ENGLISH DRAWINGS
By M. T. Ritchie
The series, Life and Art in Photograph, is keeping up the high level at which it began. The new Volaine,Eng/ish Dra c= ings (Chatto and Windus, Ss.), edited by M. T. Ritchie, is in some ways the best of the whole-series. The editress is careful to: point out that this is an anthology and not a history.-of English drawing. This disarms all criticism on the ground that such and such an artist is imperfectly represented, since the compiler can always fall back on the defence of personal taste. Beyond doubt certain artists emerge from this anthology looking- rather unfamiliar. Some lose in this process like Blake, who, however, was never at his best in pure drawing ; others gain. It will, for instance, be a surprise to many to find how well Burne-Jones was capable of drawing ; how exciting Wilkie can be ; how solidly David Cox can construct a landscape ; or how much more sensitive Bewick is in his drawings than in his wood-engravings. In almost all cases the obVious has been eschewed : the Hogarths are non-satirical and include the incredibly beautiful drawing of Lord Lovat ; there is an Inigo Jones looking like a Claude, a group of very discreet and brilliant Rowlandsons, a lovely Constable figure drawing and some Keenes which would win one over to Punch again. The living also are represented, worthily enough, by Steer, Sickert, John, Lamb and Grant. litit perhaps. the greatest " discovery " of the whole book is the self-portrait by Samuel Palmer, used to decorate the wrapper, an astonishing achievement for an artist whose ordinary style is shown in the rather muddled landscape also reproduced. The production of the book is impeccable.
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