The Year's Art, 1889. Compiled by Marcus B. Huish. (J.
S. Virtue.)—The contents of this volume are large in bulk and varied in kind. The " National Museums " occupy the first place. We have under this head a record of what has been done for them during the year, additions made, &c. Afterwards we get an account of the Royal Academy, and especially of its 1888 exhibi- tion, with selections from the pictures, reproduced in miniature. The same is done for other Art Societies, both in England and elsewhere. There is an interesting list of "The Art Sales of 1888." The largest price fetched by a picture of a deceased British artist was " Braemar," by Landseer, which was bought for .24,950 ; next to this comes " Mrs. Payne Gallwey and Son," by Sir Joshua Reynolds, for £4,100; the third is W. Dinner's "Ancient Tombs and Dwellings in Lycia," £3,750. Among living artists, Sir J. Millais heads the list with "The North-West Passage," for which he received £4,000. Five other pictures fetched more than a thousand,—Faed's "Reading the Bible," £1,750, "The Silken Gown," £1,450, and " Baith Faither and Mither," £1,350; Goodall's " Subsiding of the Nile," £1,450; and J. C. Hook's " Gold of the Sea," £1,640. The highest price obtained for a foreign artist's work was Rosa Bonheur's "Denizens of the High- lands," 45,550 ; and for an old master, Rubens' " Portrait of Himself and Wife," and Van Eyck's " Virgin and Child and St. Margaret," both £2,500. There is a " Directory of Artists," a list of art publications which makes one unaccountable omission, and other miscellaneous information. This is a useful book, which is capable of further improvement.—With this we may notice a second edition of Mr. E. T. Cook's Popular Handbook of the National Gallery. (Macmillan.)—Mr. Ruskin has written a commendatory preface, from which we may quote the first sentence So far as I know, there has never yet been compiled, for the illustration of any collection of paintings whatsoever, a series of notes at once so copious, carefully chosen, and carefully arranged as this which has been prepared by the industry and good sense of Mr. Edward T. Cook ;" and he adds, what is very satisfactory to hear from so good a judge, that the National Gallery is, "without question, now the most important collection of paintings in Europe for the purposes of the general student."
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