Art and Craft
An Outline History of Painting. By S. C. Kaines Smith. (The Medici Society. 68.) Degas. An Intimate Portrait by Ambroise Vollard. Translated by R. T. Weaver. (Allen and Unwin. 12s. 6d.)
Old English Porcelain. A Handbook for Collectors. By W. B. Honey. Foreword by Bernard Rackham. (G. Bell. 21s.)
SURELY the new generation should at least have truer eyes and a better appreciation of the visible arts than their pre- decessors, since even the Board of Education not only blesses the infantile instinct to draw, but blandly encourages the infantile desire to draw as a child pleases. Mr. Littlejohns's lively and extremely intelligent book on Art in Schools draws a humorous parallel between past methods and present. His book will be found most stimulating by all teachers of drawing, for it not only abounds in valuable suggestions, but grounds itself on real psychological knowledge. He gives due credit to Professor Cizek of Vienna for marvellous results. The illustrations of his own book, taken from the Work of London elementary school children, are delightful. The memory drawings are sometimes astonishing ; and the Possibilities- of -the lino-cut are remarkably emphasized.
Anybody who is anxious to form a clear notion of the various schools of painting, and who can spare little time for research, should obtain Mr. Kaines Smith's Outline History of Painting. It is a miracle of condensation at a very low price. He not only gives the necessary information concerning the painters, but supplies a surprisingly unhurried account of the conditions of their times. Perhaps Mr. Raines Smith is at his best on the Flemish and Dutch schools. It is a pity that the Medici Society has provided such an unsatisfactory version of the Mona Lisa as a frontispiece.
The History of Wood-Engraving, by Mr. Douglas Percy Bliss, is a book so delectable in its matter and so radiant in its spirit that one would fain linger over it with many detailed praises. Mr. Bliss is gay and intolerant, as a master of his dramatic decisive art should be. There can be nothing muzzy about a knife and a graver. His chapter on Technique, labelled "Which must be read," it would be difficult to refrain from reading. As he chronicles historic wood en- gravings and the great old books that hold most of them, you catch glimpses of mighty shades. Aldus Manutius lying in state with his noble volumes about him; the Emperor Maximilian, fumbling out a passage in his Triumph for Albrecht Diirees benefit, are only two of many. Mr. Bliss is quite as brilliant and impartial with his contemporaries. His book is superbly illustrated, and some of the modem engravings have certainly not lost the incisive attack of the old. Every page of this history exacts attention.
Mr. Bliss is also found speaking with enthusiasm of the wood-engraver's tools in the second number of The Woodcut. Other articles of high quality accompany his, particularly one on the startling work of Franz Masereel. Fifteen con- temporary woodcuts, all amazingly expressive, sonic of penetrating beauty, are reassuring as to the vitality of modern art.
Vitality is the last word that occurs in connexion with Michael Dahl, though the society portraits by him and his friends retain some importance as social documents. Wilhelm Risser has arranged a vast and industrious though incoherent book round this Swedish group of painters that flourished in the period after the death of Lely. Dahl lived elegantly
in Leicester Fields, and, though overshadowed by Kneller, had Prince George and Queen Anne among his sitters. Mr. Nisser claims for him that he maintained the "late Baroque conception of man," till Hogarth gave it a rude push. There is considerable patient study of the aesthetic ideals that went to make this conception ; but the reader has to be patient also. Dahl painted Lady Fenwick, the Duchess of Marl- borough with a deal of ash-fair hair, -Queen Anne, incredibly Slim, and other ladies with-heavy-lidded eyes, sulky mouths, and mther piilly faces, aswim in very magniloquent draperies. He had a special line in angry Admirals, fortified by thick
obviously explaining some action in the background under heavy skies. He also did Addison, Prior, Gay. But he could not draw.
We spring to one of the greatest draughtsmen in the history of Art. M. Vollard's Degas reveals that strange genius in a series of sharp glimpses and capricious speeches that convey an acute impression of his wilful generosities, his prejudices, his swift appreciations, his sensitive shyness that sometimes masked itself in cruelty, his disdain for honours, his pastion for perfection. These unconventional notes on his humanity only emphasize how entirely he lived in his art. Reproductions of Degas' vibrating pictures enrich this volatile little book.
Dald's Sweden recurs in Mr. Wettergren's account of her Modern Decorative Arts. It is a result of the Paris Exhibition of 1925. We get a very pleasing impression of kindly, innocent crafts, in which the peasant quality has subdued k'rench and German influences, bringing reindeer and formalized trees into the altar-cloths, and scattering small flowers over the well-woven tissues. The textile, arts, the scrupulous bookmaking, and the vivid Grail and Orrafors glass have a singular charm and purity.
Mr. Honey's Old English Porcelain is an authoritative and important work. Since it claims to summarize all preceding scientific descriptions and to advance new sug- gestions on Chelsea, Bow, and Liverpool porcelain, with its tables and dates and elucidations of cross-influence problems, it is . indispensable to all collectors. Indeed, it , will not only help but make collectors. To dip in these pages and look at the graceful images of the illustrations is to fall under the spell of this fragile yet durable minor art, • so tenderly and intimately related to life. Lovely and ! versatile Chelsea, with its charming " toys " and exquisite wanton figurines, all Faench wit and English fragrance ; Bow, with its clear colours and soft flowers, eclectic Crown Derby in all its phases, Lowestoft's borrowed fame and thin rose-scattered cups, Worcester, measured and sweet and candid, rare Nantgarw and all the rest—Mr. Honey will describe them faithfully to you. And if you have no money to permit you to become a collector, he says you will appre- ciate them more in museums if you realize their qualities precisely.
Previous page
