New-York tribune., 1902-02-25

which had more than anything else TO do with
the Towering of his genius. He says:
Born and bred in the midst of fresh English
fields and meadows, he was sincere and de-
voted lover of nature before he became lover
of painting. Unlike many other painters VINO
have been able to admire the things around
them only through some resemblance, real OF
fanciful, to the pictures they have been ac-
customed to reverence, Constable from the
first that the art OF Italy. or the MEMBRANES
was not like the Dedham Valley, and that II
he was to paint the elms and streams and SKY
which he loved he could not do so by giving
them the color and appearance of distant coun-
tries which he had never seen. Thus when he
to study the old masters, he did so with
an unbiased mind Claude and Ruysdael could
not teach him anything about Suffolk scenery
that he did not already know, but they couid
teach him a great deal about something OF
which he entirely ignorant-a SOUND way
of constructing pictures-and Constable never
forgot the lesson.
Mr. Holmes is temperate in his eulogy OF
Constable, admitting that his technique Is less
supremely certain and that his taste is less IN
tensely sensitive than that of the greatest ar
lists OF the past; but he never loses sight OF
| that sincere and robust naturalism which was
the English painters greatest virtue, ana right
ly says Of him that mo man has hitherto COM
bined so much Of that beauty OF aspect which
we all admire in the art of the past with SO
large a measure of the wind and sunshine
which have become the conditions OF the paint
ing of our own day" The author concludes his
study with a suggestive and, on the whole ac-
curate survey OF the development Of landscape
since the death of Constable The twenty-four
half tone illustrations uniformly good we
greatly approve of the policy Of placing these
all together at the back of the book
Under the title OF English Water-Color" Mr..
John Lane is issuing in cooperation with the
London publishers of THE international Studio
a work in eight parts of which the first two
have recently been sent TO US. 1t is edited by
Mr. Charles Holme. with an introduction by Mr.
Frederick Wedmore The latter is wisely brief
and so. moreover, is Mr.. Holme, in his COM
mentaries on the painters illustrated. The re-
productions are the main thing, and these, In
colors, are extraordinarily good. The specimens
in the first part are of Cozens. Baynes, David
Cox Samuel Prout, P. Dewint. Clarkson Stan
field. ]. NJ. Swan and Herbert Marshall. The
men in the second part are Hearne. Girtin,
David Cox again, Copley Fielding Harding,
Mahoney, Cotman and Waterlow. 1t is an ex-
tremely varied list thus far. and the reproduc-
tions are throughout adequate giving perfectly
the simpler textures of the early men and the
far more brilliant qualities of work like that OF
Mr.. Swan. Indeed, the reproduction Of the lat
ter's "Jaguar and Macaw" is one of the best
plates of the sort we have ever seen. The pub
fishers have set out to secure something ike
fac SMILES of the works selected for illustra-
tion and they have been remarkably successful
in their aim. The reproductions are on an aN-
erage, about seven eight inches wide and
four or five inches high. They are printed on
separate sheets and then mounted upon stout
page, with generous margins. Subscribers viii
be presented with a portfolio TO hold the eight
parts 1t is handsome publication and the
price is a modest one. English water color art
has never been the most brilliant in the world,
and some OF it's most famous names are dim
enough when compared with others in France
and in Spain, in Holland and in America, and
in England itself. But along with some rather
dull pictures in the two numbers before are
several that we'll worth having, and the
collection a whole promises to be of consid-
erabe value.