WATER-COLOUR PAINTING.•
THERE are few more difficult things than to succeed in writing a treatise on the technique of an art. Seldom does the writer attain to more than a statement of well-known conventions and personal prejudices, but Mr. Rich has done a great deal more than this, and has produced a volume of interest and solid worth. This happy result has been achieved largely because Mr. Rich has in no way tried to hide his personal outlook, but writes entirely from his own convictions and does not take a perfunctory width of view, and is therefore interesting. Those who have enjoyed the beautiful works of this artist, which always lend distinction to any exhibition wall on which they are hung, will enjoy the book before us, especially if they are engaged in water-colour painting. A most in- teresting feature of the book is the analysis given of the illustrations, particularly when these are Mr. Rich's own work, and in one case a picture is shown in its various stages. Mr. Rich is, of course, a devoted follower of the methods of the early water-colour school, and by his work keeps alive the splendid tradition of Cotman and de Wint. Mr. Rich by word and by practice is an advocate of the pure water-colour method. By this is meant the manipulation of the material in such a way that the stain of colour placed upon the paper is left to produce its effect without repeated additions and washing out. By elaborate and ingenious work it is possible to increase the strength and carrying-power of water-colour work, to make it more realistic, and solid ; but with this apparent gain of strength comes an inevitable loss. The drawing loses that imma- terial quality which lifts it from an imitation of Nature to be a new creation of beauty, vibrating with the emotion denied to naturalistic painting. Speaking of those great masterpieces of landscape art, the " Greta Bridge " and " The Shadowed Stream " of Cotman, Mr. Rich says : " Without the pure water-colour method this beautiful effect could not have been attained. No washing out or laboured technique could have accomplished this miracle, but with the direct and transparent blot, the emotion of the painter is convincingly expressed." It would have been extremely interesting if Mr.
• Water-Colour Painting. By Alfred W, Rich. London ; Seeley, Service, and Co. [73. 6d. net.] Rich had given us a reasoned statement for his condemnation of body colour. Of course, the perverted use of white to produce the effects of oil-painting in water-colour condemns itself, but why should not the liquid blot so characteristic of the medium include colours which have been modified by white ? Turner used paint in this way, and produced effects of the most beautiful nature where delicate and undisturbed washes of body colour bloom on the tinted paper he used. Mr. Rich seems to admit of no argument about body colour, but recommends the use of Naples yellow, which in the water- colour of to-day is merely the hated Chinese white tinted with cad- mium ; he also recommends the deep vegetable yellow colour known as brown pink as one of his favourite paints. Has not Mr. Rich found it treacherous / Sir Arthur Church says this colour's " residual stain is ultimately of a bluish-grey." Also we should have been interested to know Mr. Rich's reason for the entire sup- pression of cobalt from his paint-box. With these questions we must take leave of one of the most interesting books on the practice of painting that have appeared for a long while.
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