New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS..
G.. W. S.

TART A Weekly Illustrated Review OF the Fine Arts
Paris and New York: j. W. BOuton
The third quarterly volume of the present year OF
this wide-awake and valuable journal is now on our
table Wide-awake as it is, there comes every now
and then, however, quarter when Homer nods'
and this is one of them The etchngs are, with one
or two exceptions an uninteresing lot, nor do the
numerous process-prints distributed through the
bulky volume mako up for what is lacking in the
field where this periodical gained It's reputation
So far as our observation extends the french 90 oU
succeed at all with the ordinary process-print we
know that at the best it is not an easily managed
method, but, when We compare the work III th's
kind in LArt, and in the Gazette deS Bcaur-Arts,
with what we find in ScribRer and Hdrp0S Magazines
the French show striking inferiouty nor Is the
case better this year than it has been any Time
since these processes first began to be used.
We cannot but think that in time there will be
return to wood.engraving5 for all purposes in which
art is concerned leaving the mechanical process to
be used solely for scientific illustration or for cases
where accuracy of reproduction Is OF more impor-
lance than artistic effect. Process printing Is only
useful where outline is to be copied. shadow, I'M
less it he represented in the original by uos loses
all depth and Transparency. and is often reduced to
little more than n provoking Attenuation OF Spots
and bare spaces. OF course, the cheapneSS ci ire
process enables a Publisher 70 give q great many
more Illustrations than would he perhaps convent
ent if he had 10 pay for wond-cuts, and this Is an
advantage where n periodical plays the part ct n
journal, keeping the public acquainted IN gossip
ing way with what is going on in the world Of art
Every wear now, pamphlets are published like
the Salons of Mr. +. G. Dumas, or
the Catalogues Of the London Exhibitions of
Mr.. Blackburn, those Of our own eNh-
billions. which are very useful rs momorauda
of the pictures and particularly valuable to those
whose business as journalists makes desirable
that they should be able to compare the present
with the past. And since the invention 81 these Yar-
Gus processes publications of many sorts are now
easily possible which formerly were out OF the
question. nor can there be any doubt that the puh
lie is greatly benefited by the increased facilities
we enjoy for keeping abreast with the times. There
is much TO say on the other side rs 10 the injury
done 10 the reputation Of works Of art by the poor
Interpretation given them by these processes as TO
the hurting Of the public eye by their want ot all
artistic quality. and by the duh gray into which
color, or even real black and white. are trans
formed But these evils will correct themselves IN
time and in orr own country We are happy to note
that so important publication as Scrib1tr's Nag
d.iae after having carried prOccSs-printng 20
high point of excellence Ismakng less and less Use
of the method and sees its hest hope of keeping the
honorable place It has gained to be in depending
entirely upon ART Tor reproducing arr.
LAt is neither ncw paper nor literary iour-
nal exclusively. but it partakes 80 much of the
cphemeral character indicated by its illustrations
that the public is apt to do less than justice TO the
good writing often found in its pages. We always
read EArt, and We are always rewarded by some
thing substantial in the way of criticism or infoun-
alton. The best etchngs in the prcscnt number none
of them however upto the old mark, are the "d"o"r
Le pdaOn by Adolphe LalaDgc after VI. Jean Berjud
the "Sapphc" by Mr. Charles Oliver Murray, after
the painting by VI. Alma Tadcma in the last cxhibi-
ton of the Royal Academy, and the "Schcyenin-
gen of our count yman, Mr. George II. Boushton,
seen in the same exhibition. which las been etched
by Mr. c. T.. Wilson. or these pictures we find
that of " Beraud by far the most interesting. The
subject is drawn, like almost all the artists work,
from contemporary life in Paris outoi-door- and in
doors. His pictures have only been seen IN Sls
country. so far As We remember, Mt Mr.. Aycry's
rooms They are strictly realistic. Int Of that best
and only legitimate kind Of realism which makes
Won think moro Of the inside of things than Of thor
outside, while giving you the outside with admir-
able fidelity. Round the Piano. shows rs a
corner of a music-room in Paris 'aud "a KNOT % ladies
with background of gentlemen listening to a
PLAYER on the pianOfoTte who Is not seen by ms.
Never was listening better expressed and every fig
urc is study of character clearly distinguished. A
There is young man sitting in the foreground
whose mental operations as plainly to be read
as the digestive processes Of sand-ily. lie is in
tently listening to the music, while at the same
time his cOgtaiiOus upon the ripe pair Of shoulders
over which he leans are never for moment inter
rupted.
In Mr.. Boughton's Schcvcningcn" the artists
well-known ptrsonages have changed their sky and
their dress but not their minds. These three old
croncs are simply some OF the artists numerous
clients grown old. All walk with the same gait, and
they are always walking; and all look with tine
same eXprcssionlesS faces ut the general land
scape, which is, to our thinking, always the best
part in Mr. Boughtons pictures Mr.. Murray has
not succeeded (yho indeed couldl in giving back
the technical perfection of NJ. Alma Tadema's
painting of things--of the marble pavement, and
the Tyre in Phaon's hand for example-but we
get an idea of the general character of this per
formance, in which, as in many of his pictures,
NJ Tadcma gives us character drawing and
archaeology in tho proportion one to the other OF
the bread TO the sack III Fast ifs bill. There is 20
little reality in this scene and such sickly sort Of
sentimentality that we inevitably reminded of
GrosyenOr sitting on his stump and reading his idyll
TO the twenty love-sick maidens.
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