New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-20


there will be no cessation OF Mr.. Coles activity
in the service of The Century Company. but
that he may go on filling volume after volume
until the entire field OF European art has been
cleaned and set before our public. In the way
that the perfect printing and other mechanical
work OF this house renders possible After he
has illustrated Spanish, German and English
art. moreover. Mr. Cole might make spiehuio
collection OF blocks after picked company oi
American pictures. We have the material anu
both In THE Century Magazine" and the DOCKS
published later Mr.. Cole Is sure OK grateiui
and appreciatve audience Books Ike Oid
Dutch and Flemish Masters" are simply In
valuable They carry the art OF the past into
modern homes with an accuracy and charm
that nothing this side OF actual travel abroad
can equal and even that expedient is apt to
prove. in many cases. far less effective than
demonstration SO cumulative and 30 vigorous
as that we are now considering.
The American publishers Of the late Philip
Gilbert Hamerton have reprinted his early es-
saws on contemporary French Painters and
"painting in France" They reissue also in
handy form, his imagination In Landscape
Painting" OF the books first mentioned II f.
not possible to say anything very cordial Ihey
were written many years ago. when men IKE
Toulmouche and Leopold Robert Compte-Calix
and others OF their ilk were conspicuous In
the Salon and when their fashionable insipidi-
ties made excellent subjects for literary art
criticism in English papers. Hamerton was SUI
perior to that kind OF material. but al the time
he had to use It. just the same, ana ne useo
it sympathetically. The chapters make languid
reading now, and II Is only when ne comes
across a painter like Manet or Courbet that the
writer becomes amusing. Then he is AMUSING
indeed. partly because he Is actually moved by
his subject and partly because he was not yet
certain Of what IL meant. not quite sure whether
to condemn or praise The upshot of it all Is
some more or less valuable criticism, criticism
that NAV occupy the render for a moment. but
to which he is unlikely to come back On the
other hand he will take up imagination In
Landscape Painting" with avidity and not lay
1t down very soon. That is healthy. suS-
gestive book, a book with vitality ana one
that the student cannot afford to neglect III
shows IIamerton thoughtful observer d
nature a humane critic OF art, man VINO
wanted life and beauty in both. but, above all
things. real palpitating life. This new editioh
of his book is small and inexpensive. 1t ought
to make its way far afeld.
After Hamerton's staid notes on the French
painters of a generation or two ago, the
few but well-flled pages Of Mrs Rood's
sketch of Puvis de Chavannes seem actually
pungen. She writes panegyric OF the arts''
and is so fervid that she almost oVerthroWs
her own object. But she contrives to pain. an
ineligible portrait. nevertheless, ard gives an
interesting impression OF an Interesting person
ality Puvis de Chavannes Is man or nigh
attachments and higher ideas He VIII stand
good deal Of laudatiop and still be dignihed
figure This latest sketch is attractively Illus
trated. the Boston Library decoration is repro
duced and there is good portrait for frontis-
piece.
1t is a very different and far less esoteric
painter whom Mr.. Ashton r. Willard celebrates
In his little monograph on Morelli. but the ltal-
ian is hardly less eminent than the French
man. His pictures have less grandeur but they
are remarkable in technique and are no less
original in style. This distinguished Neapolltan,
who has long combined the virtucsity OF a For
tuny with the more solid characteristics OF a
deeply meditative nature. is little known In
America. and Mr. Wizards biography though
brief is very welcome He tells the story OF the
painters life with knowledge and sympathy and
he does full justice TO the spontaneity and
charm of his arr; Morel has always been pro
Continent, and the present volume should widen
his fame on this side Of the Atlantic. We may
note in this place the handsomely printed vol
ume OF descriptive and critical sketches written
by Mr.. r. b. Gruelle on the Walters collection
of pictures The tone is too persistently eulo-
CYSTIC for the book to have great critical value,
but it is cloN erly written and must prove a very
pleasant accompa nment to a days quiet study
in the great gatherings OF paintings in Balt-
more Mr.. Walters was one Of the most accom-
plished connoisseurs Of his time. He brought
together extraordinary mass of work from the
brushes Of the Barbizon men, the modern paint
OF Holland and other celebrities Of art-a
collection which more than justifes the luxurious
dress given to this description OF it's treasures
Mr. Gruelle may not be a perfectly we-ba-
anced critic, but glad he has written this
volume and glad that It is published well.
Thus far all the books of artistic criticism or
research with which We have been dealing have
been studies OF Continental masters old and new
In the eight ten works remaining to be
touched upon the atmosphere is almost always Of
English or American art. To speak OF atmos-
phere is especially appropriate IN discussing Mr.
Richardson's book George Morland. 1t
unfolds the career Of an artist who lived in some
of It's most racy and characteristic phases the
life of the eighteenth century In England. when
that century was drawing near Its end. Morland
In painting his pictures kept his fingers the
very pulse of English life. 1t is true that he
only did justice to side of English life, 10 It's
rural side. But what justice he rendered to his
nation there. He gave his paintings atmosphere
in that precious sense which means not only light
and air, but the very breathing and speech of
artless. living men: Did he throw more of
glamour over his pastoral scenes than was
ranted by the condition Of rural England in his
day? Hardly The life Of the English cottager
may not invariably have produced such apple
checked lads and lassies as he portrayed and the
typical country housewife may not have been the
merry buxom soul OF whom he was fond. But
though not universal his types were not by any