The Magazine of Art. (Cassell and Co.)—There are many things
in the Magazine of Art which will excite,. popular interest, besides the fine illustrations which we have come to expect as a matter of course. Perhaps no articles will give greater pleasure than those on " The British School of Sculpture." The day for national sculpture seems, indeed, to have come at last. Scarcely less interesting are the articles on " Mr. Gladstone's Portraits," " D. G. Rossetti's Por- traits," "Art in the Theatre," and " Scene-Painters." Of a more technical nature are the studies on "The Barbizon School," "The Walker Art Gallery," "The Old Masters," and especially "The Printing of Etchings," by Mr. Mortimer Mempes, and the method of Sir Frederick Leighton. The sketches of living painters and their work are doubtless what readers of the Magazine of Art look forward to most. As a guide to popular taste, they are, from an artistic standpoint, the most valuable contributions in the yearly volume. We should, perhaps, notice two of the plates, " Saving the Guns at Maiwand," and " Madonina " (one of " Francesca Alexander's exquisite drawings). The plates do not call for much notice otherwise, and are scarcely so full of interest as they generally are. We might, perhaps, add " The Dead Bird " to the two given above; otherwise the smaller illustrations are stronger and less dis- appointing. Some of those in the articles on painters are really very good ; we want nothing better. The usual art reviews and gallery notices will aid the reader in recalling the exhibitions of the year. On the whole, the general level of interest and excellence in the Magazine of Art is more than maintained, and at the same time considerably widened as to attractiveness and attention to the larger artistic sense.
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