DOI Heft:
No. 377 (August 1924)
DOI Artikel:Grimsditch, Herbert B.: Mr. John Austen and the art of the book
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21400#0086
MR. JOHN AUSTEN AND THE ART OF THE BOOK
"ROSEBUD." BY THE REV.
WILLIAM BROOME. DECOR-
ATION FOR "ROGUES IN POR-
CELAIN." BY JOHN AUSTEN
(Chapman and Hall)
mentioned houses catered rather for the
rich buyer, and volumes like " Perfection "
are doubly welcome because they are
issued at a modest price, a 0 o
It will be seen from our examples that
Mr. Austen favours the method of flat
masses without chiaroscuro, a method
which prepares us at once to receive a
decoration pure and simple, without any
attempt at realism. His line is always
graceful, his drawing vivacious and spirited,
very skilful in its arrangement of blacks
and whites, and his composition rightly
balanced. These qualities appear at their
best in the drawing Scheherezade, repro-
duced overleaf, wherein an astonishing
fertility in design is combined with a power
of imaginative penetration of no common
order,—which gives all this artist's work a
much higher claim for consideration than
it would have if it relied solely on tech-
nique for its appeal, impeccable though
that technique be. His colour, too, done
expressly for reproduction by line work,
is exquisitely adapted to the desired end.
66
" Harlequin," that ancient theme, in his
hands takes on an additional charm, and
his latest volume (to appear early next
month) will display a new side of the eigh-
teenth centuryto those who are over-fond of
broad generalisations about " prose and
reason." " Rogues in Porcelain " is an
anthologyof late seventeenth and eighteenth
century love-lyrics, entirely compiledand de-
corated by him in colours. Tom D'Urfey,
Prior and some of the other poets are well
enough known, but it will come as a surprise
to many to find among the anonymous and
little-known writers here included not a
little of that delicacy of touch we com-
monly associate rather with Herrick, Love-
lace and Suckling than with their successors.
And it is patent that Mr. Austen's work
here has been a labour of love. Without
literary, as well as pictorial taste, such a
selection and such decorations as he has
made would have been impossible. What
an " eminent trifle " is his Beau, and how
inimitably has he portrayed the Cynthias,
Chloes and Belindas for whom the lyrists
languished and pined! In an age which
has little time for these pleasant fancies,
such a combination of excellences in two
arts is indeed a boon. a 0 a
DECORATION FOR "ROGUES IN
PORCELAIN." BY JOHN AUSTEN
(Chapman and Hall)
"ROSEBUD." BY THE REV.
WILLIAM BROOME. DECOR-
ATION FOR "ROGUES IN POR-
CELAIN." BY JOHN AUSTEN
(Chapman and Hall)
mentioned houses catered rather for the
rich buyer, and volumes like " Perfection "
are doubly welcome because they are
issued at a modest price, a 0 o
It will be seen from our examples that
Mr. Austen favours the method of flat
masses without chiaroscuro, a method
which prepares us at once to receive a
decoration pure and simple, without any
attempt at realism. His line is always
graceful, his drawing vivacious and spirited,
very skilful in its arrangement of blacks
and whites, and his composition rightly
balanced. These qualities appear at their
best in the drawing Scheherezade, repro-
duced overleaf, wherein an astonishing
fertility in design is combined with a power
of imaginative penetration of no common
order,—which gives all this artist's work a
much higher claim for consideration than
it would have if it relied solely on tech-
nique for its appeal, impeccable though
that technique be. His colour, too, done
expressly for reproduction by line work,
is exquisitely adapted to the desired end.
66
" Harlequin," that ancient theme, in his
hands takes on an additional charm, and
his latest volume (to appear early next
month) will display a new side of the eigh-
teenth centuryto those who are over-fond of
broad generalisations about " prose and
reason." " Rogues in Porcelain " is an
anthologyof late seventeenth and eighteenth
century love-lyrics, entirely compiledand de-
corated by him in colours. Tom D'Urfey,
Prior and some of the other poets are well
enough known, but it will come as a surprise
to many to find among the anonymous and
little-known writers here included not a
little of that delicacy of touch we com-
monly associate rather with Herrick, Love-
lace and Suckling than with their successors.
And it is patent that Mr. Austen's work
here has been a labour of love. Without
literary, as well as pictorial taste, such a
selection and such decorations as he has
made would have been impossible. What
an " eminent trifle " is his Beau, and how
inimitably has he portrayed the Cynthias,
Chloes and Belindas for whom the lyrists
languished and pined! In an age which
has little time for these pleasant fancies,
such a combination of excellences in two
arts is indeed a boon. a 0 a
DECORATION FOR "ROGUES IN
PORCELAIN." BY JOHN AUSTEN
(Chapman and Hall)