Good Books

The amateur devotee in search of mentors to guide him through the mazes of art has never had greater riches spread before him than in the present season. Sir William Orpen's Outline (TIME, Oct. 15) is pretty narrowly limited to painting. One wishing a diverting catalogue of the famous individual pictures of the world need go no further.

But a greater work and a more inclusive one is Elie Faure's History of Art,* now being published in English by Harper. The third volume, on Renaissance Art, has come from the press, preceded by Ancient and Medieval, and to be followed by Modern. The books are not easy to read, but they repay a little delving. Faure is a brilliant stylist, his word-stream brimming with metaphor and colorful imagery, always intent upon inner meaning, and emotional overtones, so that his writing is obscure to those who expect mere surface description. But the translation is itself an admirable work of letters. He treats of sculpture and architecture with fair attention as well as painting. He has not produced a text or an encyclopedia, but tells only enough of an artist and his works to convey his spiritual and historical relations. He follows no set division, except a geographical one: in the present volume, Florence, Rome, Venice, Flanders, monarchical France, Reformation Germany.

The American Institute of Architects, a professional organization of lofty standards, recognizes a public obligation for the diffusion of culture. Through its Committee on Education it has issued a splendid volume, The Significance of the Fine Arts/-, to which various leading exponents contribute studies of their own fields, designed to increase appreciation and give a slice of background. Not unnaturally, the most space goes to architecture, which is treated in separate chapters on Classical, Medieval, Renaissance and Modern architecture, by C. Howard Walker, Ralph Adams Cram, H. Van Buren Magonigle and Paul P. Cret, respectively.

The allied arts are discussed by Lorado Taft (Sculpture), Bryson Burroughs (Painting), Frederick Law Olmsted (Landscape Design), E. H. Bennett (City Planning), Huger Elliott (Industrial Arts, including bookmaking, ceramics, costume design, furniture, glass, jewelry and lace-making, metal work, textile design), Thomas Whitney Surette (Music).

Monument to Pyle

Howard Pyle was best known as an illustrator, in heroic style, of adventure stories for boys. He it was who first made Stevenson, Cooper, Malory's Morte d'Arthur--not to mention his own Robin Hood, Otto of the Silver Hand, etc.--alive in many a boy's heart; but he was also a great and serious artist on canvas and in mural decoration. Pyle was born in Wilmington, Del., in 1853, and lived there until his death in 1911. He knew the satisfaction of being an honored prophet in his own community. To his home flocked students, for he was an inspired teacher who taught for love of it, and many of our best American illustrators were among his proteges.

The Wilmington Fine Arts Society has opened in the new Wilmington Institute Library a Howard Pyle Memorial Gallery, where it has collected 267 works of Pyle in various media. One room is devoted to oil paintings, another to black and whites and sketches, a third is an exact replica of the living room in the artist's Wilmington residence. This room was notable for eight mural paintings, ceiling decorations, and a fireplace, by Pyle himself. These pictures, dealing in subject with the genesis of Art and Literature, had been damaged during a fire at the Pyle house, but have been completely restored and with difficulty transferred bodily to the gallery. In the oil painting room, two of the notable canvases are Marooned, and the Flying Dutchman--formidable pirate figures with Pyle's characteristic contrasts of color masses and sombre realism. There are Revolutionary War scenes, one small watercolor, illustrations for Pyle's own stories, A Modern Sinbad and the Pilgrimage of Truth (the latter painted on mahogany), and pen-and-ink sketches for many stories and articles originally published in Harper's Magazine.

Exhibitions

A flock of important one-man shows, mainly by contemporary Americans, graced the galleries of Manhattan:

Francesc Cugat (Anderson Galleries), is a 29-year-old Spaniard who won fame by his series of Chicago Opera advertising posters. He shows imaginative landscapes, fantastic portrait posters of Beethoven and other " greats," and two triptychs. Zoe Beckley, famed Manhattan newspaper woman, wrote a flattering introduction to his catalogue.

William Gedney Bunce (Milch Galleries) was a native of Connecticut but painted Venetion subjects almost exclusively. His nearest affinity is Turner, though a more restrained and New Englandish Turner. The exhibition is by way of a memorial.

Albert Herter (Reinhardt Galleries) shows that he can be an effective portrait painter, as well as a flowery decorator. Portraits of a Russian nobleman, of Pilgun Yoon in the Chinese manner, and of Herbert C. Hoover are features.

Harry W. Watrous (Howard Young Galleries) was a retrospective exhibit. He perfected the Saton type of picture--suave, highly finished surfaces -- painting chiefly women-of-leisure and still life. A friend of Blakelock, he has branched into nocturnal landscape since the War.

Bryant Baker (Anderson Galleries), British sculptor, has done busts of George Harvey, Pershing, Roosevelt, Lloyd George, Henry Cabot Lodge, Taft, Auckland Geddes, John Hays Hammond, Edward VII. The retiring Ambassador Harvey said of the sculptor, "I consider Mr. Baker a great sculptor, and he is generally so regarded in England."

Eugene Savage (Ferargil Galleries), decorative young modernist, uses classic themes and medieval methods (gold background), makes his own frames. There is a small copy of his Expulsion (from Eden) which won the Thomas B. Clark Prize at the last National Academy.

Oliver Chaffee (Montross Gallery) is strongly under the influence of Cezanne He has lived and worked in Southern France and most of his pieces are homely vistas in the little towns of Vence and Chantemesle. His water-colors are more free and sparkling than his oils.

In Paris

For the first time, Americans have their own section in the Paris Salon d'Automne, now open, but few of our better known artists are represented.

In New Orleans

The Hotel Roosevelt, New Orleans, formerly the Grunewald, testifies testifies confidence in the distinctive charm of the old Creole city by hanging signed artists' proofs in the guest rooms, of ten etchings by Ronald Hargrave, of the Cabildo, the Cathedral, the old Absinthe House and other picturesque corners.

In Australia

Australia, young and traditionless though she is, has produced her quota of artists, and an Australian exhibition is now in progress at Burlington House, London. There is little, however, that is distinctive of Australia as opposed to the art of other modern countries. The chief figures are Max Meldrum, Norman Lindsay, Hugh Ramsey, George Lambert, Heysen, Gruner.

* HISTORY OF ART--Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach--Four Vols.; I. Ancient Art; II. Medieval Art; III. Renaissance Art; IV. (In preparation), Modern Art. Harper ($7.50 each vol.).

/-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FINE ARTS : TEN ESSAYS ON THE ARTS--Edited by the Committee on Education, American Institute of Architects--Marshall Jones ($3.50).