The Appreciation of Pictures. By Russell Sturgis. (B. T. Batsford.
7s. 6d.)—This is, on the whole, a wise and sensible book, full of wide-minded appreciation of art. Considering that the author treats of painting from Giotto to Sargent, it is not to be wondered at that tile narrative is somewhat summary. There are excellent passages to be found in which Mr. Sturgis discusses such questions as Nature seen through a temperament, which is the outcome of a discussion of the merits of Corot. An interest- ing part of the book deals with the wall-paintings which have been carried out by the author's countrymen in America. Mr. Sturgis falls into exaggeration in writing of the reforms of the Preraphaelite Brothers when he says that England in 1850 "was as remote from any immediate influence of great art as is to-day the life of a small New England town." We may point out that in 1850 Turner was still alive, and exhibited four pictures at the Academy, and that Constable had been dead only thirteen years. Watts was doing splendid things, and Stevens was at work. The National Gallery had acquired many of its greatest treasures,—the "Bacchus and Ariadne," for instance, and many Rembrandts. We do not profess to be intimately acquainted with the artistic conditions of small New England towns. Does Mr. Sturgis think that they possess artistic forces comparable to those cited above ?
Previous page
