Arthur Boyd Houghton. By Laurence Housman. (Kogan Paul, Trench, and
Co.)—This volume partly consists of re- productions of drawings, and partly of impressions from the wood blocks of a nearly forgotten illustrator. Houghton worked in the golden age of book-illustration,—the age of Millais, Walker, and Pitmen; but, unlike them, his claim to be re- membered rests only on his black-and-white work. In the present volume Houghton is seen at his best in the illustrations to the "Arabian Nights." It is hard to imagine anything better than some of these. Nowhere is the artist happier than when he is drawing "turbaned Turks," old men in vast flowing garments, who are at once ferocious tyrants and outrageous humbugs. Such a figure is the African magician who poses as Aladdin's uncle. There is great breadth and boldness in the drawing, and the figures are all admirably characterised. The artist's range was great; he seemed equally at home in modern life, the Middle Ages, and the East. Mr. Housman has done good service in collecting together these examples of Houghton's work.
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