Studio: international art (83.1922)

REVIEWS

ambition was to become a mural painter.
Two years before his death, in 1911, after
completing the decorations for the State
Capitol at Harrisburg, he confessed to
having been “ more interested in the
development of mural painting in America
than in anything else under the sun.”
That he did not regret the years he had
spent as a draughtsman is evident from
his advice to a young American student :

“ The great trouble with the vast majority of our
artists at home is that they cease to be students too
soon. . . They dash into paint with a confidence

bred entirely of ignorance and intolerance that they,
at that ill-informed and blind period of their lives,
do not see the need of . . . You should be

sketching always, always. Draw anything. Draw
the dishes on the table while you are waiting for
your breakfast. . . . Look at everything. It
is all part of your world." 000

Perhaps the fault with many young artists
is that they are a little too eager to make
money easily. Abbey made a lot in his
later years, but he also spent and lost a lot.

“ I have expended nearly £100 in books alone,"
he wrote in the late 'eighties, “ since I have been
studying this thing [Shakespeare’s Comedies]
. . . I find that with fourteen comedies to
mount ruin will overtake me before I begin a single
drawing.” 00000

A year or two later he writes :

" Went round to Leighton's. .... He
has such beautiful things about him. I wonder if
they don't clog his brain. ... I am beginning
to think that a bald barn is the best place to see
visions in, not a luxurious museum filled with
precious scraps that command one’s attention and
insist on being respected." 000

“ If I have wanted a chair or a table or a costume
—for a drawing—often the entire sum I get for
the drawing will not pay—has not paid—for the
outlay, but I have never hesitated on that account.
Those stockbrokers and business men who die,
having done nothing all their lives save buying and
selling and going home in the evening to their homes
and their families, I do feel sorry for. I think often
how very curious it must be to have leisure, I never
seem to have any." 0000

The outlay on the Boston paintings was im-
mense, and when the first half of the series
was paid for, the artist and his wife, whose
devotion to him stands out clearly in
these pages, were left with a debt of
£1,600. It is well that the many who
derive pleasure from the work he has
bequeathed to posterity should be re-
minded that that work was not achieved
without great sacrifice. At the same time
this biography yields abundant evidence
that Abbey's advancement in England
53

was in no way impeded by his American
nationality. The fact that he was made
a Royal Academician two years or so after
his election as Associate should be con-
clusive as to that. 0000
A General History of Porcelain. By

William Burton, M.A., F.C.S. 2 vols.
(London : Cassell & Co.)—To compress
into some 400 pages a “ general history ”
of porcelain is no small undertaking, the
success of which depends not merely on
the knowledge of the writer but even more
on his ability to select from the mass of
facts or assumed facts bearing on his
subject such as are of paramount signifi-
cance. The possession of these all-
essential qualifications has enabled Mr.
Burton to present an historical survey
which bears the stamp of authority.
Naturally the products of the Far East,
the fons et origo of the ware that constitutes
the crowning glory of the potter's art,
claim a relatively large share in his
narrative, but in the ensuing pages he deals
with every important phase in the manu-
facture of true porcelain in Europe down
to the present day, as well as with certain
varieties of ware which, though ostensibly
akin to the Oriental product, differ funda-
mentally from it. The text is accompanied
by a large number of illustrations, and
among these special praise must be
accorded to the thirty-two colour plates,
in which some very fine specimens are
shown, including Chinese examples of the
Sung and Ming periods, when porcelain
attained the highest pitch of perfection. 0
Among the books illustrated by the late
Mr. Claud Lovat Fraser in the style
reminiscent of the old u Chap books "
which he revived with so much success,
was a translation of a Fairy-tale by Henri
Nodier, recently published by Mr. Daniel
O'Connor, of Great Russell Street, under
the title The Luck of the Bean Rows. Mr.
Fraser's drawings, printed in bright tints
—magenta, green, yellow and blue—are
very attractive from a decorative point of
view and fit in admirably with the text.
He also made drawings for a reprint of
an old book on Pirates which Mr. Jonathan
Cape has published. In this case the
drawings are all in black, but some of them
are printed on coloured paper of his
favourite tints. 0000