New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-05
SUMPTUOUS TONES
Illustrators and Their Texts
This Season.

oid Tales from the North. Illustrated by Ksy
NIELSEN. Large $40. pp. POS Holder Slough
SlIAkESPEARE'S COMEDY or MIDSI MINER
NIGHTS DREAM with illustrations by w
Heath Robinson. Large $40. ~. lSj Henry
sIXDRAD THE SAILOR AND OTHER STORIES
FROM TIE ARABIAN NIGHTS. Illustrated by
siOushton: New York George H. Doran Co. ~
NpIAs LOVE LYRICS, Including The Garden
Hope. illustrated by Byam shaw. Large Syo
pp. ljS. John Lane 60.
Kay Nielsen was the great discovery
of last years Christmas season. Here
was an illustrator of endless decora-
tive resources. who, if he derived to
some degree from Aubrey Beardsley,
proved at least that he could turn what
he had learned from that master INTO
effects entirely his own. Graceful he
was above all else in last years vol
ume, "In Powder and Crnoline"-
graceful but also bizarre with an effec-
tive audacity that took us by storm.
A Scandinavian, as we learn from the
preface to his new volume. East of
the Sun and West of the Moon," ne
has turned in it to the old legends of
his own people. All his artistic virtues
are here, but in this primitive atmos-
phere of the childhood of a rugged
races imagining he seems at times al
most little too sophisticated, even as
he pointedly calls attention to the
many schools in which he has learned
so much and to such fruitful purpose
AT times. amid snow and ice, or in the
grotesque of some troll, he truly illus
trates his text; but often he wanders
far aiield. among memories of Gothic
lines and medieval pomp; even of By
zantine elaboration and lavishness of
color. But his colored plates win I'M
mensely in decorative effect, in sheer
beauty apart from their illustrative
value; and. after all, it is beautiful
books we seek at this season of the
year, and this is a beautiful book in
deed. One revels from page TO page
in this rare artistry, in a virtuosity
that never fails of the effect it seeks.
And when one turns from the superbly
reproduced water-cOlors to the draw
ings in black and white, the pleasure
is more than doubled. And what is more,
Mr.. Nielsen renews our interest and
increases it on closer denomination of
his work. The legends that form the
text of this sumptuous volume are
part of the oldest heritage of the
Norsemen. They are. indeed, the fan
cies of the infancy of nation, heroic,
tender. grotesque, mixture of primi-
tive realism with superstitions more
primitive, still which is uncommonly
effective, and which has kept these
folk-tales fresh through untold gener-
atoms. A sumptuous volume.
"a Midsummer Nights Dream" gives
Mr.. Robinson's delicately fanciful tai
ent its fullest scope. He revels in the
of fairies, he is their familiar
beneath the trees, among the grasses
under the moons soft light. He loves
the slender beauty of women, who, like
the fairies, yield all their graces of
line and pose to his art. And he de-
lights in the simple effects Of drapery. I
Then there is the beauty that was
Greece in marble column and pediment
and woodland scene, and on a shelving
beach. Indeed, here was material for I
him rich beyond compare, and he has /.
made the most of it. In telling con-
trast with all this is the boisterous /
humor Of his Bottom and
Ounce and Snug and Flute, of Shout I
ard Starveling. There is infinite va
riety in these hundred and more draw /
ings, and infinite delight In many /
WAYS Mr.. Robinson seems to be the /
master OF them al. and he is in good I
this year, the best Of our 1
period. A master OF color, too, in the /
sixteen full-page plates that adorn |
this volume, conjurer OF mysterious |
loneliness. In reproduction, in type /
and proportion of type-page, in binding |
and formal, the publishers have done |
their share in making this the beauti- |
full book it is.
Edmund Dulac completes his series /
of illustrations Of the Arabian Nights I
in his new volume. His work on the /
old tales is so familiar, it has so just
ly received all the praise that was |
and continues 10 be its due, that little /
which is new can be said of this clos
ing series of his colored pictures. The /
touch Of Oriental Imagination, of ORR
entail INSTALLATION. which is one of the /
great merits of Mr.. Dulac's work is
again to be found in these twentythree /.
colored plates, deliberately set, like the .
text, i'm borders of splendid design. AL
WAYS these pictures are OF the East,
and with them one is in the East-ln
Persia decidedly in the drawing. of the
Old Man of the Sea. The whole book is
beautifully got up, its blue-fowered
pale brown cover stamped in gold with
a design that is repeated in black-and-
white with even greater effect as
chapter endings, and again as colophon
TO the volume. The title page is an in
genious adaptation Of Persian script.
II is fully fifteen years since Lau-
renee Hope published her first volume
of TRANSACTIONS of "lndia's Love Lyrics"
Since then the book has never been
without it's readers. 1t is not ''vir-
pinibus puerisque," but it has proved
10 be a lasting addition to the poetry
of the West. It's exotic songs of pas
sion have been set to music time and
again. but it has remained for Byam
shaw TO undertake their elaborate IL
His twenty-four full-page
color plates interpret the text with
Imagination and an Eastern riot OF
color. They also reflect the East itself.
and no wonder, for Mr. Shaw himself
Il an Englishman of Indian birth. A
beautiful cover design completes this
altogether successful setting for these
Indian love songs.