BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 68, 13 December 1919, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

THE ART OF ARTHUR STREETON. • r A companion to "Tlio Art of J. J.-Hitter." which was" issued .about this time last year, as the first of a series of. monographs on Australian artists, 1 by the publishers of that now well-established nublication- "Art in. 'Australia/' lias made its appearance. It is a handspmely produced quarto, entitled "The Art of -•Arthur, Streeton" (Sydney: Angus ana Robertson; per Whitcombe- and Tombs). Streeton's. fine landscape work is represented bv coloured reproductions of thirty-six of his. most, notable oil paint- • ings—apparently ho never essay 9 the acrtiarelle—and by a series of illustrations in monochrome. As in tho Hilder book,and 'the variohs numbers of "Art in-Ausr tralia." the colour work (executed, with the exception of three or four plates if war subjects, in Australia) is wot thy of unstinted pfaise. Nothing more soundly autistic in the way of colour-prinf-ing could have coihe from Goupils, of Paris.- the "Studio" and "Connoisseur" offices in London, or the best craftsmen in this class of work in New York. Streeton's work—with a few exceptionsseems to ,- lend itself to effective reproduction. - . , : ITb' ha 9 an unerring .eye for aneffective composition, aiid lie evidently revels;in. strong colour, although lie never, descends to-any. merely theatrical flamboyance. As he-has lived long in Europe—he'is a regular contributor not only to the Royal Academy and other great. English exhibitions, but. to the Salon and tho New Salon in Paris—the subjects - here represented - are. 'not ■ like those of the untravelled Hita'er, purely Australian., There is, for instance, tf London scene, "The Centre of flic Embite." -which is one of the finest representations of* Trafalgar ..Square.l have ever- seen, and I- liavo in meinory the clever delineations, of tho same scene by • Algernon Talmas - and- • the/ Anglicised Japanese artist, Yoshio Markino.',. Also, there is a "Chepstow Castle," delightful in its almost'dramatic contrast of light find shade: a "Richmondßridge," which will make every exiled - Lonaoner who sees this book as homesick a» was' Private Ortheris when lie pined "for the sights find smells of her"; a"d, yet again, a Yorkshire scene, the wild, weirdly beautiful "Malham Cove," which will assuredly produce the sa,mo effect upon such Durchasers of the volume as hail from Tvke-land. If, in such: pictures as these. Streeton is the travelled cosmopolitan. cleverly reproducing local colour and local atmosphere, his art is, it seems to me, specially attractive when he is presenting Australian landscape. As Mr. Lionel Lindsay says in his well-writ-ten, essav in this book . (on Streeton's "Australian Work"):

There is a gaiety, a lightness in Streeton's work which is in the Australian-sun-light itself, and-has been expressed by no other artist; It ia the expression in paint of the goodness of beinc alivo ih this fino land of ours. Actually, it is the first, truthful and beautiful rendering of the light and colour and tone of Australia. •

In'-such- picture? as "The Purple Noon's Transparent Light," wihich many. .New Zealand visitors to Melbourne must liavo adniired as it hangs in "the National Gallery of Victoria, and ,%<?in .in- - - the superb "Hawikesbury River," which is reproduced as the frontispiece t|o the volume, Streeton reveals himself a land6ca.pist of tho highest rank, an Australian Constable- In with .these pictures, as again, and even more specially so,-in "Still Glides tho Stream/' which ia to be seen in' the Sydney Art Gallery/ and in "The Rain Cloud," Streeton shows his wonderful masfcsyy of. aerial perspective. In the suggestion or distance, both on land and in the sky, Streeton has no superior in either England or France. But there are many sides to his genius. His Sydney Harbour scpn'es —the "Sydney Harbour Across Crem'orne" is a niasterpiece. in this, genre—fairly palpitate with light and life. And yet in such pictures as "Chelsea. Barges," and in the sinmly entitled "Landscape," she can strike a note of low-toned, almost' i\uftere beauty, -worthy of - Whistler himself in his most triumphant -preseni- . ment of quiet atmospheric effect.

Besidjs the pictures, and I have mentioned only a few 'of the many {rood things pictorial in tho book, there is' some interesting- letterpress. The veteran artist, Julian Ash ton, gossips pleasantly on . the . beginnings of Streoton's art, and the amiable personality of the painter. Mr. Lionel Lindsay discusses" Streeton's purely Australian wk, and Mr. P. G. Konridy, an English art crit ; c of high reputation, makes some ingenious and instructive remarks the present-day t"end of tho artist's genius, as exemplified in his Finglish and Continental subjects. Th" book would make nn ideal Ohristmiis gift for any lover of art. The edition is limited, and in a very feiv years' time both this and the Hilder book will be eagerly sought after l>y collectors and bring a much enhanced ptice. Pepys Junior Once Again. In "A Last T)H'v of the Great Warr" Y-Tohn Lane, ner Whitcombe and Tombs). Mr. Samuel Penys, Jnnr., continues and conclude? his chronicle of social lifp in England.. more particularly in . London, durinsr the war period. Those who have read the twrt preceding diaries will need no recommendation from me to turn to the latest, and, alas, final instalment of , this entertaining Tecord of_ a well-to-do Londoner's, experiences during the war., Tho shrewdness of so many of his observations on "the-jFaulta, foibles, and follies of his fellowmen, is as pronounced in this last diary as iji its predecessors. Mr. Pepvs is still as n(iif in the tonfpssion of his or-ensional mild peccadilloes, his small selfishnesses, his snobbishness, as ever ho was. But also he has his better side, and his proud confidence, even in tho midst of the "bumming raids" of the Huns, and with sad news of disaster pouring in from the front, of the final triumph of the /Allies, rarely giyes place to gloomy forebodings.. llis old club friends. "General Pirtpleton, Admiral Topper', and that magnate'of the financial world, Sir Moses LevUon, arc again to/ the fore. Mrs. Fepys is occasionally in "naughty temper" over tho servant problem, and the prico.of "margareen" and crepe do chine—and Mr. Pepys himself is sorely distressed over the enhanced price of "elonthes" of West End make, bien cntendu, and the inefficiency of tho waitimr at his club. But ho comments smartly enough on tho political changes, and 'no great event at the front passes without some shrewd remark as to how the news is received • by the public. I,i'-o the Stuar.Han Samuel, our diarist vastly enjoys a day or-two in country. Visiting some friends nt Dorking, he duly goes to, church on the Sabbath, but, like his immortal predecessor, pays as much attention to thf? congregation— especially the feminine part thereof—as to the sermon. , ■"

Coming out, Mr„ Tolipittt presents me to certain of his friends; amoni? othjru. ono that I did obeerve sit in tho church. MistressTruelovo. and is pa fine a, woman as ever I svn in my life. She is, it scsmß, a widow to t.jvo ""officers fallen in the T'sirr, nrid but lately put off her second weeds, ami hires a house hard by for fear of tho air bumming (the. Zen™lin raids). She bids us drink our tea v'th her this day. which by and by we did: and here met, with the nareon and Sn' <'• I'ike, the alderman, their ladies wth them, and other fine company, with whom cnod discourse and all merrio. And hpre, with creafc pleasure. X heard Sir 0. pnre teli of the ordering of mnttcvg ill the. ease of. the Germans invndinp the Teaime by the Ohannell. of which he hath tlie chnrs-e hereabouts; thn>, his duty is to Trarshall tho people, with all cattle, sheep, horses, and other beasts, and lea/1 t!i«m into BnrMiire. towards "Rediup; that the men of Kent (the middle part) shall in like manner march into Surrey; and of Purrev into Hampshire. But whether Birltshire shall march into Wilts., and likewise Hampshire into Dorset, he knows not,; only what with so many pcnnle. and the flocks and the herds, and-the siclt and the aired that must he carried, his opinion of it is that they give him tho

biggest Job silica J[obcs'b time, when • lie (lia command tlio exodus. , .The reference to the Tsar's tragic end is m a. vein ot truo Pepysiau philosophy. A sad thing is, that the Bolshcvicks do now own. that their lute Ewjpcrour, hamintr liini, N. llomanoJf, was a few <lays siucß shot to death by order of tho Italians' Council. Which is, God knows, a small matter that ono more man dies of a hul< let' while' so many thousands die likewise daily; yet, having been an cmperour it do move men's hearts to nitK him. God rest him I being a fool, I do' believe,-more than a rogue, and his wife meddles in his affairs, to his undoing. Wiiich do make of him a, lesson to all husbands. . , Tho death;, of "N. Romanoff" does not long affect the philosophic Samuel, for a later ..entry on the same date reads:' . This night to dinner come Parson. 6:11s and Sir G. Pike, with whom much and good discourse, and. among other matters, a fair dish of trouts; . and, presently drunk somo. very choice port, and so set to 'play.. at auction. Here I find Mr. Sillb make? the best partner conceivable, so a« I took 13s, 6d„ to my great consent. Of . the doings in London on Armistice Day, and, mora particularly, on' Armistice there is a very humorous account, Our diarist quakes merry with the -best of them, forgetting his fiftyyears and his "sciatique": . Having shifted my cloathes, to the Carlton, with my, wife, which we must do on foote, tho croude crowing, it seems, since night-fall. Gripps brings his 2 youngest girlcs and their men;., and, tlio \vl\olc eatiilg place thronged, and, all merrie •in the highest degree, the greatest revelry we had that ever I knew in my life. Yet, by and by. Eoing out it is a.Ereater revel allmost in the streets; the croude singing and dancing, and playing , all ■ manner of foolery. And to show how mad wo all go this day, Margery, and Bpris presently dancing with' their men, Crinns bids *my wife dance with him, and I doing the like by Mrs. Crinns. we did dance by Regent Street ia the midst of the way, from Swan and Edgar's shopp so far as to Beak Street. God forgive usl So honjo with great' .weariness of body, .but- my joy of mind'the greatest these 4 years, or more. , Alas, for the poor diarist, the "weariness of body" .was worse still the next day: Yesterday I went not abroad, having a naughty onsctt.of the sciatigue, with some coUck; so lay until 2 post meridiem, my' wife beeide me, and her head to swim, she says.,. The diary ends on New Year's Eve, 1918. From the final entry one gathers that the diarist's satisfaction with/die improved state of affairs—the people's pockets full of money, our comfort to grow again, most of all in our bread now. .whitened and purged of grets—is tempered by a certain anxiety as to the future. True, "at home our Bolshevicks and pacificoes put to confusion in. the. chusing of a Parliament," but as !\gainst, this, "our debts swollen beyond measure, our taxes witli them, so what snail be the end of it all, God knows." And so,, after reading a final passage in which the diarist piously expresses Ins thankfulness to God for his nier-; cios (including the "cncreaseiiicnt of my estate bsj'ond all my best expectations of .four years' warr,"' and "the coming of my body again to former weighing"), we., take leave of Mr. Pepys, jun., thanking him, as will all who have read his three books, for the pleasant entertainment he has afforded us by his shrewdly, ycleverly-drawn pictures'of England in wartime. The three diaries are much better worth permanent preservation than, are many much more pretentious works on tho state of England during thfl war: ..The illustrations.- • John Kfttlewell, are as ainusing as ever. ! "The Safety of the Nation." Mr. Lan D. Colvin, the author of The Safety of the Nation!' (London: John Murray, per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a well-practised writer on economics and politics. In his- latest 'book the author of "The -Unseen Hand" deals with various economic and industrial problems which have either arisen ou| cf or have assumed an entirely new ,form, as a reenlt of. the Great War. He pleads" for "national security" as against mero "national opulence." He i<s clearly no believer in the League of Nations as involving the introduction of a new era of universal ■ peace. The struggle between nations is, he says, "a struggle between economic systems, and national security depends upon the strength of the economic system." In successive chapters the author deals with tlie British - oud German economic systems, emphasising the special value of intelligent organisation. He is a war!y supporter of colonial preference, and shows how in various' im dnstries the old Frpetrade policy of Great Rvitain was skilfully utilised by Germany to the detriment of British commerce, and industry. . Air. Colvin 'contends that Britain's f»turij prosperity, nay. Iher very existence, depends linon her adopting p. "truly national policy." The principles upon which such a nolicy should bo based are set forth/as follow:— National security resta on economic security. fcjuomic security meiiia the pjoduction of all essentials of life in peace and war. Tiiis iii'ouiiaiuii depends upon the na-' tiouiil industries. Tiiercfoi-B-The welfare of its industrial is the chief iriiereat (if the nation. Our policy, 'therefore, is founded on industry, and supports all olher interests' ■in so far as they support industry. - Commerce is beneficial to a nation -when it supports the industries of that nation. Commerce is injurious to a nation when it injures those industries. Tho importation ot raw materials' is teneflcial. v ■ The exportation of manufactured goodß is beneficial. The importation of manufactured goods ie injurious if they can bo produced by our industries. In his final chapter Mr. Colvin reasserts his distrust of the international ideal, the policy of, tho League of Nations. He sues in it "an ; abandonment cf British sovereignty, or the main parts I'liWtof." He does not like the idea of "trusting our security, to the unknown and shifting politics of nn international council." From what Air. Colvin says on this'and many other questions dealt with in his book, many readers of the work may -differ. Tho earnestness, vtgour, and clarity, however, with which ho puts forward his arguments cannot fail to ovoko admiration, \