DOI Heft:
No. 373 (April 1924)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0256
REVIEWS
We have received from the Chenil
Galleries, Chelsea, a reproduction, measur-
ing 12m. by ioin., of Mr. Augustus John’s
portrait of Mr. Thomas Hardy, the
original of which has been presented by
Mr. T. H. Riches to the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge. These reproduc-
tions (which are very well done) are
published in a limited edition, and are
obtainable at 18s. 6d. each. The many
disciples and admirers of our greatest
living novelist will be very glad to have
the opportunity of acquiring a portrait
so full of insight. 0000
Southern Baroque Art, by Sacheverell
Sitwell, i 6 illustrations (Grant Richards)
205. net.—So far as it relates to the arts,
this book is chiefly interesting as a study
of the patronage that called forth the
profusion of mostly tasteless elegancies
known as Baroque, rather than for any
critical estimate of the artists who pro-
duced it. In itself it is a literary product
that is likely to outlast a great many of
its contemporaries, with variations on the
theme of Baroque ranging melodiously
from the pleasant absurdities of the
“ Caserta Serenade ” and imaginary suc-
cesses of El Greco, to the sickening
realities of a Mexican bull-fight. 0 0
Jahrbuch der jungen Kunst, 1922;
Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Georg
Biermann. (Leipzig: Klinkhardt and
Biermann.)—According to Longinus, a
work of art is great when it pleases all men
at all times and does not pall with the
passage of time. It is inconceivable to
me how most of the works reproduced in
this volume could please any man at any
time; and, while admitting that there
may be “ more things in heaven and earth
than are dreamt of in my philosophy,"
I have no hesitation in affirming that most
of this modern “ art ” would undoubtedly
fail to satisfy the requirements of any
aesthetic soever which was founded on a
sane and rational basis. There are two
Corots, poorly reproduced, and some
things by Cezanne and Van Gogh have a
measure of power, but most of the re-
mainder is pour rire. Gustave de Smet
has two views of Amsterdam, but it is
Amsterdam as a reveller might see it and
238
as a very young child might draw it, and
it is from the captions only that we know
that Picasso’s subjects are a Spanish
landscape and a violin player; while
Fernand Leger's impression of a game of
cards is—well, not my impression, nor, I
suspect, that of the artist himself. This
is the crux of the matter : in the craze
for newness at all costs these men have
forsaken the great Mother-Artist, Nature,
and have eschewed that honesty of out-
look and expression which is indispensable
to every good artist and every man who
believes that “ beauty is truth." 0
H. B. G.
The Eighteenth Century Architecture of
Bristol. By C. F. W. Dening, F.R.I.B.A.,
R.W.A. Ninety Illustrations. (J. W. Arrow-
smith.) 525. 6d. net. A sprightly preface
by Sir Lawrence Weaver and a melodious
introduction by Mr. J. E. Barton raise the
curtain for the author's display of the many
beautiful and interesting features of eigh-
teenth-century architecture and decoration
remaining in a city whose commercial
prosperity in the nineteenth has conduced
to overshadow them. Nearly eighty ex-
cellent photographic plates, mounted, and
numerous drawings of details, illustrate
Mr. Dening’s interesting historical account
of the buildings, and the only fault to be
found with so handsome a volume is its
[quite unnecessary] bulk—it weighs no less
than five pounds and a quarter. 0 0
Jane Eyre. By Charlotte Bronte ; il-
lustrated with original lithographs by
Ethel Gabain. Edition limited to 495
copies. (Paris : Leon Pichon.) The produc-
tion of this volume was undertaken on the
initiative of a group of distinguished
French collectors, who, as the prospectus
sets forth, “ wished to prolong into the
working days of peace the friendship and
alliance born in an hour of tragedy ”—the
friendship between Britain and France.
Set up and printed in Garamond type,
on handmade paper, by the Imprimerie
Nationale de France, and containing litho-
graphs printed by Vincent Brooks, Day
and Son, under the personal supervision of
Ethel Gabain (Mrs. John Copley), the
edition reflects the utmost credit on all
concerned in its making. It is a joy to the
eye and hand : M. Pichon has done a
great service to British book-lovers. There
We have received from the Chenil
Galleries, Chelsea, a reproduction, measur-
ing 12m. by ioin., of Mr. Augustus John’s
portrait of Mr. Thomas Hardy, the
original of which has been presented by
Mr. T. H. Riches to the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge. These reproduc-
tions (which are very well done) are
published in a limited edition, and are
obtainable at 18s. 6d. each. The many
disciples and admirers of our greatest
living novelist will be very glad to have
the opportunity of acquiring a portrait
so full of insight. 0000
Southern Baroque Art, by Sacheverell
Sitwell, i 6 illustrations (Grant Richards)
205. net.—So far as it relates to the arts,
this book is chiefly interesting as a study
of the patronage that called forth the
profusion of mostly tasteless elegancies
known as Baroque, rather than for any
critical estimate of the artists who pro-
duced it. In itself it is a literary product
that is likely to outlast a great many of
its contemporaries, with variations on the
theme of Baroque ranging melodiously
from the pleasant absurdities of the
“ Caserta Serenade ” and imaginary suc-
cesses of El Greco, to the sickening
realities of a Mexican bull-fight. 0 0
Jahrbuch der jungen Kunst, 1922;
Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Georg
Biermann. (Leipzig: Klinkhardt and
Biermann.)—According to Longinus, a
work of art is great when it pleases all men
at all times and does not pall with the
passage of time. It is inconceivable to
me how most of the works reproduced in
this volume could please any man at any
time; and, while admitting that there
may be “ more things in heaven and earth
than are dreamt of in my philosophy,"
I have no hesitation in affirming that most
of this modern “ art ” would undoubtedly
fail to satisfy the requirements of any
aesthetic soever which was founded on a
sane and rational basis. There are two
Corots, poorly reproduced, and some
things by Cezanne and Van Gogh have a
measure of power, but most of the re-
mainder is pour rire. Gustave de Smet
has two views of Amsterdam, but it is
Amsterdam as a reveller might see it and
238
as a very young child might draw it, and
it is from the captions only that we know
that Picasso’s subjects are a Spanish
landscape and a violin player; while
Fernand Leger's impression of a game of
cards is—well, not my impression, nor, I
suspect, that of the artist himself. This
is the crux of the matter : in the craze
for newness at all costs these men have
forsaken the great Mother-Artist, Nature,
and have eschewed that honesty of out-
look and expression which is indispensable
to every good artist and every man who
believes that “ beauty is truth." 0
H. B. G.
The Eighteenth Century Architecture of
Bristol. By C. F. W. Dening, F.R.I.B.A.,
R.W.A. Ninety Illustrations. (J. W. Arrow-
smith.) 525. 6d. net. A sprightly preface
by Sir Lawrence Weaver and a melodious
introduction by Mr. J. E. Barton raise the
curtain for the author's display of the many
beautiful and interesting features of eigh-
teenth-century architecture and decoration
remaining in a city whose commercial
prosperity in the nineteenth has conduced
to overshadow them. Nearly eighty ex-
cellent photographic plates, mounted, and
numerous drawings of details, illustrate
Mr. Dening’s interesting historical account
of the buildings, and the only fault to be
found with so handsome a volume is its
[quite unnecessary] bulk—it weighs no less
than five pounds and a quarter. 0 0
Jane Eyre. By Charlotte Bronte ; il-
lustrated with original lithographs by
Ethel Gabain. Edition limited to 495
copies. (Paris : Leon Pichon.) The produc-
tion of this volume was undertaken on the
initiative of a group of distinguished
French collectors, who, as the prospectus
sets forth, “ wished to prolong into the
working days of peace the friendship and
alliance born in an hour of tragedy ”—the
friendship between Britain and France.
Set up and printed in Garamond type,
on handmade paper, by the Imprimerie
Nationale de France, and containing litho-
graphs printed by Vincent Brooks, Day
and Son, under the personal supervision of
Ethel Gabain (Mrs. John Copley), the
edition reflects the utmost credit on all
concerned in its making. It is a joy to the
eye and hand : M. Pichon has done a
great service to British book-lovers. There