Miss Ruth de Rochemont, in Evolution of Art (Macmillan Cornpany,.25s.
net), aims at supplying a general reading public, intelligent, eager, but much occupied in its own business of living, with a synthesis of the world's accomplishment in the arts of painting, sculpture, and print making. It is a question whether her book, with its 600 pages of close print, is not at once too short and too long for its purpose—too short for its subject and too long for its readers. One can easily find fault with it in the matter of scale and proportion : a too copious section on the Italian painters, a somewhat perfunctory treatment of the sculptors and engravers, and sins of omission and commission when it comes to the moderns atd content= poraries. If Mauve and Israels are to be mentioned, why not Bosboom ? If Lavery, why not Steer ? And Matthew should be singled out among the brothers Maris. But these names are merely incidental ; nor do we grudge fifteen modest pages devoted to " The Life of Painting in America." On the great figures, of painting especially, Miss de Rochemont writes with a sound judgment and not a little independence, qualities that in the main she brings to the consideration of modern tendencies.
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