27 JANUARY 1923, Page 24

LINE. By Edmund J. Sullivan. (Chapman and Hall. 10s. 6d.

net.) In the pursuit of his subject, " the trace of a point having length but not breadth," the author has made a beguiling book that will probably find a large public amongst art students and pen-and-ink illustrators. Mr. Sullivan, himself an accomplished illustrator, embellishes his text to great effect and concludes with some abstract reflections on beauty " and " art " that are at any rate provocative. If he is dog- matic he has a hospitable mind, for having announced that " a square peg in a round hole is the antithesis of beauty," he passes on to an appreciation of Watteau's brocaded shepherdesses.