DOI Heft:
No. 371 (February 1924)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0137
REVIEWS
course, the Royal Academy,which seems to
have trodden upon corns from its very
birth), the managing, infinitely forgiving
and generally blamed wife, the rivalry (Says
Reynolds to Wilson “ Gainsborough is the
best landscapist.” Retorts Wilson with
verve “Aye, and the best portrait painter ”)
and the other features of a comfortably
successful career. Great heights and deeps
of experience are not present. The life does
not, as Ruskin said the achievement did not,
“ go beyond the park palings.” Truly a
wonderful age and a wonderful man—and
yet, some intensity missing. Did the “ age
of reason ” preclude some more subtle
thing i 00000
Japanese Colour Prints. By Laurence
Binyon and J. J. O’Brien Sexton.
(Ernest Benn, Ltd.) 94s. 6d. net. This
publication provides a wealth of useful
information both from the historical and
the technical points of view, and has
many illustrations in colour and black-and-
white. It caters more for the collector than
the amateur, but is none the less a valuable
addition to the all too exiguous literature
of the subject, and should be well received.
The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tourne-
broche. By Anatole France. Translated
by Alfred Allinson. Illustrated with
sixteen woodcuts by Marcia Lane Foster.
(John Lane, The Bodley Head, Ltd.)
105. 6d. net.—It is not surprising that
nowadays an increasing number of books
are illustrated by woodcuts, for there is a
certain quality in this medium which
makes it eminently suitable for the render-
ing of an isolated conception from an
author's pages in terms of line. But the
illustrator must be in sympathy with the
author—must be naive when he is naive,
and subtle when he is subtle. Miss Foster
achieves this, and her success is the more
creditable in that it is the great Anatole
who writes, and that the English version
of Mr. Allinson is a masterly one. 0 0
We have received from Messrs. Alpco
Pencils, Ltd., a box of " Venus ” pencils,
which quite reach the usual standard
maintained by this well-known pencil. To
say this is to give an ungrudging recom-
mendation. This firm have placed on the
market the “ Venus ” Everpointed Pencil,
which can be obtained at prices ranging
from 5s. to £7. 0000
Erewhon : or, Over the Range. By
Samuel Butler. With woodcuts by
Robert Gibbings. (Jonathan Cape.)
125. 6d. net. In addition to the more
expensive edition of Butler’s works which
is in progress, Mr. Cape here gives us, at
a lower price, a reprint of this famous
classic beautifully set up by the Chiswick
Press. It is an added pleasure to turn over,
in this form, the leaves of what is now
recognised as one of the foremost satires
in English. Apart from Butler’s gentle but
telling sarcasms on our politics, ethics and
religion, there are passages which must
make many an artist think deeply and,
perhaps, look very closely at his present
values in order to see whether they are in
need of revision. At the Art School of the
Erewhonian University, for instance, “ the
course of study was divided into two
branches—the practical and the com-
mercial—no student being permitted to
continue his studies in the actual practice
of the art he had taken up, unless he made
equal progress in its commercial history.”
Even when due allowance has been made
for the author’s irony, his pronouncements
here and in the “ Note-Books ” show that
though he recognised that pecuniary con-
siderations could never be the motive
force in the highest art, he believed that
art must be useful to mankind in the broad
sense, if it is to avoid sterility. Butler him-
self was a painter, as well as writer,
biologist, humanist and musical critic : and
his Mr. Heatherley’s Holiday may be seen
in the Tate Gallery. But, instead of throw-
ing himself on the mercies of the public
at the outset and then complaining that the
public would not keep him, he spent five
years in New Zealand, engaged in the
prosaic occupation of sheep-farming, re-
turning to England with a competence and
then writing and painting to his heart’s
content. Is it necessary to “ point a moral
and adorn a tale i ” 0 0 0 0
Miss Edith M. Fry asks us to express
her regret for her inadvertent omission of
Mr. Fred Leist’s name from the list of
Australian portrait painters in the article
on “ Australian Art at Burlington House,”
published in The Studio for December,
as she regards Mr. Leist as one of the
foremost of Australian painters in Europe.
—Ed. 00000
119
course, the Royal Academy,which seems to
have trodden upon corns from its very
birth), the managing, infinitely forgiving
and generally blamed wife, the rivalry (Says
Reynolds to Wilson “ Gainsborough is the
best landscapist.” Retorts Wilson with
verve “Aye, and the best portrait painter ”)
and the other features of a comfortably
successful career. Great heights and deeps
of experience are not present. The life does
not, as Ruskin said the achievement did not,
“ go beyond the park palings.” Truly a
wonderful age and a wonderful man—and
yet, some intensity missing. Did the “ age
of reason ” preclude some more subtle
thing i 00000
Japanese Colour Prints. By Laurence
Binyon and J. J. O’Brien Sexton.
(Ernest Benn, Ltd.) 94s. 6d. net. This
publication provides a wealth of useful
information both from the historical and
the technical points of view, and has
many illustrations in colour and black-and-
white. It caters more for the collector than
the amateur, but is none the less a valuable
addition to the all too exiguous literature
of the subject, and should be well received.
The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tourne-
broche. By Anatole France. Translated
by Alfred Allinson. Illustrated with
sixteen woodcuts by Marcia Lane Foster.
(John Lane, The Bodley Head, Ltd.)
105. 6d. net.—It is not surprising that
nowadays an increasing number of books
are illustrated by woodcuts, for there is a
certain quality in this medium which
makes it eminently suitable for the render-
ing of an isolated conception from an
author's pages in terms of line. But the
illustrator must be in sympathy with the
author—must be naive when he is naive,
and subtle when he is subtle. Miss Foster
achieves this, and her success is the more
creditable in that it is the great Anatole
who writes, and that the English version
of Mr. Allinson is a masterly one. 0 0
We have received from Messrs. Alpco
Pencils, Ltd., a box of " Venus ” pencils,
which quite reach the usual standard
maintained by this well-known pencil. To
say this is to give an ungrudging recom-
mendation. This firm have placed on the
market the “ Venus ” Everpointed Pencil,
which can be obtained at prices ranging
from 5s. to £7. 0000
Erewhon : or, Over the Range. By
Samuel Butler. With woodcuts by
Robert Gibbings. (Jonathan Cape.)
125. 6d. net. In addition to the more
expensive edition of Butler’s works which
is in progress, Mr. Cape here gives us, at
a lower price, a reprint of this famous
classic beautifully set up by the Chiswick
Press. It is an added pleasure to turn over,
in this form, the leaves of what is now
recognised as one of the foremost satires
in English. Apart from Butler’s gentle but
telling sarcasms on our politics, ethics and
religion, there are passages which must
make many an artist think deeply and,
perhaps, look very closely at his present
values in order to see whether they are in
need of revision. At the Art School of the
Erewhonian University, for instance, “ the
course of study was divided into two
branches—the practical and the com-
mercial—no student being permitted to
continue his studies in the actual practice
of the art he had taken up, unless he made
equal progress in its commercial history.”
Even when due allowance has been made
for the author’s irony, his pronouncements
here and in the “ Note-Books ” show that
though he recognised that pecuniary con-
siderations could never be the motive
force in the highest art, he believed that
art must be useful to mankind in the broad
sense, if it is to avoid sterility. Butler him-
self was a painter, as well as writer,
biologist, humanist and musical critic : and
his Mr. Heatherley’s Holiday may be seen
in the Tate Gallery. But, instead of throw-
ing himself on the mercies of the public
at the outset and then complaining that the
public would not keep him, he spent five
years in New Zealand, engaged in the
prosaic occupation of sheep-farming, re-
turning to England with a competence and
then writing and painting to his heart’s
content. Is it necessary to “ point a moral
and adorn a tale i ” 0 0 0 0
Miss Edith M. Fry asks us to express
her regret for her inadvertent omission of
Mr. Fred Leist’s name from the list of
Australian portrait painters in the article
on “ Australian Art at Burlington House,”
published in The Studio for December,
as she regards Mr. Leist as one of the
foremost of Australian painters in Europe.
—Ed. 00000
119