PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2254, 13 May 1897, Page 41

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Art Journal for April comes to remind us that illustrated magaztnedoEa ntiJl furnishes examples of artiste aupeMXcellenee. It; ia no exaggeration to saj thai; ihe pictorial part or this magazine is, in quality, far beyond anything to be found among its contemporaries. We should nob like to aay that, {his .splendid monthly circulates largely in the Dunedin district, but we are quite positive that very many of our artistically inclined aeighbours could do 00 better than buy, read, and sludy its conleubP ai regularly as it appears. 'Ihe "rawness" of local t fforts in arb makes itself too often glaringly apparent, and many of our devotees of the brush and palette might grtatly improve their products from a dose sfcndy ct" the contents of the 1 Arl; Journal. In " Her Daughter's Legacy," a full-page photogravure from rhe pointing br J. Henry Henahall, we have a masterpiece o£ 'simple pathos. The poor old, life-worn granny, her Bleeping grandchild stretched upon her kneo, sits brooding over fche unkind fate which had left her thus stranded at life's drear end. Tho picture must; bs seen to be appreciated ; without; doubt is appears what in claimed for ifc — to be a gem of modern art. Tho initial article upon "The Col'ection 01 Pictures at Longford Castle" 7 gives many interesting particulars of famous pictures which have become more or less hopelessly disassociated from the names of the great geniuses who painted them. The illustrations comprise a full-page reproduction of Holbeio'ii portrait of .Erasmus, the chitf representative of tbe btoadel humanism of the Reformation, and a smaller but very excellent portrait of Petrus yl']gediu9, Erasmus's fellow-worker and friend. Alphonsse Legros, one of the most; remarkable srt-workers of the present, is delineated in an ably exhaustive and sympathetic manner. Some fine "process" reproductions of Legros'fl work, including a p-wlraifc of himself, accompany this article. A brief account is given of the. famous Wallace collection of pictures and objets dart— probably the largest and icosfc valuable ever brought" togsther by private persons. By the death of Lady Wallace this almost fabulously magnificent eoliection is now become the property of the British na ! ion. In "The Poss'.bilities of a Poplar," with 10 illustrations, Will. B. Osborn pleasantly makes us to see thafc even so commonplace a thing as a poplar tree may be found amply sugge^ive of Nature's varying moods to the obsr.rvant and reflective mind at lease. Other articles of great merib and containing numerous beautiful illustrations are ■ "The Mouchrabicks of Cairo," ''Ad; in the Home," "The Bjwes Museum at; Barnard Castle," " London Exhibitions in March," &c.

The " Easter Art Annual," received with the ordinary number noticed above, is devoted to an excellent account of the life and work of Sir Edward J. Poynter, P.R.A. Here we hava a whole series — some 50 in all — of the beautiful creations of. this modem master, illustrated in

zinc- engraving, photogravure, and by other reproductive methods. Whatever of praise it due to the journal itself is fully merited also by the annual. It has the advantage, too, of appealing more to the ordinary readiDg public who can also appreciate good pictures, and who are less interested by art in general than by acoounts of artists and their labours in particular. Among the copious illustrations to this beautiful book any one of the three prints — " A Visit to iEsculapius," " High Noon," or "A Corner of tbo Villa"— is intrinsically of far greater value than the price of the whole volume. By those who prefer first-class print* to inferior paintings no better investment could be made than is offered every cix months — at Easter and Christmaßtide — by the publication of these splendid annuals. The Family Herald for April comes to hand replete, as usual, with talcs suitable for piokiug up during spare moments, in addibion lo several serials and a varieby of interesting paragraphic reading. "In Sweet September" is the complete novel published iv the monthly Miigazina of Fiction for April. This comes with the Family Herald, the price being 3d.