Landscape Painting in Water Colours. By J. MacWhirter, RA.. (Cassell
and Co. 5s.)—In this book is to be found a series of colour reproductions of sketches by the author, together with his notes on the subject, execution, and colours used. Some of the rapid notes of transient effects in Switzerland are distinctly inter- esting, and the memoranda valuable to the student. We have one fault to find, and it is this. What is the use of the Academy electing an eminent chemist, Professor Church, to lecture on colours so that an artist may avoid those which are fugitive, if one of the Academicians advises the use of such unpermanent paints as "lake," " vandyke brown," and "Indian yellow " ? If a buyer of water-colours were to take the trouble to make a wash of one of these colours on a piece of paper, and cut the paper in half, keeping one half in darkness while the other was exposed to light, and after a year compared the pieces, he would probably the next time he was going to buy a water-colour drawing inquire what colours its author was in the habit of using.
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