WAR PICTURE-BOOKS..
Mn. Kewsrmarost. lea a very remarkable power of direct state- ment. He prefers portraits to general impressions, and by his wonderfully realized heads and figures of soldiers brings us probably as near to the actual appearance of war as it is possible. From this it must not be supposed that the art is merely realistic ; it is a great deal more than that. The " Raider with Cosh " is, beyond its naturalism, an impressive design, carried out with masterly 'skill. So is the bead of the young Lancashire Fusilier, who we are told is a famous raider, though not yet twenty. In this portrait the artist has made great use of the clean, unbroken curves of the steel helmet, contrasting them with the broken planes of the face beneath. Another striking picture ie " The Cupbearer "- a soldier, carrying a mug of tea in each hand, descending into the sandbagged entrance of a dug-out which aheltere the artist. This figure and its surroundings by suggestion give in a meet poignant manner the underground life of the battlefield. The simplicity of the means and the certainty of the execution betray the great accomplishment of the artist. Mr. Nevinson,a although he uses that strange and now slightly old-fashioned convention called Cubism, is a realist pure and simple. He is only occupied with the outside appearance of thineja, and hardly ever uses design to reveal a deeper meaning. On one occasion be does so, The Road from Arras to Bapaume," and consequently the picture is one of the best things in the book. The white road, dipping with the undulations of the country and receding to the horizon, is not only seen but felt. Why the artist should have chosen the particular pattern he has for the " Bomber" is hand to understand. The figure--what there is of it—is entirely choked, in depth as well as in height and width, by those queer forms the Cubist would have us believe express force, volume, and other things. The result is a feeling that the bomber could never throw his bomb, encumbered and entangled as he is on every side. Mr. Paul Nash's drawings' are different from those of Mr. Nevinson, for be takes no account of visual reality, but constructs pictures which are to give the state of mind of the artist when contemplating a particular scene. ln theory this is the highest art ; in practice this particular expression leaves us cold. Quite different is the view taken by Sergeant Penleigh Boyd' in his pen drawings of things as they were both in the line and among the farms and fields behind it. Mr. F. Dodd has made a number of drawings of the Admirals of the British Navy' which have been reproduced in colours. Many of the heads show character in the drawing, but the artist is less successful in the bodies to which the heads Wong. There is no need either to describe or praise Mr. Muirhead Bone's drawings.' The present volume has the accustomed versatility, which ranges from such drawings as the ruined church in the Ypres Salient, powerful and complete, yet done with but few lines and fewer tones, to the elaborate architectural drawing on the next page.
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