ART AT HOME.*

LADY BARKER'S book is rather lively than instructive. She has a happy facility of being able to produce a chatty, readable book out of very slender materials ; but she certainly presumes some- times too far on this facility, and in no case more so than in writing the present little book, the Bed-room and Boudoir. Artistic furnishing is a subject to which; in these days of in- discriminate diffusion of Art tastes, people's attention is so much more directed now than formerly, that more than a superficial acquaintance with it is necessary in an art handbook, for it to be of real, practical use in guiding and forming taste. There is so much that is unartistic and uncomfortable in the arrangements and furnishing of the average bed-room, that we hailed with joy this volume of the " Art-at-Home " series ; but Lady Barker rattles on in so discursive a manner, giving description after description

of the various bed-rooms she has in her mind's eye, and takes it so much for granted that her readers must have unlimited means to carry out her rather vague and expensive suggestions, that one lays the book down without finding one has gained much to guide and help. It is no easy matter even for "a person of taste," as the phrase is, to know beforehand how different combinations will look, and direct entirely the furnishing and decorating, if be bas not also had some experience. Many an amateur can criticise justly enough when a thing is completed, and would be able

probably to correct his blunders, if he could only afford to alter whatever was not successful ; but as this can be seldom done,

and every one has not an artist friend at his elbow to help and advise, the result is, that people generally give themselves over into the hands of an art-upholsterer. They must pay very highly for ready-made taste, and seldom attain an entirely satisfactory result, for they must be content with other people's ideas, and their rooms have no "individuality," which, Lady Barker justly observes, every room should possess ; and by individuality she understands "some distinctive feature, which would afford a clue to the designer's and owner's special tastes and fancies." Some broad general instruction in colour, and form, and in the combination of comfort with artistic decoration, would be of inestimable value, but in this Lady Barker's book is entirely deficient. She gives certainly one rule that is simple

enough, whenever she is at a loss, and that is, in a few words, "Follow Queen Anne's style." "A bed-room of that

date, if we except the bed itself, and the probable absence of all bathing convenffinces, presented a nearly perfect combination of fresh air, spotless cleanliness, and stately and harmonious beauty, to the eyes of an artist or the nose of a sanitary inspector." But

are connoisseurs quite agreed even as to what is precisely the best period of Queen Anne's style ? Besides, we think the

vulgarity innate in the ordinary English mind shows itself not only in what is commonly called bad taste, but also as much in this servile imitation of what, in its own place, is beautiful and characteristic, without a thought as to its fitness, and merely because it is now the fashion.

No handbook can hope to accomplish such a task as the education of the taste of the mass of the British public,—that can only be done gradually, as purer, truer conceptions of art filter down through it. Much has happily been already accomplished in the last fifteen or twenty years in the way of art education, but much remains still to be done, for the average English mind is de-

* The Bed-room and Boudoir. By Lady Barker. London: Macmillan and- Co.

plorably wanting in originality and self-reliance in matters of taste, and only too prone to follow any fashion in art, so soon as it is considered "the thing." Lady Barker's book will, we fear, hardly help forward much this work of educating taste. She divides the subject into chapters, headed, "The Ideal Bed-room," Carpets and Draperies," "Beds and Bedding," "Wardrobes and Cupboards," "Fire and Water," "The Toilet," "Decora- tion," "The Sick-Room," "The Spare Room." It will be sufficient to take the first chapter, as a specimen of the whole, to show the mixture of good-sense with nonsense and very superficial knowledge of art. After much sensible advice on the subject of ventilation, and the supreme necessity of freshness and cleanliness in all the arrangements of a bed-room, she lays especial stress on the walla, which she rightly believes to be most important, from a sanitary as well as from a decorative point of view. She suggests distemper and paint, but prefers papering, as being warmer-looking, in our capricious climate ; but "a bed-room paper should never have a distinct, spotted pattern on it, lest, if you are ill, it should incite you to count the designs, or should make faces at you." Then she launches into descriptions of the prettiest bed-room walls she ever saw,—chintz stretched tightly in panels, chintz with a creamy background ; tendrils of ivy of half-a-dozen shades of green and brown artfully blended, streaming down in graceful garlands and sprays towards a dado, about four feet from the ground ; or fluted white muslin, over pink or blue silk, or apple-green batiste. These are charming walls, no doubt, but quite unattain- able by people of moderate means, who have not a private house-carpenter, for as Lady Barker especially tells us, such panels "must be arranged so as to allow of being easily taken down and cleaned." One quite agrees with her dislike of Japanese-paper curtains, and accedes at once to the general proposition that "rules are made for people who cannot design for themselves, and original designs may be above rules, though they should never be above taste ;" but what can one say to this particular application of this rule,—is it not enough to make one lay down the book with a shudder 2—

" The memory of other walls rises up before me; even of one with plain white satiny paper, bordered by shaded pink ribbon, not merely the stiff paper-hanger's design, but cut out and fixed in its place by a pair of clever hands. This border, of course, looked different to any- thing else of the kind I had over seen ; but according to strict rules of modern taste, it was not correct.' Yet a great deal depends on the way a thing is done. I see the Messrs. Garrett frowning, as I go on to say that here and there a deep shadow was painted under it, and its bows and ends drooped down at the corners of the room, whilst over the fireplace they made the bright circling border for a chalk drawing of a rosy child's head. But it was a pretty room, notwithstanding its original faulty design, and I describe it snore as an illustration of the supremacy of a real genius for decoration over any hard-and-fast rule, than as an example to be copied. Rules are made for people who can- not design for themselves, and original designs may ho above rules, though they should never be above taste."

Though we find fault with the Bed-room and Boudoir for its want of thoroughness and grasp of the artistic side of the subject, there are many parts and details from which useful hints may be gleaned. Lady Barker evidently thoroughly understands venti- lation, which is often so woefully neglected even in England,

where we consider ourselves so far in advance in these respects of Continental nations. Then the advice about children's beds is well worth attending to :—

" The fondest and fussiest parents do not always understand that on the most careful attention to some such simple rules depend the straightness of the children's spines, the strength of their young elastic limbs, their freedom from coughs and colds, and in fact, their general health. Often the daylight hours are weighted by a heavy mass of rules and regulations, but few consider that half of a young, child's life should be spent in its bed. So that unless the atmosphere of the room they sleep in, the quality of the bed they lie on, and the texture of the clothes which cover them are taken into consideration, it is only half their existence which is being cared for."

One may take many useful hints in smaller matters ; Lady Barker gives one some nice ideas for quilts and toilet-covers ; and one 'wishes the very sensible advice about old drawing-room carpets were not so often necessary. One may also note the suggestions as to the great additional comfort and beauty given to a room by a judicious arrangement of screens.

The following quotation proves Lady Barker herself to be a capable woman, and shows that she has a great knack of making the best of her surroundings :—

"People cannot always create, as it were, the place in which they are obliged to live. One may find oneself placed in a habitation perfectly contrary to every principle of correct taste, as well as opposed to one's individual preferences. But that is such an opportunity ! out of un- promising materials and surroundings you have to make a room,

whether bed-room or boudoir, which will take the impression of your own I state."

We thoroughly agree with her, but we hardly think she gives us sufficient help as to the means by which the change may be effected :— "As long as a woman possesses a pair of hands and her work-basket, a little hammer, and a few tin-tacks, it is hard if she need live in a room which is actually ugly. [The italics are ours, naturally.] I don't suppose any human being except a gipsy has over dwelt in so many widely-apart lands as I have. Some of these homes have been in the infancy of civilisation, and yet I have never found it necessary to endure for snore than the first few days of my sojourn anything in the least ugly or uncomfortable."

The chapter on the "Spare Room" does not say much for Lady Barker's hospitality, though it strikes one that she has taken up her views on the subject more as an excuse for a little smart writing, than because they express her real opinion. It begins, "Perhaps the kindliest and wisest advice with re-

gard to a spare room would be the same as Punch's famous counsel to young people about to marry,—a short and emphatic

Don't." (This seems neither hospitable, nor quite grammatical.) Then she goes on to complain that "the fact of having a spare room in London opens one's eyes to the number of affectionate relations one possesses who are always entreating to be 'put up' for a couple of nights ; that, speaking as a London hostess, she has found that visitors are much more of a tax in London than in the country ; that to a professional man, a spare room may be regarded as an income-tax of several shillings in the pound." It is even

worse than that ; "it means being forced to take in a succession of lodgers who don't pay, who are generally amazingly inconsiderate and exigeante" (may we suggest exigeants, as the better termination, for certainly Lady Barker's non-paying lodgers are in the plural, and they probably consist of masculine as well as feminine, or are they exclusively of the latter sex ?)— " And who expect to be amused and advised, chaperoned and married, and even nursed and buried. It is inconceivable upon what slender grounds or for what far-fetched reasons your distant acquaint- ance, or your—compared to yourself—rich relation, will unhesitatingly demand your hospitality. And oh, my unknown friends, how often are we tempted to say Yes 'to the well-to-do relation who asks the question of us, and to find an excuse to shut out the poor one who really needs it !"

The chapter on the "Sick-room "is quite the best in the whole book. Lady Barker warms with her subject, and it is evidently one she has at heart ; there is no smart writing, but much good common-sense, kindly feeling and perception of what is needed. Though it is not exactly what one would expect to find in a volume on Art, we can take no exception to it on that score, and Lady Barker combines so skilfully valuable advice on the serious

work of nursing, with graceful hints as to what she has observed the weary eye of the sufferer take pleasure in, both in form and colour, that very many must be grateful to her for giving her own experience on these matters. We cannot conclude without a word or two about the numerous illustrations ; many of them are very inferior—and this one does not expect in a work on art—

while some of them, those especially in which a figure is intro- duced, are quite ludicrously bad. Lady Barker herself cannot be satisfied with them, and they are most detrimental to the book, as one's eye is naturally first caught by them, in turning over the leaves. A few carefully chosen and carefully drawn subjects would have been far better, in every way.