycho-
logues, poetes, auteurs dramatiques, moral-
istes, quelque chose peut-etre pour les
musiciens: elle ne fait rien pour les
peintres.” a a a a a
168
Murray Marks and his Friends. By Dr.
G. C. Williamson. (London: John Lane.)
125. 6d. net.—The pages of this book testify
abundantly to the high esteem in which the
late Mr. Murray Marks was held by many
distinguished artists with whom he came
in touch during a career which, from the
part he played in the formation of impor-
tant art collections, cannot be regarded as
uneventful. With Rossetti in particular he
was, as the quoted correspondence between
them proves, on terms of close friendship,
and the fact that his relations with Whistler
did not, so far as the evidence here pre-
sented shows, terminate in a quarrel—
although the episode of the Peacock Room,
with which Marks had much to do, might
well have led to such a result—is testimony
to his genial disposition. “ A man of
exquisite taste,” as Mr. Leyland called him,
Marks was indeed much more of an “ art
adviser ” than an art dealer, and his judg-
ment was implicitly relied upon in transac-
tions concerning the disposal and acquisi-
tion of important works of art. But in the
case of the so-called “ Leonardo " bust
which the Kaiser Friedrich Museum
bought from him in 1909, the weight of
evidence is unfavourable to the belief he
entertained and, according to Dr. William-
son, adhered to, that the bust was a work of
the Italian Renaissance period, though his
good faith in the transaction has never for
a moment been questioned. 0 0
Stitches from Western Embroideries (Port-
folio No. 3). By Louisa F. Pesel. (Brad-
ford and London : Percy Lund, Hum-
phries and Co.) 12s. 6d. net.—The first
two portfolios in this series, which were
noticed in these pages at the time of their
publication, contained diagrams of stitches
from Old English and Oriental embroideries
respectively. In this third portfolio the
examples have been selected chiefly from
Spanish and Portuguese work, but a few
interesting specimens of Moroccan, Alge-
rian, and Hispano-Moresque stitches are
added. The diagrams, which are printed
in colour on separate small sheets of thin
card, have been prepared with great care,
and exhibit very distinctly the procedure
employed in making the multitudinous
kinds of stitches exemplified, so that they
cannot fail to be of signal service to ail
needleworkers. 0000
remarkable personality made on those
with whom he came in contact. 0 0
L’Art pendant la Guerre, 1914-1918.
Par Robert de la Sizeranne. (Paris:
Hachette et Cie.) 4 fr. 50.—The essays
composing this latest volume from the
sagacious pen of M. de la Sizeranne,
whom English readers will remember as a
conscientious student of modern British
art and especially of Ruskin's teachings,
were written at intervals from 1915 to 1918,
and turn upon questions brought into
prominence by the war in relation to art.
In the first of them he discusses the
achievements of modern Germany in the
sphere of the plastic arts, and the verdict
he arrives at that “ l'art allemand d’aujour-
d'hui . . . offre toujours une adaptation,
plus ou moins heureuse, des styles Gran-
gers," coincides with the judgment of
critics who are not open to any charge of
patriotic prejudice, and certainly so far
as the so-called “ applied ” arts are con-
cerned is confirmed by the published
admissions of more than one German
writer. In another essay the writer de-
scribes the famous tapestries of Rheims
which have happily escaped the ravages of
war, after which comes a pathetic account
of the havoc wrought among the glorious
architectural monuments in the war zone.
An essay in four chapters reviews in suc-
cession the output of war caricatures in
allied and enemy countries and among
neutrals, and concludes with a discussion
of the traits common to them all. Survey-
ing the entire field he finds a community
not only in the ideas and sentiments ex-
pressed, but also in the means employed
by artists to express them, and further, that
these means are exactly the same as
formerly—“ Rien n’est venu renouveler
Part depuis la guerre—pas meme celui
de la caricature ! ” Finally, in a paper on
“ La Nouvelle Esthetique de la Bataille,”
he examines the conditions under which
the war was carried on from the point of
view of pictorial art, and closes this in-
teresting and instructive study with the
observation that “ la ‘ Bataille ’ moderne
fait beaucoup pour les ecrivains, psycho-
logues, poetes, auteurs dramatiques, moral-
istes, quelque chose peut-etre pour les
musiciens: elle ne fait rien pour les
peintres.” a a a a a
168
Murray Marks and his Friends. By Dr.
G. C. Williamson. (London: John Lane.)
125. 6d. net.—The pages of this book testify
abundantly to the high esteem in which the
late Mr. Murray Marks was held by many
distinguished artists with whom he came
in touch during a career which, from the
part he played in the formation of impor-
tant art collections, cannot be regarded as
uneventful. With Rossetti in particular he
was, as the quoted correspondence between
them proves, on terms of close friendship,
and the fact that his relations with Whistler
did not, so far as the evidence here pre-
sented shows, terminate in a quarrel—
although the episode of the Peacock Room,
with which Marks had much to do, might
well have led to such a result—is testimony
to his genial disposition. “ A man of
exquisite taste,” as Mr. Leyland called him,
Marks was indeed much more of an “ art
adviser ” than an art dealer, and his judg-
ment was implicitly relied upon in transac-
tions concerning the disposal and acquisi-
tion of important works of art. But in the
case of the so-called “ Leonardo " bust
which the Kaiser Friedrich Museum
bought from him in 1909, the weight of
evidence is unfavourable to the belief he
entertained and, according to Dr. William-
son, adhered to, that the bust was a work of
the Italian Renaissance period, though his
good faith in the transaction has never for
a moment been questioned. 0 0
Stitches from Western Embroideries (Port-
folio No. 3). By Louisa F. Pesel. (Brad-
ford and London : Percy Lund, Hum-
phries and Co.) 12s. 6d. net.—The first
two portfolios in this series, which were
noticed in these pages at the time of their
publication, contained diagrams of stitches
from Old English and Oriental embroideries
respectively. In this third portfolio the
examples have been selected chiefly from
Spanish and Portuguese work, but a few
interesting specimens of Moroccan, Alge-
rian, and Hispano-Moresque stitches are
added. The diagrams, which are printed
in colour on separate small sheets of thin
card, have been prepared with great care,
and exhibit very distinctly the procedure
employed in making the multitudinous
kinds of stitches exemplified, so that they
cannot fail to be of signal service to ail
needleworkers. 0000