ile in the female it is most fre-
astronomical
nature deals largely with
quently found in the neck and on the left
.
quently found in the neck and on the left
.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
—Mr.
H.
S.
Hele-Shaw read a
that the Condrozian chain may play an important
THE TELESCOPE, 9/ net.
paper on The Theory of a New Form of the part in the tectonics of Southern England.
Putnam's Chamber Crank Chain,' — Prof. R. A. Sampson on
Nothing less than a systematic survey by, boring,
This is a well-arranged practical guide Sir W. de W. Abney
on The Extinction of Light
A New Treatment of Optical Aberration,'-
such as has long been carried on in Holland, will
'
meet the case.
for the young astronomical observer, and
This should be undertaken by the
by an Illuminated Retina,'--Mr. Walter Wahl on
Government, who in return might claim to ex•
should be of much assistance in enabling Optical Determinations at High Pressures,'- ercise authority over the coalfields which such a
him to become familiar with the brighter Mr. T. R. Merton on The Changes in Certain survey could scarcely fail to bring to light. The
stars which are visible to the unaided Absorption Spectra in Different solvents, Mr. discussion was continued by other speakers.
eye.
The book is furnished with a series
W. C. Ball on · Changes in the Absorption Spectra
of Didymium Salts,'-and Mr. P. Phillips
of night charts of the sky (adapted to
on 'The Viscosity of Carbon Dioxide. '
the latitude of New York or Chicago)
LINNEAN. —May 24. - Annual Meeting. -Dr.
giving the stars in white on a black back-
D. H. Scott, President, in the chair. -Miss C. E
ground. On the page opposite to each chart
GEOLOGICAL. - May 15. -Dr. A. Straban, Presi-
Larter and Sir F. W. Moore were admitted Fellows.
is a key map showing the constellations and dent, in the chair. -Messrs. P. G. Broad, J. W.
-The officers for the ensuing year were elected
their individual stars as depicted on the Jervis, R. R. Lempriere, J. R. Moir, E. D.
as follows: President, Prof. E. B. Poulton ;
charts. Foot-notes to each page supply Nicholson, and J. S. Owens were elected Fellows;
Treasurer, Mr. H. W. Monckton; Secretaries,
information as to the more interesting stars
Dr. B. D. Jackson, Dr. Otto Stapf, and Prof.
Prof. M. Boule (Paris), was elected a Foreign
Member; and Dr. F. W. Clarke (Washington, President, delivered his address, devoting their
G. C. Bourne. -Dr. D. H. Scott, the retiring
and nebulæ that are within the reach of an
D. C. ), Dr. W. Cross (Washington, D. C. ), and
opera-glass, a two-inch telescope, and a
Baron Nopcsa (Hungary), were elected Foreign greater part of it to a review of the palæo-botanical
three-inch telescope respectively. Other
Other Correspondents.
work of the late Sir Joseph Hooker. —The Presi;
chapters are devoted to the sun, moon, The President stated that, no papers having dent addressed Capt. C. E. U. Meek, and handed
been ready for presentation at the meeting, he
to him the bronze medal of the Crisp Award for
major planets, comets, and meteors
objects suitable for observation with small
had obtained the consent of the Director of' the Microscopical Science. The President handed
Geological Survey to exhibit specimens. Prof.
to Prof. E. B. Poulton the Linnean Medal for
instruments, hints being added as to the E. Hull, in opening the discussion, expressed
transmission to Dr. R. C. L. Perkins, who is
work that can be profitably undertaken pleasure in having an opportunity of examining abroad. Prof. Poulton made a suitable acknow
by a beginner. We notice a tendency to the specimens of cores brought up from the ledgment, and undertook to convey the medal to
the recipient.
gush and to quote poetry which rather borings under and around London. "In none of
the borings in the London area had the Carboni-
mars the effect of a book that purports to ferous Limestone been proved. He believed that
be a practical work of a scientific character. this limestone would most probably be found by
boring under Croydon, and to form the base of
Geographical, 8. 30. -'The Garden of Eden. ' Sir W. Willcocks.
Tues. Palestine Exploration Fund, 3. 30. --Appual Meeting.
Olcott (William Tyler), STAR LORE OF ALL the Carboniferous series of Kent and Surrey ;
Anthropological Institute, 8. 75,- Excavations in the Coldoun :
AGES :
Ancient Stone Monuments and Description of Human
COLLECTION
but the borings at Croydon had not gone suffi-
OF MYTHS,
ciently deep to determine the point. Mr. E. Colonial Institute, 8. 30. "The Panama Capal and its Relation
LEGENDS, AND FACTS CONCERNING THE
Procter stated that the red rocks exhibited by him
CONSTELLATIONS
NORTHERN came from a borehole at Southall on the Great
Thurs. Royal, 4. 30 – A Chemically Active Modification of Nitro
gen, produced by the Electric Discharge,' IV. , Mr. R. J.
HEMISPHERE, 10/6 net. Putnam's Western Railway, midway between Paddington
Strutt ; on the series Lines in the Are Spectrum
of Mercury,' and 'On the Constitution of the Mercury
This is a delightful book.
and Windsor. They were struck at a depth of
It displays
1,130 ft. , and were still present at 1,261 ft. , the
Green Line 1 -5461 AU and on the Magnetic Resolution of
just the amount of enthusiasm proper to the lowest level yet reached by the borehole. They
its Satellites by an Echelon Grating,' Prof. J. Q. McLennan
the Convergence of Certain Series involving the
well-informed amateur, which is the envy consist of red and mottled clays and sandstones,
Fourier Constants of a Function," Prof. w. 1. Young;
and despair of the professional astronomer.
with occasional bands of grit; mica is very Society of Antiquaries, 8. 30.
The author's plan is to consider each con-
abundant, and the rocks show false bedding
stellation separately, first discoursing on the galena are also present. On close investigation
Microscopic crystals of dolomite and particles of
Geologists' Association, 8. -"The Geology of West Mayo and
Bligo, with Special Reference to the Augast: Long Excuse
mythology and legends associated with the these rocks yielded fish-remains, which Dr.
6
6
6
6
as
22
MEETINGS NEXT WEEK.
Mos.
A
Remains,' Mr. P. J. Bennett and Dr. A. Keith.
to the British Empire,' Mr. V. Cornish.
OF
THE
On
and other papers.
PRI.
Astronomical, 6.
Royal Institution, 9. - Unknown Party of South America,
Mr. A. H. Savage Lapdor.
sion, Prof. G. A. J. Cole.
## p. 659 (#497) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
659
The Moshibition omil be open to the public from Here effects by
side ;
on the effect of magnetic fields on the
mechanism of the fine chronometers and
Science Gossip.
watches used for purposes of navigation.
FINE ARTS
It is found that an average chronometer,
TAE ZOOLOGICAL PHOTOGRAPHIC CLUB, by
when placed in a magnetic field of unit
intensity (C. G. S. system), is liable to change
arrangement with the Council of the Zoo-
its rate approximately by one second a English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century.
logical Society of London, are exhibiting a
day, the changes being due to the mechanical
set of over 900 photographs of British
By Herbert Cescinsky. Vol. III.
couple acting on the magnetized steel in
mammals, birds, reptiles, and lower animals
(Routledge & Sons. )
the balance arm and rim when in the
in the library at the Zoological Society's magnetic field. Watches can be shielded With this third volume Mr. Cescinsky
new offices in Regent's Park.
from these effects by being placed in suitable brings to a conclusion his elaborate history
iron
for some weeks, and the Society hopes that are made which show only small changes of English furniture in the eighteenth
it will help to stimulate public interest in of rate when placed in a strong magnetic century. As a matter of fact, the work
the wild fauna of this country.
field. Some departmental changes of pro- comprises a little more than this period,
M. MARCEL BAUDOUIN has lately examined
cedure have_lately been made, and the for it begins with William III. , as a
the skeletons of several adult human beings
Astronomer Royal is now more responsible necessary antecedent connected with
than heretofore for the care and upkeep the Queen Anne and Georgian epochs.
of the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age
discovered by him in a prehistoric cemetery
of the Navy chronometers.
It is odd that the best cabinetwork
at Vendrest, and finds that a very large THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY is also under- should have appeared in a century (and
proportion of them are those of persons taking some of the work on terrestrial been almost coincidental with it) in which
suffering from the form of rheumatism
magnetism that has, until now, been done the other arts had declined. Literature
known as osteo-arthritis deformans. In in the Hydrographer's department of the and painting experienced a wonderful
fifteen out of the hundred cases examined, Admiralty. The charts prepared year by revival towards the end of this century;
the disease had attacked the spinal column ; year to show the deviation of the compass but with this renaissance the cabinet-
but a marked difference is here shown at various places will in future be made at maker's craft entered its last decades
between the two sexes. In the male the
Greenwich.
disease seems to have most often affected
of excellence. What is the secret of this
the base of the column and on the right
New work at the Observatory of a strictly rise and fall ?
ile in the female it is most fre- astronomical nature deals largely with
quently found in the neck and on the left
. statistics as to the number and magnitude ambitious
and the fullest yet
published on
Mr. Cescinsky's work is the most
The facts have been communicated to the of the faint stars. A method of determining
Académie des Sciences, but no reason has stellar magnitude on a definite system has this particular period. His third volume
hitherto been suggested for this differentia- been devised by photographing stars deals at length and with copious illus-
tion, which, perhaps, points to a divergence through a wire grating placed before the trations with the Adam brothers, with
in the mode of life of the two sexes not yet object-glass of a photographic telescope.
indicated.
Hepplewhite, and with Sheraton; and
The result on the developed plate in the there are also supplementary chapters of
case of any one star is a series of images value. The author has the advantage of
A SOURCE of contagion hitherto unsus- of different sizes formed by diffraction.
pected in cases of tuberculosis seems to Since the amount of light which goes to
a personal knowledge of and training in
have been established by M. Piéry: He form each of these is known from optical the craft, and it is obvious that his labour
has found the bacillus of Koch present in the theory, a scale of magnitude corresponding has been one of love. Sometimes he does
sweat of the patient in all the cases he has
examined, and this has proved capable of and this can be applied to any photographed views are always adequately supported
to different-sized images is readily formed, not express himself very clearly, but his
producing tuberculosis in guinea-pigs and field of stars, irrespective of the kind of by evidence. He has determined judg-
other animals by way of inoculation. Thus plate or the conditions of exposure.
are explained the frequent and well-authenti-
ments, and is no indiscriminating en-
cated cases of the communication of the THE GOVERNMENT OBSERVATORY of the thusiast. He shows a high admiration for
disease by a person attacked by it to another, Colony of Natal at Durban, of which Mr. the strong individuality of Robert Adam,
with no hereditary liability to infection, E. N. Nevill, a well-known authority on the who was able to impose his style even on
who is brought into frequent contact with lunar motion, was lately Director, has been Chippendale, yet he criticizes the Adams
the patient, as in the instances of husband closed. The Cape Meteorological Commis.
the ground of their incongruous
and wife, nurse and invalid, and the like. sion has been dissolved, and a new Depart-
M. Piéry recommends, in consequence, the ment of Meteorology, which will embrace designs. The explanation, however, of the
careful disinfection of all garments, bed- the four provinces of the Union-Cape ability of Robert Adam to dictate to Chip-
clothing,
and so on used by a tuberculous Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State, and pendale may possibly be found in the fact
patient, and his or her isolation as far as Natal-has been formed with its head recorded by Mr. Cescinsky, and com-
possible, especially at night-time.
quarters at Pretoria. The Astronomical mented upon, that Adam was an architect
Observatory at Johannesburg, hitherto called working among equals, and deemed worthy
M. THOINOT, Professor of Forensic Medi- the Transvaal Observatory, will in future of a place in Westminster Abbey; whereas
cine to the Paris Académie de Médecine, be known as the Union Observatory, South
has just been lecturing upon Premature Africa, and remains under the direction of Chippendale was a cabinet-maker to the
Burial, an accident the fear of which is, Mr. R. T. A, Innes.
end. The Adams certainly were inferior
perhaps, not so prevalent as it was in the
in versatility to Chippendale when it
days of Edgar Allan Poe. He gave an IN a paper recently contributed to the
came to the designing of furniture. Mr.
interesting description of the many inven- Proceedings of the American Philosophical
tions devised for the avoidance of this, Society, Mr. T. J. J. See concludes, from
Cescinsky refers to “the paucity of
including the insertion of a breathing tube several independent and mutually con- imagination and the rigid fidelity to one
in the mouth of the corpse, which is brought firmatory arguments deduced from modern style in Adam's work. ” The brothers began
through the lid of the coffin and projects astronomical measurements, that the depth as workers in stone and metal, being
from the grave.
But he declared that no of the Milky Way decidedly exceeds a architects. They had to adapt themselves
precaution was so satisfactory as that of million light-years, and substantially accords to woodwork, and they never acquired the
delaying the burial until the signs of putre with the profundity of interstellar, space Auency and variety of Chippendale. It
faction are apparent. The provisions of
is curious to remember that Robert
the Code Napoléon, which ordain that no ago. It will be remembered that Sir J.
appears to
burial shall take place until twenty-four Herschel and subsequent authorities, includ: Adam invented stucco, and
hours after death and inspection by the ing the late Prof. Newcomb, largely reduced have not only tolerated, but even en-
medical authority of the district, are, he Sir Wm. Herschel's estimate of the distances couraged, the use of substitutes, such as
said, entirely adequate on this point, and of the remotest stars, which was considered stucco for sculpture, composition for
if they are carried out to the full, no one to be from one hundred to one thousand carving, and similar imitations. On the
need have any fear of being buried alive.
times too great. It is instructive to note other hand, Adam owed practically nothing
that a modern astronomer finds confirmation to French or other contemporary art;
THE Report of the work of the Royal in his researches of the results reached his was an original derivation from Roman
contains some items of a distinctly utili astronomy as to the enormous distances of art, if it may be put that way. A good
tarian nature. Experiments have been made the confines of the stellar universe.
many of his excellent designs, now housed
on
## p. 660 (#498) ############################################
660
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
we
are
on
h; the
an
<<
exe-
22
in the Soane Museum, are here repro- Roman, in which essential characteristics exhibition (which,
assured, is
duced. There is also an interesting chap- are indicated with especial reference to intended to illustrate the most independent
ter the Adelphi Lottery. Adam's the methods of manufacture employed. and progressive elements of contemporary
Court and Parliamentary influence must
A second chapter of the same character landscape")Watts (54-61), Leighton (50-
have been considerable, as he got
deals with the jewellery of the Middle Ages 53), and Legros (91-94)owe their import-
-Byzantine, Barbarian, Celtic, and Later
private Bill passed authorizing this lottery, Medieval : an education in taste rather clung to a tradition of landscape which
ance mainly to the degree in which they
and so relieved the brothers of a huge than a guide to the collector, since none but modern art has gradually abandoned.
financial liability.
the poorest of mediæval trinkets is ever In the majority of such painters as are
In Hepplewhite Mr. Cescinsky finds likely to come within his reach.
markedly progressive, the progress is in the
three styles or periods: the first, in which The eighteenth century and the early part merely negative direction of throwing over,
he was influenced by the French
of the nineteenth are, however, Mr. Percival's not only traditional subjects, but also tradi-
second, when he came under Adam's length and with much sympathetic insight. principles to take their place. Cecil Law-
real subject, and these he treats at great tional principles, without evolving any new
influence; and the last, when he had Nearly 200 pages are devoted to a detailed son's large Hop Gardens of England (39) is,
developed his own genius, though he study of the various trinkets of this period perhaps, the most lamentable example
assimilated in this period to the work of likely to attract the minor collector for here of this indifference to painting and
Sheraton. Mr. Cescinsky roughly dis- whom he writes, and in them even experts sole reliance on the interest of subject-
tinguishes the three craftsmen thus :: will find much that is unfamiliar, while matter. If hop gardens have pleasant asso-
ordinary readers will find a renewed interest ciations for him, this picture may be suffi-
“ The era of Chippendale may be de- in looking through the trinkets of their ciently like to please an uncritical beholder ;
scribed as an age of carved and fretted orna-
elders and comparing them with the illustra- but the beauty of the hop garden is allied
ment, that of Hepplewhite as one of painting, tions of this book. These are, indeed, a no analogous beauty of paint, and we
and the period of Sheraton as one of inlay.
great attraction, consisting, as they do, of are of opinion that the numerous modern
Sheraton's personal history is inter- somo 240 photographic and 60 drawings of painters who have produced work of a like
esting. He was at once a designer, a jewellery of all periods. We only remark formlessness under-estimate the public sensi-
drawing - master, a publisher, a writer that Mr. Percival has not told us where bility to technical excellence. Legros's
the objects illustrated (many of them in rather airless Landscape with Men in a Boat
of tracts, and a Baptist preacher ! Coming the objects illustrated (many of them in
museums) may be seen.
(93) has odd look, as though the
to London at the age of forty, he never
practised his craft of cabinet-making, Turner's Water-Colours at Farnley Hall, barque were being pulled past an artificial
but made designs and sold them. Mr.
PART II. , 2/6 net.
panorama.
•Studio' Office
What, on the whole, has modern landscape
Cescinsky does more justice to this un-
The reproductions in the second part of
fortunate man than is usually done by the first. This is not to say that they are
to offer us in place of the magnificent
this series are less charming than those in sixpennyworth of pleasurable sensation
writers on furniture. His later career less faithful, although a drawing
suggested by our last sentence? Some-
was marred by his weak surrender to the cuted in body-colour on brown paper
thing, doubtless, in the way of rather
is
monotonously insistent projection ; but, if
craze of the day for Empire forms, in inevitably more difficult to render than a
we were to judge by the present exhibition,
which good taste and style departed. true water-colour. To modern eyes the
very little of value. Buxton Knight's
But his earlier work shows him to be most interesting plate is ‘A First - Rater
group of works (of which Nos. 36A, 41, and
among the best designers of the century. taking in Stores. The vast ship of war,
44 are the best) show a painter who in
the
He died in poverty, but posterity has fishing boats, "shows how delicately and
towering, story upon story, above
his day was cautiously experimental; and
given him a name second to none but accurately Turner could draw when his
there is at least one fine Steer, The Distant
Chippendale's. Mr. Cescinsky's work is so subject required it. The sense of proportion passing through a period of close research
Severn (8), to remind us that we have been
valuable that it may well become the is conveyed with consummate skill.
into the structural use of colour which is of
standard treatise on its subject.
considerable value, though as yet hardly
utilized in combination with the finest
plastic sense. The other fine pictures in the
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH show, however, are almost all by men of con-
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
LANDSCAPE.
servative and reactionary influence. This
(Notice in these columns does not preclude longer
influence we consider to some extent salu-
review. )
THE attendance at this exhibition at tary, and the pictures are chosen in such
Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Archæological the Grafton Galleries will offer an interesting a fashion as to make it appear entirely so.
Journal, APRIL, 1/6
test of the degree to which landscapes keep
Reading, Slaughter ; London, Stock their interest for the general public of this
latter day. Conversation and scenery were
Percival (Maciver), CHATS ON OLD JEWEL- given by Mark Twain as constituting in
OTHER EXHIBITIONS.
LERY AND TRINKETS. Fisher Unwin combination the summit of human bliss,
Mr. Percival may be congratulated alike but it is open to us to suspect that move- The Tomb of Oscar Wilde, which Mr. '
on a comparatively fresh subject and on his ment (if not other things) was really implied Jacob Epstein is exhibiting at 72, Cheyne
treatment of it. Personal adornment is one at the same time, and that he saw himself Walk, is a splendidly massive and impressive
of the primitive instincts of the race, and in imagination on a shaded deck, the land- design, showing on the part of the sculptor
when, early in history, the element of design scape slipping past with that lively dis- a profound sense of consistency in the
was associated with beauty of material in engagement of plane from plane which observance, of an accepted convention, and
decoration, the art of jewellery was born. enhances so considerably our appreciation of the sufficiency of simple means for
Here, then, is a wide and satisfying field for of its structure, and facilitates our uncon- utilizing the natural magic of light and shade.
the collector, ranging, in point of time scious estimate of spacial dimensions. The It is excessively derivative, and this might
through fifty centuries, in respect of material mere passive representation of a given scene be taken, perhaps, to indicate confessed
from the commonest to the rarest: each from a given point is a less exciting enter- inability to invent a theme of more distinctly
piece, even the humblest, bringing some- tainment, and the early tradition of land- modern significance which should be capable
thing of the joy of the past into the present scape, whether European or Oriental, strove of expressing the idiom of ancient Egypt, of
by a revival of the element of charm which to atone for this deficiency by ingenious which Mr. Epstein rightly feels the monu-
made it beautiful in the eyes of its maker combinations of subject - matter, by the mental grandeur. The execution of the work
and wearer.
clear grouping of objects at various distances, is very fine, and as the artist is still young,
The little book before us is written for and a crisp directness of touch by which and his development must necessarily be the
minor collectors—those who love old things, the very stroke itself, according as it is slower for the slowness with which the
but cannot afford to pay large prices for blurred or dragged or slashed, becomes, by general public realizes his merit, we may
them. Of course, much fine jewellery a miracle of executive delicacy, a leaf, å forgive him a certain caution in venturing
worked in gold and precious stones is defi- wavelet, or a cloud.
far from his base of operations in Egyptian
nitely out of their reach, but the quantity Within the rather narrow limits of his example,
of really beautiful things that can still be speciality, Whistler, here represented by
obtained at relatively low prices is surprising. the "school-pieces" of Mr. Walter Greaves THE work at Crosby Hall is of a healthier
The arrangement of the book is simple and (1-5), utilized to perfection this last element character on the whole than that shown in
well considered. It begins with a glossary, of the modulation of the texture of the the recent similar competition for Chelsea
and goes on to a brief description of ancient paint down to the threshold of our own day; artists, but it cannot be claimed as yet
jewellery-Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, and I and other represented painters in this that any great decorative genius has been
--
## p. 661 (#499) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
661
un-
some
brought to light by the movement. That,
Luc Sicard, commonly called Sicardi,
perhaps, was hardly to be expected until
MINIATURES AT BRUSSELS. was a miniature painter attached to the
the initial task of setting the artist at work
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide
on the wall, which is the main object of the
THE FOREIGN SECTION,
diplomatic presents in the shape of snuff-
competitions, has been achieved in a suffi.
boxes. He painted many couvercles for
cient number of cases to allow for a reason.
THE miniatures in the Foreign Section Louis XVI. , and there are two or three
able percentage of failure.
number nearly four times as many as the portraits of that ill - fated king and of
of the designs for Middlesex Hospital, English. Critical detailed notice of such a
his heroic consort in this Exhibition
No. 88, by“ Marjoribanks,” is obviously the number being out of the question, I can
(see Nos. 1108–9–15). He continued to
best, and suggests indebtedness to the work mention only some of the principal masters
practise all through the Revolutionary
of Mr. Augustus John for inspiration. The represented.
period, as is proved by the dates on works
artist, almost alone among the competitors, To begin with Augustin—" élève de la by him exhibited here. The group of two
seems to have derived some satisfaction in Nature et de la Méditation, as he styled children (1107), for delicacy of flesh tints,
complying with the rather paralyzing, de himself-five-and-twenty examples of this accuracy of drawing, and charm of colour,
mand for a portion of the design worked out celebrated French painter of miniatures will is not surpassed by anything in this Exhi-
at the full scale. To most modern painters be found ; they include portraits of men and bition that I have met with. The girl, whose
the part is only complete in the brain of the women well known in the troublous period father was “maître d'hôtel du Roi,” and
artist when the whole is complete, and to of his long career-e. g. , the unfortunate was guillotined in 1794, wears a citron-
formulate a part prematurely is rather a Princesse de Lamballe (544A), belonging to coloured ribbon in her hair ; her simple dress
hindrance.
the Queen-Mother of Italy; the actress is of a soft greenish shade, her eyes are dark
Among the designs for the Dublin Gallery Dugazon, Mademoiselle Duchesnois, Louis and lustrous, her complexion is pale but
of Modern Art, that sent by Mr. Cayley XVIII. , and his last work (537), an very pure, with which her rich red lips and
Robinson under the pseudonym of “Qualis finished portrait of Napoleon I. , whom he the boy's warmer colouring make a delightful
ab incepto" (23) is the best, though hardly, painted many times, as he did 'Joséphine, contrast. The miniature is dated 1796,
in its present form, to be compared with his Caroline of Naples, and others of the Bona- and belongs to Comte Allard du Chollet.
contribution to the loan section of the parte family.
Other Parisian collectors exhibit snuff-
exhibition (No. 2); while there is merit
boxes by Sicardi, who is well represented,
in the sketch of “ Paint Bender” (25), and
Another man of the period, who went on
the largely ordered design-liable, never-
painting portraits all through the years of by the way, at Hertford House.
theless, to monstrous misreading — which
the Revolution, is Dumont, a member of
Although Madame Vigée Le Brun is
is hung in the crypt under the name of
the Academy in 1788, and an exhibitor in not recognized generally as a painter of
“ Shamus” (141).
the Salon of 1824. Like Augustin and miniatures—occasionally she painted them,
Isabey, he came from Lorraine, and was one
as she tells us in her Memoirs—there are two
For the St. Jude's-on-the-Hill decoration
there are several schemes of some interest,
of the greatest miniaturists in France of the small examples of her work in this manner
those of “Stato (18) and “Festina Lente"
eighteenth century. Those of my readers here (1166, 1167, belonging to M. Feuillet).
who visited the Exhibition of Eighteenth- F. T. Rochard may be called a cosmo-
(22) leaving us somewhat doubtful of the Century Art in Paris in 1906 will recall many politan artist. He was born in Paris during
artists' capacity for drawing on a large scale; lovely examples of his work. There are the Revolution, died in Berlin in 1872, and
while in that under the motto of “O Tem- sixteen to be seen now in Brussels, including lived for many years in England, where
pora, O Mores ” (37), which alone has faced in
from the Fitzhenry and Doistau he exhibited largely at the Academy. There
its inception the rather formidable neighbour. Collections, which were shown at the Exhi- is something very animated and vivacious
hood of the surrounding setting of red brick,
we find the circular fillings at the bottom of
bition to which I have just referred.
in his work. Take, for example, the portraits
of Madame Vestris (1057), from the Doistau
the design, though pretty enough in them. A contemporary of the foregoing, who Collection, and Miss Morris, of the King's
selves, quite out of key with the general worked with Isabey in the studio of David, Theatre (1065). Rochard's colour is rich,
colour-scheme.
is Jean Guérin. This artist is well known and, if the term may be allowed, luscious.
There is some promise al:o in the clear by his striking portrait of Général Kléber His portraits seem a mixture of the styles of
colour fo the two small sketches of “Homo in the Louvre. He excelled in painting Sir William Ross and Isabey. By the way,
Homini Lupus ” (72) for Messrs Crosse & men; his portraits of women are more rare,
he was a pupil of the latter. He could do
Blackwell's factory'; in the detail of No. 93 for and fetch high prices. There are a number solid work when he liked, witness the copy
the same competition, which makes a much of the latter to be seen in this Exhibition, of the Rembrandt in the Royal Collection,
better
design than does the drawing of the including Madame Recamier(786), again Buckingham Palace (302).
ensemble; and the sketches for the Village from the Doistau Collection. Guérin began
Hall at Shrivenham, No. 81 (“Oranges and by painting Marie Antoinette, and lived
The mention of Isabey brings us to one of
Lemons ").
to exhibit in the Salon as late as 1827. the most extraordinary men in the whole
He too, as I
In the Sutton Valence School Competition Examples of his work are in the Wallace range of miniature painters.
Nos. 85 and 159 are fairly good, but recent Collection.
have said, was a Lorrainer, and had the
examples of the handling of historical sub-
good fortune to attract the notice of Marie
There are several interesting works by Antoinette, Queen of France, when he was
jects for decorative purposes have been so Vestier, who was father-in-law to Dumont, only 20.
bad that to impose them seems to be to including some theatrical portraits ; but
court disaster. It is satisfactory to see
He began in the very humblest way,
the greatest miniature painter of this period
evidence of the existence of a “buon fresco
remains
and, like many other artists, struggled
be mentioned, viz. , Pierre
class, urgently needed in London to give a Adolphe Hall, the portrait of whose daughter termed "le portraitiste indispensable des
sound technical basis to these experiments. is here (810, belonging to M. Wildenstein),
Gouvernements. ' He was in truth “le
besides two or three women's portraits be-
At the gallery of Messrs. Goupil in Bed- longing to Baron Oppenheim of Cologne. Allies, Louis XVIII. and Charles X. More-
peintre attitré ” of Napoleon I. and the
ford Street the X Club of Painters show, This artist, who was a Swede, died of apo-
like the exhibitors at Crosby, Hall, anony: plexy on his way to Liége, whither he fled to
over, he lived to see Napoleon III. on the
mously. It would have an admirable effect escape the Revolution. He is credited with courtier and successful portrait painter so
throne of France. To have been a favourite
on art criticism if the example were widely having painted over 2,000 miniatures. There long was a unique experience which
Isabey
followed. The exhibits suffer, as a rule, are several examples of his extraordinary turned to good account. He
from a certain paintiness, the colour fall-
was an
ing between two stools, and being neither not equal in quality to those in the Paris extraordinarily prolific artist, and painted
naturalistically nor decoratively just. In Eighteenth-Century Art Exhibition, where every notability of this time. The
Wallace
slight sketches, however, two or three of
some fifty were shown.
that the Condrozian chain may play an important
THE TELESCOPE, 9/ net.
paper on The Theory of a New Form of the part in the tectonics of Southern England.
Putnam's Chamber Crank Chain,' — Prof. R. A. Sampson on
Nothing less than a systematic survey by, boring,
This is a well-arranged practical guide Sir W. de W. Abney
on The Extinction of Light
A New Treatment of Optical Aberration,'-
such as has long been carried on in Holland, will
'
meet the case.
for the young astronomical observer, and
This should be undertaken by the
by an Illuminated Retina,'--Mr. Walter Wahl on
Government, who in return might claim to ex•
should be of much assistance in enabling Optical Determinations at High Pressures,'- ercise authority over the coalfields which such a
him to become familiar with the brighter Mr. T. R. Merton on The Changes in Certain survey could scarcely fail to bring to light. The
stars which are visible to the unaided Absorption Spectra in Different solvents, Mr. discussion was continued by other speakers.
eye.
The book is furnished with a series
W. C. Ball on · Changes in the Absorption Spectra
of Didymium Salts,'-and Mr. P. Phillips
of night charts of the sky (adapted to
on 'The Viscosity of Carbon Dioxide. '
the latitude of New York or Chicago)
LINNEAN. —May 24. - Annual Meeting. -Dr.
giving the stars in white on a black back-
D. H. Scott, President, in the chair. -Miss C. E
ground. On the page opposite to each chart
GEOLOGICAL. - May 15. -Dr. A. Straban, Presi-
Larter and Sir F. W. Moore were admitted Fellows.
is a key map showing the constellations and dent, in the chair. -Messrs. P. G. Broad, J. W.
-The officers for the ensuing year were elected
their individual stars as depicted on the Jervis, R. R. Lempriere, J. R. Moir, E. D.
as follows: President, Prof. E. B. Poulton ;
charts. Foot-notes to each page supply Nicholson, and J. S. Owens were elected Fellows;
Treasurer, Mr. H. W. Monckton; Secretaries,
information as to the more interesting stars
Dr. B. D. Jackson, Dr. Otto Stapf, and Prof.
Prof. M. Boule (Paris), was elected a Foreign
Member; and Dr. F. W. Clarke (Washington, President, delivered his address, devoting their
G. C. Bourne. -Dr. D. H. Scott, the retiring
and nebulæ that are within the reach of an
D. C. ), Dr. W. Cross (Washington, D. C. ), and
opera-glass, a two-inch telescope, and a
Baron Nopcsa (Hungary), were elected Foreign greater part of it to a review of the palæo-botanical
three-inch telescope respectively. Other
Other Correspondents.
work of the late Sir Joseph Hooker. —The Presi;
chapters are devoted to the sun, moon, The President stated that, no papers having dent addressed Capt. C. E. U. Meek, and handed
been ready for presentation at the meeting, he
to him the bronze medal of the Crisp Award for
major planets, comets, and meteors
objects suitable for observation with small
had obtained the consent of the Director of' the Microscopical Science. The President handed
Geological Survey to exhibit specimens. Prof.
to Prof. E. B. Poulton the Linnean Medal for
instruments, hints being added as to the E. Hull, in opening the discussion, expressed
transmission to Dr. R. C. L. Perkins, who is
work that can be profitably undertaken pleasure in having an opportunity of examining abroad. Prof. Poulton made a suitable acknow
by a beginner. We notice a tendency to the specimens of cores brought up from the ledgment, and undertook to convey the medal to
the recipient.
gush and to quote poetry which rather borings under and around London. "In none of
the borings in the London area had the Carboni-
mars the effect of a book that purports to ferous Limestone been proved. He believed that
be a practical work of a scientific character. this limestone would most probably be found by
boring under Croydon, and to form the base of
Geographical, 8. 30. -'The Garden of Eden. ' Sir W. Willcocks.
Tues. Palestine Exploration Fund, 3. 30. --Appual Meeting.
Olcott (William Tyler), STAR LORE OF ALL the Carboniferous series of Kent and Surrey ;
Anthropological Institute, 8. 75,- Excavations in the Coldoun :
AGES :
Ancient Stone Monuments and Description of Human
COLLECTION
but the borings at Croydon had not gone suffi-
OF MYTHS,
ciently deep to determine the point. Mr. E. Colonial Institute, 8. 30. "The Panama Capal and its Relation
LEGENDS, AND FACTS CONCERNING THE
Procter stated that the red rocks exhibited by him
CONSTELLATIONS
NORTHERN came from a borehole at Southall on the Great
Thurs. Royal, 4. 30 – A Chemically Active Modification of Nitro
gen, produced by the Electric Discharge,' IV. , Mr. R. J.
HEMISPHERE, 10/6 net. Putnam's Western Railway, midway between Paddington
Strutt ; on the series Lines in the Are Spectrum
of Mercury,' and 'On the Constitution of the Mercury
This is a delightful book.
and Windsor. They were struck at a depth of
It displays
1,130 ft. , and were still present at 1,261 ft. , the
Green Line 1 -5461 AU and on the Magnetic Resolution of
just the amount of enthusiasm proper to the lowest level yet reached by the borehole. They
its Satellites by an Echelon Grating,' Prof. J. Q. McLennan
the Convergence of Certain Series involving the
well-informed amateur, which is the envy consist of red and mottled clays and sandstones,
Fourier Constants of a Function," Prof. w. 1. Young;
and despair of the professional astronomer.
with occasional bands of grit; mica is very Society of Antiquaries, 8. 30.
The author's plan is to consider each con-
abundant, and the rocks show false bedding
stellation separately, first discoursing on the galena are also present. On close investigation
Microscopic crystals of dolomite and particles of
Geologists' Association, 8. -"The Geology of West Mayo and
Bligo, with Special Reference to the Augast: Long Excuse
mythology and legends associated with the these rocks yielded fish-remains, which Dr.
6
6
6
6
as
22
MEETINGS NEXT WEEK.
Mos.
A
Remains,' Mr. P. J. Bennett and Dr. A. Keith.
to the British Empire,' Mr. V. Cornish.
OF
THE
On
and other papers.
PRI.
Astronomical, 6.
Royal Institution, 9. - Unknown Party of South America,
Mr. A. H. Savage Lapdor.
sion, Prof. G. A. J. Cole.
## p. 659 (#497) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
659
The Moshibition omil be open to the public from Here effects by
side ;
on the effect of magnetic fields on the
mechanism of the fine chronometers and
Science Gossip.
watches used for purposes of navigation.
FINE ARTS
It is found that an average chronometer,
TAE ZOOLOGICAL PHOTOGRAPHIC CLUB, by
when placed in a magnetic field of unit
intensity (C. G. S. system), is liable to change
arrangement with the Council of the Zoo-
its rate approximately by one second a English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century.
logical Society of London, are exhibiting a
day, the changes being due to the mechanical
set of over 900 photographs of British
By Herbert Cescinsky. Vol. III.
couple acting on the magnetized steel in
mammals, birds, reptiles, and lower animals
(Routledge & Sons. )
the balance arm and rim when in the
in the library at the Zoological Society's magnetic field. Watches can be shielded With this third volume Mr. Cescinsky
new offices in Regent's Park.
from these effects by being placed in suitable brings to a conclusion his elaborate history
iron
for some weeks, and the Society hopes that are made which show only small changes of English furniture in the eighteenth
it will help to stimulate public interest in of rate when placed in a strong magnetic century. As a matter of fact, the work
the wild fauna of this country.
field. Some departmental changes of pro- comprises a little more than this period,
M. MARCEL BAUDOUIN has lately examined
cedure have_lately been made, and the for it begins with William III. , as a
the skeletons of several adult human beings
Astronomer Royal is now more responsible necessary antecedent connected with
than heretofore for the care and upkeep the Queen Anne and Georgian epochs.
of the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age
discovered by him in a prehistoric cemetery
of the Navy chronometers.
It is odd that the best cabinetwork
at Vendrest, and finds that a very large THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY is also under- should have appeared in a century (and
proportion of them are those of persons taking some of the work on terrestrial been almost coincidental with it) in which
suffering from the form of rheumatism
magnetism that has, until now, been done the other arts had declined. Literature
known as osteo-arthritis deformans. In in the Hydrographer's department of the and painting experienced a wonderful
fifteen out of the hundred cases examined, Admiralty. The charts prepared year by revival towards the end of this century;
the disease had attacked the spinal column ; year to show the deviation of the compass but with this renaissance the cabinet-
but a marked difference is here shown at various places will in future be made at maker's craft entered its last decades
between the two sexes. In the male the
Greenwich.
disease seems to have most often affected
of excellence. What is the secret of this
the base of the column and on the right
New work at the Observatory of a strictly rise and fall ?
ile in the female it is most fre- astronomical nature deals largely with
quently found in the neck and on the left
. statistics as to the number and magnitude ambitious
and the fullest yet
published on
Mr. Cescinsky's work is the most
The facts have been communicated to the of the faint stars. A method of determining
Académie des Sciences, but no reason has stellar magnitude on a definite system has this particular period. His third volume
hitherto been suggested for this differentia- been devised by photographing stars deals at length and with copious illus-
tion, which, perhaps, points to a divergence through a wire grating placed before the trations with the Adam brothers, with
in the mode of life of the two sexes not yet object-glass of a photographic telescope.
indicated.
Hepplewhite, and with Sheraton; and
The result on the developed plate in the there are also supplementary chapters of
case of any one star is a series of images value. The author has the advantage of
A SOURCE of contagion hitherto unsus- of different sizes formed by diffraction.
pected in cases of tuberculosis seems to Since the amount of light which goes to
a personal knowledge of and training in
have been established by M. Piéry: He form each of these is known from optical the craft, and it is obvious that his labour
has found the bacillus of Koch present in the theory, a scale of magnitude corresponding has been one of love. Sometimes he does
sweat of the patient in all the cases he has
examined, and this has proved capable of and this can be applied to any photographed views are always adequately supported
to different-sized images is readily formed, not express himself very clearly, but his
producing tuberculosis in guinea-pigs and field of stars, irrespective of the kind of by evidence. He has determined judg-
other animals by way of inoculation. Thus plate or the conditions of exposure.
are explained the frequent and well-authenti-
ments, and is no indiscriminating en-
cated cases of the communication of the THE GOVERNMENT OBSERVATORY of the thusiast. He shows a high admiration for
disease by a person attacked by it to another, Colony of Natal at Durban, of which Mr. the strong individuality of Robert Adam,
with no hereditary liability to infection, E. N. Nevill, a well-known authority on the who was able to impose his style even on
who is brought into frequent contact with lunar motion, was lately Director, has been Chippendale, yet he criticizes the Adams
the patient, as in the instances of husband closed. The Cape Meteorological Commis.
the ground of their incongruous
and wife, nurse and invalid, and the like. sion has been dissolved, and a new Depart-
M. Piéry recommends, in consequence, the ment of Meteorology, which will embrace designs. The explanation, however, of the
careful disinfection of all garments, bed- the four provinces of the Union-Cape ability of Robert Adam to dictate to Chip-
clothing,
and so on used by a tuberculous Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State, and pendale may possibly be found in the fact
patient, and his or her isolation as far as Natal-has been formed with its head recorded by Mr. Cescinsky, and com-
possible, especially at night-time.
quarters at Pretoria. The Astronomical mented upon, that Adam was an architect
Observatory at Johannesburg, hitherto called working among equals, and deemed worthy
M. THOINOT, Professor of Forensic Medi- the Transvaal Observatory, will in future of a place in Westminster Abbey; whereas
cine to the Paris Académie de Médecine, be known as the Union Observatory, South
has just been lecturing upon Premature Africa, and remains under the direction of Chippendale was a cabinet-maker to the
Burial, an accident the fear of which is, Mr. R. T. A, Innes.
end. The Adams certainly were inferior
perhaps, not so prevalent as it was in the
in versatility to Chippendale when it
days of Edgar Allan Poe. He gave an IN a paper recently contributed to the
came to the designing of furniture. Mr.
interesting description of the many inven- Proceedings of the American Philosophical
tions devised for the avoidance of this, Society, Mr. T. J. J. See concludes, from
Cescinsky refers to “the paucity of
including the insertion of a breathing tube several independent and mutually con- imagination and the rigid fidelity to one
in the mouth of the corpse, which is brought firmatory arguments deduced from modern style in Adam's work. ” The brothers began
through the lid of the coffin and projects astronomical measurements, that the depth as workers in stone and metal, being
from the grave.
But he declared that no of the Milky Way decidedly exceeds a architects. They had to adapt themselves
precaution was so satisfactory as that of million light-years, and substantially accords to woodwork, and they never acquired the
delaying the burial until the signs of putre with the profundity of interstellar, space Auency and variety of Chippendale. It
faction are apparent. The provisions of
is curious to remember that Robert
the Code Napoléon, which ordain that no ago. It will be remembered that Sir J.
appears to
burial shall take place until twenty-four Herschel and subsequent authorities, includ: Adam invented stucco, and
hours after death and inspection by the ing the late Prof. Newcomb, largely reduced have not only tolerated, but even en-
medical authority of the district, are, he Sir Wm. Herschel's estimate of the distances couraged, the use of substitutes, such as
said, entirely adequate on this point, and of the remotest stars, which was considered stucco for sculpture, composition for
if they are carried out to the full, no one to be from one hundred to one thousand carving, and similar imitations. On the
need have any fear of being buried alive.
times too great. It is instructive to note other hand, Adam owed practically nothing
that a modern astronomer finds confirmation to French or other contemporary art;
THE Report of the work of the Royal in his researches of the results reached his was an original derivation from Roman
contains some items of a distinctly utili astronomy as to the enormous distances of art, if it may be put that way. A good
tarian nature. Experiments have been made the confines of the stellar universe.
many of his excellent designs, now housed
on
## p. 660 (#498) ############################################
660
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
we
are
on
h; the
an
<<
exe-
22
in the Soane Museum, are here repro- Roman, in which essential characteristics exhibition (which,
assured, is
duced. There is also an interesting chap- are indicated with especial reference to intended to illustrate the most independent
ter the Adelphi Lottery. Adam's the methods of manufacture employed. and progressive elements of contemporary
Court and Parliamentary influence must
A second chapter of the same character landscape")Watts (54-61), Leighton (50-
have been considerable, as he got
deals with the jewellery of the Middle Ages 53), and Legros (91-94)owe their import-
-Byzantine, Barbarian, Celtic, and Later
private Bill passed authorizing this lottery, Medieval : an education in taste rather clung to a tradition of landscape which
ance mainly to the degree in which they
and so relieved the brothers of a huge than a guide to the collector, since none but modern art has gradually abandoned.
financial liability.
the poorest of mediæval trinkets is ever In the majority of such painters as are
In Hepplewhite Mr. Cescinsky finds likely to come within his reach.
markedly progressive, the progress is in the
three styles or periods: the first, in which The eighteenth century and the early part merely negative direction of throwing over,
he was influenced by the French
of the nineteenth are, however, Mr. Percival's not only traditional subjects, but also tradi-
second, when he came under Adam's length and with much sympathetic insight. principles to take their place. Cecil Law-
real subject, and these he treats at great tional principles, without evolving any new
influence; and the last, when he had Nearly 200 pages are devoted to a detailed son's large Hop Gardens of England (39) is,
developed his own genius, though he study of the various trinkets of this period perhaps, the most lamentable example
assimilated in this period to the work of likely to attract the minor collector for here of this indifference to painting and
Sheraton. Mr. Cescinsky roughly dis- whom he writes, and in them even experts sole reliance on the interest of subject-
tinguishes the three craftsmen thus :: will find much that is unfamiliar, while matter. If hop gardens have pleasant asso-
ordinary readers will find a renewed interest ciations for him, this picture may be suffi-
“ The era of Chippendale may be de- in looking through the trinkets of their ciently like to please an uncritical beholder ;
scribed as an age of carved and fretted orna-
elders and comparing them with the illustra- but the beauty of the hop garden is allied
ment, that of Hepplewhite as one of painting, tions of this book. These are, indeed, a no analogous beauty of paint, and we
and the period of Sheraton as one of inlay.
great attraction, consisting, as they do, of are of opinion that the numerous modern
Sheraton's personal history is inter- somo 240 photographic and 60 drawings of painters who have produced work of a like
esting. He was at once a designer, a jewellery of all periods. We only remark formlessness under-estimate the public sensi-
drawing - master, a publisher, a writer that Mr. Percival has not told us where bility to technical excellence. Legros's
the objects illustrated (many of them in rather airless Landscape with Men in a Boat
of tracts, and a Baptist preacher ! Coming the objects illustrated (many of them in
museums) may be seen.
(93) has odd look, as though the
to London at the age of forty, he never
practised his craft of cabinet-making, Turner's Water-Colours at Farnley Hall, barque were being pulled past an artificial
but made designs and sold them. Mr.
PART II. , 2/6 net.
panorama.
•Studio' Office
What, on the whole, has modern landscape
Cescinsky does more justice to this un-
The reproductions in the second part of
fortunate man than is usually done by the first. This is not to say that they are
to offer us in place of the magnificent
this series are less charming than those in sixpennyworth of pleasurable sensation
writers on furniture. His later career less faithful, although a drawing
suggested by our last sentence? Some-
was marred by his weak surrender to the cuted in body-colour on brown paper
thing, doubtless, in the way of rather
is
monotonously insistent projection ; but, if
craze of the day for Empire forms, in inevitably more difficult to render than a
we were to judge by the present exhibition,
which good taste and style departed. true water-colour. To modern eyes the
very little of value. Buxton Knight's
But his earlier work shows him to be most interesting plate is ‘A First - Rater
group of works (of which Nos. 36A, 41, and
among the best designers of the century. taking in Stores. The vast ship of war,
44 are the best) show a painter who in
the
He died in poverty, but posterity has fishing boats, "shows how delicately and
towering, story upon story, above
his day was cautiously experimental; and
given him a name second to none but accurately Turner could draw when his
there is at least one fine Steer, The Distant
Chippendale's. Mr. Cescinsky's work is so subject required it. The sense of proportion passing through a period of close research
Severn (8), to remind us that we have been
valuable that it may well become the is conveyed with consummate skill.
into the structural use of colour which is of
standard treatise on its subject.
considerable value, though as yet hardly
utilized in combination with the finest
plastic sense. The other fine pictures in the
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH show, however, are almost all by men of con-
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
LANDSCAPE.
servative and reactionary influence. This
(Notice in these columns does not preclude longer
influence we consider to some extent salu-
review. )
THE attendance at this exhibition at tary, and the pictures are chosen in such
Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Archæological the Grafton Galleries will offer an interesting a fashion as to make it appear entirely so.
Journal, APRIL, 1/6
test of the degree to which landscapes keep
Reading, Slaughter ; London, Stock their interest for the general public of this
latter day. Conversation and scenery were
Percival (Maciver), CHATS ON OLD JEWEL- given by Mark Twain as constituting in
OTHER EXHIBITIONS.
LERY AND TRINKETS. Fisher Unwin combination the summit of human bliss,
Mr. Percival may be congratulated alike but it is open to us to suspect that move- The Tomb of Oscar Wilde, which Mr. '
on a comparatively fresh subject and on his ment (if not other things) was really implied Jacob Epstein is exhibiting at 72, Cheyne
treatment of it. Personal adornment is one at the same time, and that he saw himself Walk, is a splendidly massive and impressive
of the primitive instincts of the race, and in imagination on a shaded deck, the land- design, showing on the part of the sculptor
when, early in history, the element of design scape slipping past with that lively dis- a profound sense of consistency in the
was associated with beauty of material in engagement of plane from plane which observance, of an accepted convention, and
decoration, the art of jewellery was born. enhances so considerably our appreciation of the sufficiency of simple means for
Here, then, is a wide and satisfying field for of its structure, and facilitates our uncon- utilizing the natural magic of light and shade.
the collector, ranging, in point of time scious estimate of spacial dimensions. The It is excessively derivative, and this might
through fifty centuries, in respect of material mere passive representation of a given scene be taken, perhaps, to indicate confessed
from the commonest to the rarest: each from a given point is a less exciting enter- inability to invent a theme of more distinctly
piece, even the humblest, bringing some- tainment, and the early tradition of land- modern significance which should be capable
thing of the joy of the past into the present scape, whether European or Oriental, strove of expressing the idiom of ancient Egypt, of
by a revival of the element of charm which to atone for this deficiency by ingenious which Mr. Epstein rightly feels the monu-
made it beautiful in the eyes of its maker combinations of subject - matter, by the mental grandeur. The execution of the work
and wearer.
clear grouping of objects at various distances, is very fine, and as the artist is still young,
The little book before us is written for and a crisp directness of touch by which and his development must necessarily be the
minor collectors—those who love old things, the very stroke itself, according as it is slower for the slowness with which the
but cannot afford to pay large prices for blurred or dragged or slashed, becomes, by general public realizes his merit, we may
them. Of course, much fine jewellery a miracle of executive delicacy, a leaf, å forgive him a certain caution in venturing
worked in gold and precious stones is defi- wavelet, or a cloud.
far from his base of operations in Egyptian
nitely out of their reach, but the quantity Within the rather narrow limits of his example,
of really beautiful things that can still be speciality, Whistler, here represented by
obtained at relatively low prices is surprising. the "school-pieces" of Mr. Walter Greaves THE work at Crosby Hall is of a healthier
The arrangement of the book is simple and (1-5), utilized to perfection this last element character on the whole than that shown in
well considered. It begins with a glossary, of the modulation of the texture of the the recent similar competition for Chelsea
and goes on to a brief description of ancient paint down to the threshold of our own day; artists, but it cannot be claimed as yet
jewellery-Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, and I and other represented painters in this that any great decorative genius has been
--
## p. 661 (#499) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
661
un-
some
brought to light by the movement. That,
Luc Sicard, commonly called Sicardi,
perhaps, was hardly to be expected until
MINIATURES AT BRUSSELS. was a miniature painter attached to the
the initial task of setting the artist at work
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide
on the wall, which is the main object of the
THE FOREIGN SECTION,
diplomatic presents in the shape of snuff-
competitions, has been achieved in a suffi.
boxes. He painted many couvercles for
cient number of cases to allow for a reason.
THE miniatures in the Foreign Section Louis XVI. , and there are two or three
able percentage of failure.
number nearly four times as many as the portraits of that ill - fated king and of
of the designs for Middlesex Hospital, English. Critical detailed notice of such a
his heroic consort in this Exhibition
No. 88, by“ Marjoribanks,” is obviously the number being out of the question, I can
(see Nos. 1108–9–15). He continued to
best, and suggests indebtedness to the work mention only some of the principal masters
practise all through the Revolutionary
of Mr. Augustus John for inspiration. The represented.
period, as is proved by the dates on works
artist, almost alone among the competitors, To begin with Augustin—" élève de la by him exhibited here. The group of two
seems to have derived some satisfaction in Nature et de la Méditation, as he styled children (1107), for delicacy of flesh tints,
complying with the rather paralyzing, de himself-five-and-twenty examples of this accuracy of drawing, and charm of colour,
mand for a portion of the design worked out celebrated French painter of miniatures will is not surpassed by anything in this Exhi-
at the full scale. To most modern painters be found ; they include portraits of men and bition that I have met with. The girl, whose
the part is only complete in the brain of the women well known in the troublous period father was “maître d'hôtel du Roi,” and
artist when the whole is complete, and to of his long career-e. g. , the unfortunate was guillotined in 1794, wears a citron-
formulate a part prematurely is rather a Princesse de Lamballe (544A), belonging to coloured ribbon in her hair ; her simple dress
hindrance.
the Queen-Mother of Italy; the actress is of a soft greenish shade, her eyes are dark
Among the designs for the Dublin Gallery Dugazon, Mademoiselle Duchesnois, Louis and lustrous, her complexion is pale but
of Modern Art, that sent by Mr. Cayley XVIII. , and his last work (537), an very pure, with which her rich red lips and
Robinson under the pseudonym of “Qualis finished portrait of Napoleon I. , whom he the boy's warmer colouring make a delightful
ab incepto" (23) is the best, though hardly, painted many times, as he did 'Joséphine, contrast. The miniature is dated 1796,
in its present form, to be compared with his Caroline of Naples, and others of the Bona- and belongs to Comte Allard du Chollet.
contribution to the loan section of the parte family.
Other Parisian collectors exhibit snuff-
exhibition (No. 2); while there is merit
boxes by Sicardi, who is well represented,
in the sketch of “ Paint Bender” (25), and
Another man of the period, who went on
the largely ordered design-liable, never-
painting portraits all through the years of by the way, at Hertford House.
theless, to monstrous misreading — which
the Revolution, is Dumont, a member of
Although Madame Vigée Le Brun is
is hung in the crypt under the name of
the Academy in 1788, and an exhibitor in not recognized generally as a painter of
“ Shamus” (141).
the Salon of 1824. Like Augustin and miniatures—occasionally she painted them,
Isabey, he came from Lorraine, and was one
as she tells us in her Memoirs—there are two
For the St. Jude's-on-the-Hill decoration
there are several schemes of some interest,
of the greatest miniaturists in France of the small examples of her work in this manner
those of “Stato (18) and “Festina Lente"
eighteenth century. Those of my readers here (1166, 1167, belonging to M. Feuillet).
who visited the Exhibition of Eighteenth- F. T. Rochard may be called a cosmo-
(22) leaving us somewhat doubtful of the Century Art in Paris in 1906 will recall many politan artist. He was born in Paris during
artists' capacity for drawing on a large scale; lovely examples of his work. There are the Revolution, died in Berlin in 1872, and
while in that under the motto of “O Tem- sixteen to be seen now in Brussels, including lived for many years in England, where
pora, O Mores ” (37), which alone has faced in
from the Fitzhenry and Doistau he exhibited largely at the Academy. There
its inception the rather formidable neighbour. Collections, which were shown at the Exhi- is something very animated and vivacious
hood of the surrounding setting of red brick,
we find the circular fillings at the bottom of
bition to which I have just referred.
in his work. Take, for example, the portraits
of Madame Vestris (1057), from the Doistau
the design, though pretty enough in them. A contemporary of the foregoing, who Collection, and Miss Morris, of the King's
selves, quite out of key with the general worked with Isabey in the studio of David, Theatre (1065). Rochard's colour is rich,
colour-scheme.
is Jean Guérin. This artist is well known and, if the term may be allowed, luscious.
There is some promise al:o in the clear by his striking portrait of Général Kléber His portraits seem a mixture of the styles of
colour fo the two small sketches of “Homo in the Louvre. He excelled in painting Sir William Ross and Isabey. By the way,
Homini Lupus ” (72) for Messrs Crosse & men; his portraits of women are more rare,
he was a pupil of the latter. He could do
Blackwell's factory'; in the detail of No. 93 for and fetch high prices. There are a number solid work when he liked, witness the copy
the same competition, which makes a much of the latter to be seen in this Exhibition, of the Rembrandt in the Royal Collection,
better
design than does the drawing of the including Madame Recamier(786), again Buckingham Palace (302).
ensemble; and the sketches for the Village from the Doistau Collection. Guérin began
Hall at Shrivenham, No. 81 (“Oranges and by painting Marie Antoinette, and lived
The mention of Isabey brings us to one of
Lemons ").
to exhibit in the Salon as late as 1827. the most extraordinary men in the whole
He too, as I
In the Sutton Valence School Competition Examples of his work are in the Wallace range of miniature painters.
Nos. 85 and 159 are fairly good, but recent Collection.
have said, was a Lorrainer, and had the
examples of the handling of historical sub-
good fortune to attract the notice of Marie
There are several interesting works by Antoinette, Queen of France, when he was
jects for decorative purposes have been so Vestier, who was father-in-law to Dumont, only 20.
bad that to impose them seems to be to including some theatrical portraits ; but
court disaster. It is satisfactory to see
He began in the very humblest way,
the greatest miniature painter of this period
evidence of the existence of a “buon fresco
remains
and, like many other artists, struggled
be mentioned, viz. , Pierre
class, urgently needed in London to give a Adolphe Hall, the portrait of whose daughter termed "le portraitiste indispensable des
sound technical basis to these experiments. is here (810, belonging to M. Wildenstein),
Gouvernements. ' He was in truth “le
besides two or three women's portraits be-
At the gallery of Messrs. Goupil in Bed- longing to Baron Oppenheim of Cologne. Allies, Louis XVIII. and Charles X. More-
peintre attitré ” of Napoleon I. and the
ford Street the X Club of Painters show, This artist, who was a Swede, died of apo-
like the exhibitors at Crosby, Hall, anony: plexy on his way to Liége, whither he fled to
over, he lived to see Napoleon III. on the
mously. It would have an admirable effect escape the Revolution. He is credited with courtier and successful portrait painter so
throne of France. To have been a favourite
on art criticism if the example were widely having painted over 2,000 miniatures. There long was a unique experience which
Isabey
followed. The exhibits suffer, as a rule, are several examples of his extraordinary turned to good account. He
from a certain paintiness, the colour fall-
was an
ing between two stools, and being neither not equal in quality to those in the Paris extraordinarily prolific artist, and painted
naturalistically nor decoratively just. In Eighteenth-Century Art Exhibition, where every notability of this time. The
Wallace
slight sketches, however, two or three of
some fifty were shown.
