CURRENT LITERATURE.
ART BOOKS.
Rip Van Winkle. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. (W. Heine- mann. 15s.)—It is not often that works of such high merit as these illustrations are produced. The wealth of invention, the perfection of the drawing, the combined beauty and grotesque- ness, all unite to make the pictures in this book true works of art. It does not matter whether the artist draws the steep tiled roofs and white walls of the houses with their background of mountain, the ragged children climbing still more ragged trees, or the weird inhabitants of the Catskill Mountains. With all Mr. Rackham seems equally at home. To take two examples. Compare the picture of Rip teaching the children to fly kites, with its charming landscape and warm brown colour, with the picture of "the strange beings" which haunted the Catskill Mountains. In this latter we have a veritable nightmare, with fearful creatures flying across the blue night sky. Below the pine trees make a fantastic fringe, under which crouch elves. It is sincerely to be hoped that Mr. Rackham will do more work of this kind, for in this direction he is unrivalled. The drawings are very sober in the way of Dolour, and their quiet hues are within the range of the three-colour process which reproduces them. For once, at any rate, with the limited range of colour effect, the process has produced a pleasant result.
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