21 SEPTEMBER 1934, Page 30

THE NATIONAL AND TATE GALLERIES By R. N. D. Wilson

This volume (Nelson, 12s. 6d.) consists of about a hundred colour-plates of pictures in the National and Tate Galleries (faced in each instance with a page of criticism by Mr. Wilson) and an introduction which discusses in simple terms the different schools represented. The choice of pictures is sound but not particularly imaginative, and some have no doubt been included with the purpose of deferring to popular taste : a perfectly proper aim, since the book is clearly not for the specialist. Mr. Wilson's criticisms will be for many people a useful aid to appreciation, and in the colour-plates there is no more than the customary distortion.