18 JUNE 1898, Page 22

The Master Painters of Britain. Edited by Gleason White. : Vol.

L (Jack, Edinburgh. 10a. 6d.)—The idea of a large, collection of English masterpieces with critical notes to be produced at a moderate price was a happy one. But it is to be hoped that the net will not be flung too wide. The list of painters included in the prospectus contains many names which by the wildest stretch of the imagination could not be called " masters." The frontispiece to the present volume is an excellent photo- gravure of Hopner's graceful "Mrs. Angelo Taylor as Miranda." She is walking on a stormy shore in satin shoes and with an arm of soap, but with beauty in every fold of her wind-tossed drapery and hair. The process reproduction of Turner's " Vine- raire " is remarkably good ; so is the plate of Reynolds's angel heads. The notes to the pictures are short and to the point, and by no means technical, but rather popular.