Shorter Notices
The Drawings of Francesco Guardi. By J. Byam Shaw. (Faber. 27s. 6d.) THIS first volume devoted to the drawings of Guardi to be published in England is most admirably selected. Among its eighty plates are historical subjects, Venetian scenes, sketches of figures and boats, and architectural and romantic Capricci, drawn from various collections largely outside Italy ; those in the Museo Correr at Venice being hardly represented, since they have recently been the subject of a monograph to themselves. Moreover that collection contains few of the Venetian views, which were snapped up by 18th-century tourists, particularly by the English, and taken out of the country. It is those architectural studies, often the slightest of sketches, that are such a delight today, recalling as they do not only the detail but the atmosphere of a past Venice. Mr. Byam Shaw's intro- duction is a model of its kind. It .sets out all the problems—of the relation of sketch to painting, of Guardi's probable apprentice- ship to Canaletto, of his use of the camera obscura, of the degree of family co-opera- tion in his studio and of the doubtful authenticity of certain drawings—to each of which Mr. Byam Shaw is able to suggest a reasonable solution. He strikes an admir- able compromise between the popular and the scholarly, making the plainest state- ments of his belief on certain points in the text, and substantiating them in his foot- notes. The production of the book is most pleasing, and admirably considered _down to the smallest typographical detail.
J. M. COHEN.
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