BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 42, 13 November 1920, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

"Conrad Martens and -His Art." ■ Mr. Lionel Lindsay;'. the . ! well-known .A\jstraUa4t''paintor.and etcher, 'proved by' tho. biographical and- oritical essays he <si- contributes ■■■• to "Gonrad ..Martens, tho • Man ■ and. His - Art" (Angus and Jtobert? ; son, per Whitoomba and Tombs) that he ■is possessed of.'cbnsiderablo literary gifts' - Mr. Lindsay's sketch of Martens'a carcor. - - incidentally n study of early Aus-' - ' trolian nrt in general, and as suoli is -. possessed .of .no small historical .value. 'Martens, 1 who. arrived in Australia. in: - 1835,:. was then; a,-.little.-over thirty years "■ of- nge. i- He :wos .born- in London,' the '•son of'a.Hamburg merchant settled and -imarried in England; arid; first'studied; art >v. undfcr. the. art. inastorofMiis i--. dayv-..-M>plej f . : Fielding, whoso -fine landscapes are-now.-so eagerly-.sought after'' by-English connoisseure: In 1832 Martens. ■-'-'"• went'to Mionto''Video,- blown' thinhec by' what particular breat.li of adventure litisnever been. exactly .ascertained, nnd at . tho Uruguayan port, in August of that - .year,'ho .joined; tho "Beagle" as. topo'.grnpher, succeeding Augustus Enrle" On -too-"Beagle," -ivitiv .tho i great-naturalist,. ;• Charios Darwin, 011 board, Martens -went' ' to Patagonia, Tibrra del Euogo; and , ' after, being a inembcr of'.the : expedition tor. .two-.yeara,'.left tho vessel • at Valparaiso. -,Thonc6 he voyaged, in ■ an American schooner, to Tahiti, proceeding in another.Anierioan vessel,.tho Black • ,Warrior, of,Salem (Mass.) to the. Bay of ■ :• Islands, - whero. lie: stayed fivo days,-, and '' so on ■ ,io Sydney, where he mado . his "first sketch.'of the "Heads', as the bluntnosed old wliiilor sailed into tho harbour of Port-Jackson,- on April 3.7, 1835. '• At Sydney I 'Martens, settled down. as an i'. art.;teaoher,: nrid'in Sydney he resided ali"'ni6st continuo.usly ! until his. death,' in -1878. A'rt was noil very generously-, re- • . warded- in those. early days" of Australia, -■ 'but-Martens wos a man of simple- tastes and hab'lts. He. lived for his- att,-"' : niid ' for Ms only outside , hobby,,. astronomy. . He''married \!ho daughter of a leading .Civil Sei-rant, and was veiy'liappy yith ..'•• lier,- although "notwithstanding-' he ,was -, reoognised as - the .leading -artist of.: the ••• colony, he never made more than ,£3OO a " year' by his-art. In-later - 'life (in. 1863) 'he fras'appointed Assistant■Parliamerit- ' dry Librarian, and thenceforward painted buf.-little. He was . a good sound ohurchniah "of. tho. old-fashioned type, and wiis for, many yoars one of., the church- ■ wardens of-.Sfc Thomas'B, Nnitli Syduoy. ■Mr.;Lihdsay's':critieal siiryey-and-ap-preciation of Hartensi's art is most, in- , ' "'teresting/- Marcins'S' style'" was founded, naturally onough, on thiiii of Coplcy iFielcljng', but -it was.also affecned more or dess "' by fhe-Tbrk of men like Cotmnn, Girtin, • ■' De Wint, .Tohli Varley, aiid others of-the ' fa irons old English water-colour-: soliool.- • 'Ho was not so much at homo in oil (is ' jii *water-colour| frapd- to'some "extent his . "' 1 worK Vos,' thr-biigh, hisliaving ; very ln'rgework, to',commi®ions, •' cr-aph'ical i!han iniagihat-ivo.-' -Mr. Litidsny tells.us -that-"grace,.-bcilahco, the feeling •'' for 'line,' a ' just eye. for- the pictorial planes,' a "touch .off-delicacy in, skies and ' distances—these are tho. characteristics of ' ; Martciis'g - art." •" How aoourato -a. d«- .- scviption tihis is may be seen at. once • 011 looking over.the long series.■ (sixty ■ '"in all) of coloured end monochroine re- ;' pr'oduotions of. Martens's jiaintings and "•'. .drawings,, whiclr.aje.giveiv. iu,-this liamlfiomely' produced volume, one of tl\c.jimst , beautiful art books-'-which we-have yet had-from an Australian press. - In particular, tho superb "Sydney .■from Vnii- : ; ' cluse," the views in tho Blue Mountains, . '• "Tho Heads' from Point T-'inor," and sho .... - laagnificent Jandscape. "lhe Dnrlinß "Downs," aro-simply • delightful:- to..J(iok -.' ;i» a.-reproduction'.-:vl ho ■" brigiiiais'of these : aM mnny.-olhev- bsnu-. -, ti£ut : .paintings by Martens .to lie seen : -in the Dixsoh; MitiiheULibrary, aiul .'National Art Gallery- collections in bydney. • Others-aro in private collections.- lno reproduction's inoMo a fine landscape (011 .'.' oisr of .the.' Bay. of Islands,;.-ISW, ! „rnd ' - en interesting .viow.of Papeete, the beau- - ■ -tiful; harbour -of .Tahiti. . Quite • apart ' ' from-their fine artistic-quality,; many, of, -tSb'" illustrations ' have ail historical in-i: • • fcest aiul value whith onmiot'be overestimated, for-they. show.'Sydney- and- -' Sydney Harbonr as ' they were in- the early days. Mr. Lindsay s essay on Mar- -. tents' 4% is fnU of ' shrewd and able: .'criticism on art methods, both, old nrt( . : iiew, and should be. read with intercet and' profit by our young >.ew /eaJanil. artists. -The beauty of the illustrations ' and'-the excellent taste shown in the get-up generally of tho volume, shouldcause it to ba injgreat demand during. ■ tH© comirig- gift-booK pea son. „. . .. A History of British Socialism, ; ,

" The second, and completing, yolnmo of -'Mr. Beer's- "History of •Bntish:Social-. • isiii"- is to haml- from'-the pnblishers,- .. Messrs... George. BeTJ and Sons. •.l he '■ 'instalment of• -Beers...work, dealing .with the history of Socialist ■ ynpcipUtf; ■ in Great -Britain''from "lho Bays. of u tlie Schoolmen to the Advent of-Char-;, tism" .was. published last year, and was warmly praised by critjixs of all par-ties, being specially eulogised for. its profound ' scholarship, : ita' sanity of outlook, and. its reuiiirkifble fairness. The author ' -had:almost, completed, the work in' 1914, ' -but'the var made , him,' technically,., an "enemy alien," for he..was. born in \\est- . • - em: Galicia,.' j n - tho .thoroughly Polish district of Tarnoberg." Mr. Beei'.lived in- ■'* England',for many years, ..being, ot- . 'the.: first • students ,at tho ; London. • SchooS 'of ISconomics, ' and was Tor :; r teine i.imo London-correspondent or_the ' great German.Socialist.paper;:the ''\'«rwaerts.'"'visits to' New York and Paris being utilised to -gain l (in inner knowledge -of tho. Socialist movement- iu the; United • ' Stales'; and in Franco.' ■ . .' • ;- "Tii"thc.socond volunie of his great work, . which .no less; an .authority than... Dr. ;./.'Shadwell has driclared to be an. indis*. pensablo introduction to the : study :ot ■ 'thoso social : problems that confront us to day, : Mr. Beer trnces the'movements ' iisiinlly s-tylod Socialistic from the Chariist agitation, which practically began in " 1835, down to idle Socialist propaganda .-.'end. organisation in Great Britain of last ■ veai-. He gives us - what is far and invav the mbst detailed and valuable account of CJmr.wm..and . what it-really stood for that we have yet had, emplia.iitiing that the siiiiio of l . outlook-and division, in activities which exist iii tho Labour Party to-day. were "reflected in the National Convention of 1839, the first "Labour Parlinmont'' as Mr, Beer calls it, to be. hold .in Eng\lahd. There was a . physical force, and a ! 'moral- force.' section, and,fis to-day-the militant • Left-, - ; or purely revolutionary. ■ win" \vrts led ;by intellectuals. Mr. Bpor nuotes from tho Annual Regiatef of 18.1!) a definition ; of Chartism, which would apply vory largely to the /Marxists :cf fciayi : . - '' .....

Tho' hostility of tlic Chartists Is dircctetl I the nnviloeed. condition -;oi .cocicty. up to' the present .was tho particular :obiect of democratic indignit- j tion, thw acainflt' capitalist,? m-soncral. The movement is.' in fart- "O insurrection whlct. Is expressly diroctfd flfwinst the middle classes. A violent change In* the system , of eovernniimt Id' demanded bv the OharHsts. not for the, mirobse or receiving yioro power arid'"rjvlleses,' but -as far as their aim-permits of-any dc■flnitlon—for the nurnoso .of produolne' a hitherto non-existent condition of society fri : which waae labour'and capital do not exist at' all. In tlio:second part' of his now volume Mr. vßeer passes in review the various Socialist inqvenionts of tho past halfcentury, his acoount of the evolution of the various phases of latter-day Socialism betnß most' interesting, and to tlbe 6tudont o? politics and economics most valuable.. It is curious to liud Mr. Beer predicting • that the influonce of British Socialists.such as Sniillio,' Sidney Webb, and G. D. H. Cola will predominate at tho future International Socialist.-gather-ings.- Thoy may do so. at Geneva, but with the Third or Moscow International to which some of our New Zealand Socialists proudly avow moral allegiance, the arguments of sucli moderator will, it is fearod, "cut. no ice.'.' Mr.-Be6r's two volumes, moro particularly the one under review, should find a place in every flbrexj worth? the name in ..which, attten-

tion is paid to-.tho litcraturo of social economics.' Each volume is, it may bo added, complete in itself, iiiough tho work as a whole is necessarily 'and properly continuous in style of treatment and in interest'.- . .