Shorter Notices
Britain in Peace and War. By Feliks Topolski. Introduction by James Laver. (Methuen. i8s.)
MR. TOPOLSKI, the Polish artist, came to this country several years before the war, and his rapid, talented jottings at Ascot, the Derby, the Lord Mayor's Show and other picturesque English ceremonies and, functions appeared in many of our illustrated magazines. They had atmosphere, and showed a fresh if not very penetrating eye. One always wondered in those days what he would make of " serious " art—what would happen if he looked at a subject earnestly and drew it precisely. The war seemed to offer an opportunity, and commissions from the Polish Govern- ment (as Official War Artist) and from other sources, public and private, have set this tireless artist harder at work than ever. But the war has not altered his style. He sees even in the most tragic subject an occasion for a light, fantastic scribble, and he makes very little more of it. He can "catch a likeness" brilliantly, and has recorded innumerable scenes that needed recording of the people of Britain at war, but it would be sad if history looked on these as a final chart of contemporary emotions. .Slight as they are intended to be, and charming as they are, they result from an incomplete reading of Daumier and Guys interpreted in a voguish way, and tell us in the end less about our own period than does a copy of the morning paper.
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