Water-Colour Painting in England. By Gilbert R. Redgrave. (Sampson Low,
Marston, and Co.)—This is a volume in the series of "Illustrated Handbooks of Art," and, taking up the history of water-colour painting at the earliest times, which, however, does not practically take us very far back, carries on the subject down to the report of the committee which was appointed to consider the durability of the pigments employed. The illustrations are thirty-three in number, and give specimens of the manner of as many leading artists in this line, from Thomas Hearne (1744- 1817) down to W. J. Muller (1812-1847). We have arranged them in the order of birth. It is curious to see how much longer-lived the artists in the second half of the period (which takes in about a century and a half) have been than the artists in the first. The average is seventy-three years against fifty-five. Painting in water-colours is now, it would seem, the most healthy of occupa- tions. But then a certain eminence, and with eminence comfort, must be attained.
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