BOOKS
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS
MR. E. V. LUCAS has composed an excellent book on John Constable the Painter (Halton and Truscott Smith). There are sixty-four plates to illustrate it, and Mr. Lucas has written a biography. Constable as a man was forcible and delightful ; indeed, to keep his self-respect and insist on painting as he chose was a good achievement in itself—everyone was so anxious to tell him where he was wrong. Sir Francis Chantrey, for example, once told Constable that the fore- ground of one of his paintings was too cold, " and taking his palette from him, he passed a strong glazing of asphaltum all over that part of the picture." As Mr. Lucas quotes letters and anecdotes by the score, we are directly in Con- stable's company. He 'could be caustic in criticism : we know well the type of painter of whom Constable said, " When he paints a head he takes out all the bones and all the brains." There is an illuminating anecdote of Blake and Constable. When Blake was shown a drawing of fir trees in one of Constable's notebooks he cried out, " Why, this is not drawing, this is inspiration! " " I never knew that before," said Constable, when told about it ; " I meant it for drawing."
The Oxford University Press have given Us an edition of Schubert's Songs Translated, the versions by A. IL Fox Strangcways and Steuart Wilson, and the air of each song printed with the words. Messrs. Sampson Low publish an interesting series of London Borough histories, of which Battersea, by Ethel Woolner, and Chelsea, by G. B. Stuart, have been received this week.
It is a pity that the Complete Limerick Book (Jarrolds), by Mr. Langford Reed, should leave out so many of the best limericks and include so many hobbling and awkward ones. But there .are excellent poems, too ; the best, perhaps, is the one chosen for the cover :—
" There was a faith-healer of Deal Who said, ' Although pain isn't real If I sit on a pin And it punctures my skin I dislike what I fancy I feel.' " At any rate the collection will be useful to a future antholo- gist, and will amuse readers here and there ; especially since it is illustrated by Mr. H. M. Bateman.
TIM LITERARY EDITOR.
Previous page
