Page 49 - The Studio First Edition - April 1893

Recent Publications

Hardy is good-natured in his notice of the " out- years ago. To a " costume " painter they should
rage upon common sense committed by the mys- be inspiring as the atmosphere they exhale is the
tical young man of to-day who designs and has past as the present selects it ; like Mr. Abbey's
designed for him, an ' emblematic ' book-plate, or drawings or Caldecott's designs they escape
a ' symbolic ' book-plate, or a ' theoretic ' book- archaeology, but re-infuse new life into the attempt
plate, in which the emblem, or the symbol, or the to revivify an earlier period, in a way that conscious
theory, is far too mystical for any ordinary com- in its art, is by no means laboured.
prehension " ; for he owns that the lengthy explana- In this number we are unable to review at the
tion it needs is " always given very readily by either length it deserves, Arts and Handicraft, by the
owner or designer if asked for ; " and besides in- late John P. Sedding (Kegan Paul & Co.), but a
stances a few modern ones that form " a refresh- book so full of thought should not escape the
ing oasis in the desert of wild eccentricity." In attention of all interested in the arts. Just because
brief it is a well-writteri, well-printed, and well- it is personal in its theories and likely to provoke
bound book, with thirty typical examples repro- no little controversy it is the more worth reading.
duced from the originals. The Catalogue of the Twenty-first Exhibition of
the Norwich Art Circle deserves more than a
passing glance. A quarto pamphlet on rough hand-
made paper with ten original lithographs, sold for a
shilling, is in itself a rather noteworthy production,
Mr. C. J. Watson's Dutch Maidens or Mr. Wilfrid
Ball's charming landscape being each worth many
times the price asked for the book.
We have received from Mr. Richard Keene, of
Derby, some specimens of Platinotype photographs,
which deserve far more detailed criticism than we
have room for in this number. The Salisbury
Cathedral, with two urchins wading in a stream in
the foreground, has the delicacy of one of Turner's
illustrations to Roger's " Italy," with exquisite per-
ception of the planes and atmospheric gradations
that the most accomplished engraver could never
hope to attain. Tissington Spires, Dovedale; On
the Terrace, Haddon Hall, and three views of por-
tions of Old Moreton Hall, are almost equally worthy
of unstinted praise. The Thames below Kew in its
middle and far distance is a triumph of artistic
skill. The list of a couple of dozen prize medals
awarded at exhibitions all over the world for these
Platinotypes, shows that the full recognition of their
excellence is already granted. Here is photography
From Whitechapel to Camelot. By C. R. Ashbee. at its best, and a superb best it is, yet, entirely
(The Guild of Handicraft.)—This tale has like appreciating its beauty, and even owning that only
others of its class a meaning below the surface, but a great master could surpass this work on its chosen
the moral does not obtrude, and set brightly in the ground, one realises more clearly that the most
atmosphere of wonderland it is distinctly a pleasant perfect work of the camera lacks the elusive charm,
work. The title-page we illustrate on a reduced the discriminative selection and the translation of
scale, is perhaps, the best of its designs ; the facts to art which must always leave the true artist
scarlet cover with its white pink, the badge of the room to beat its best record, but that these photo-
guild, is admirably decorative. graphs are more artistic, in every way, than the
Diogenes in London, and other Fantasies. By H. majority of etchings, or monochrome drawings, may
B. Marriott Watson (London : Methuen & Co.).— be readily admitted.
It is curious that while in pigments the deliberate
choice of an older convention is accepted almost Several features promised in our prospectus are
without protest, in literature it is often called unavoidably delayed or crowded out. The news of
affected and strained. Mr. Marriott 'Watson's Art Students' doings, an article upon the School of
delicious studies in words in this book are distinctly Art Wood-carving, and the first series of Papers for
works of art, ingenious in their idea and wrought Collectors, are among those that specially need to
with felicity as stories. Besides the charm of their be mentioned with regret for their postponement.
style, most dainty examples of art. With an idiom
of the eighteenth century they have caught the dis- Among the contents of our next issue will be an
tinction and courtesy of that period, and escaped, article " Exhibitions," by D. S. MacColl ; "Gesso
so it seems, on repeated readings, the stilted Work " (illustrated), by Walter Crane ; " Coloured
formality of thought and formal sequence of episode Bas-reliefs," by R. Anning Bell (illustrated) ; and
that marked no little of the literature of a hundred " The School of Art Wood-carving " (illustrated).
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