Mr. Osbert Sitwell contributes a lively. and characteristically provocative, preface
to Thomas Rowlandson in the " Famous Water-Colour Painters " series (Studio, Limited, 5s. net). Rowlandson's mother was French, and in these drawings, especially, Gallic influence is plainly manifested, but never, at the same time, has an artist been so happily, so un-self- consciously, national. " If England were to-morrow to be submerged beneath a tidal wave," says Mr. Sitwell, " so long as a few typical drawings of Rowlandson survived, it would be very simple to reconstruct the life and appearance of her people ; and in his faithfulness to a permanent type, despite the special features of his time, is found one reason why the Nineteenth Century could not stomach hint. From the same publishers comes Hiroshige in the " Masters of the Colour Print " series, introduced by Mr. Jiro Harada, who em- phasises a profound tranquillity as the 19th century Japanese artist's special quality.
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