2 DECEMBER 1899, Page 37

French Painters of the Eightheenth Century. By Lady Dilke. (Bell

and Sons. 28s.)—The amount of minute and gossiping infor- mation in this book is enormous,—the greater part about painters and people who are not worth reading about. There was undoubtedly a touch of genius in Watteau—his drawings alone would have secured him a great reputation—but the bulk of the pictures treated of in the present work are best described by Carlyle's phrase as "enchanted wiggeries." The technical ideals of these painters were apparently polish, and mincing delicacy of execution ; while fancy without poetry and gallantry without passion were their moral aims. If Lady Dilke had condensed her materials into a more reasoned study of the art of the epoch she treats of, the book would be more readable than it is at present.