CURRENT LITERATURE.
ART BOOKS.
How to Study Pictures. By C. H. Caffin. (Hodder and Stoughton. 10s. 13d.)—This excellent book, the author of which is an American, should prove a real help to those who wish to look at pictures intelligently. By "intelligently we do not mean the dreary classification of pictures into schools and categories as if they were fossils or insects in a museum. Mr. Caffin helps people to look at pictures with their eyes, a not too common thing with writers on art, who mostly see pictures with their minds, which is quite a different matter. The method of instruction pursued in this book is to take two contemporary pictures of contrasting styles, place reproductions of them facing each other, and then analyse their differences. This plan is admirably carried out in the comparison of Holbein's "Georg Gyze " and Titian's "Man with the Glove." Holbein put in all the details he could without spoiling the general effect; Titian left out everything that was not of the essence of the motion he wished to create. The German shows his sitter's exterior and occupations, the Italian the mental and emotional mood of his subject.
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