CURRENT LITERATURE.
ART BOOKS.
Walks among London's Pictures. By E. Beresford Chancellor. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 7s. 6d. net.)—The idea of this work is excellent, for it provides in guide-book ferns a general view of the pictures scattered over London. But it is by no means exhaustive, for no account is given of private collections, not even those which are generally accessible to the public. The writer is an enthusiast, and is a tolerably safe guide when upon the secure ground of past art which has been winnowed by time; and there is little to question in the views expressed of the National Gallery. It is not so easy to agree with the judgment of modern pictures, where there seems to be a lack of standard and a somewhat too general distribution of praise, rising to panegyric in the case of that sentimental and popular work "The Doctor" at the Tate Gallery. The book should be subjected to a careful revision, for in it are loose statements and inaccuracies. For instance, Leonardo's "Virgin of the Rocks" is painted on a panel, not on a canvas. Nor does the arbitrary contradiction of the official catalogue carry conviction when we are informed that the Virgin's left hand in this picture, not the right, has been repainted. We are glad to find even mild disapproval for the "Two Crowns" in the Tate Gallery, but that picture is the work of Mr. Dicksee, not, as we are told, of Mr. Solomon.
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