Arts: Outline of Orpen

The first volume of the much-heraldedOutline of Art* edited by Sir

William Orpen, the latest unit in Messrs. Putnam’s lucrative series of ” Outlines,” attains neither the scientific authority of Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, nor the literary distinction of John Drinkwater. It is a frankly popular attempt to illumine the main peaks of painting in Western Europe from the Renaissance to the end of the 18th Century, covering the Italian, German, Dutch, Flemish,Spanish, French and British schools. Its chief aim is to reproduce several ; hundred of the world’s recognized! masterpieces and to say enough about; them and their painters to give the: layman some notion of why they are considered great. ‘This it entertainingly does. The style is wordy with adjectives, descriptive rather than critical, anecdotal rather than illuminative of fundamental principles. It might almost have been written by Giorgio Vasari. As a revelation of the mind of one of the leaders of modern painting, the Outline is strangely conventional and uninspired.

Orpen’s principal preoccupations appear to be draughtsmanship and ” balance ” of composition. Touching the non-graphic arts only in the sculpture of Donatello and Michelangelo and the reliefs of Ghiberti, the book scarcely fulfills its inclusive title. Orpen strives to be religiously impersonal in his praise, but his painter’s predilections for Botticelli, Giorgione, Moroni, Lotto, Holbein, Hals, Velasquez, Vermeer, Chardin, Hogarth, Raeburn, Richard Wilson, shine through. Conspicuously omitted from mention is Andrea del Sarto.

Sir William was thought a radical in art for many years before he attained respectability by entering the R. A. But his radicalism is more of subject than of method. His many and unique self-portraits (like Rembrandt, he is his own best model), and his bizarre Memorial to the Unknown Soldier incurred their share of academic criticism. Born in Ireland in 1878, his style was formed in Dublin, the Slade School, and the New English Art Club group—a vigorous, sculpturesque plein-air tradition, intent on the solution of technical problems.

* THE OUTLINE OF ART (2-vols.)—Sir William Orpen—Putnam ($4.50, each vol.).

†THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE (4 vols.), edited by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. THE OUTLINE of LITERATURE (3 vols.), edited by John Drinkwater. THE OUTLINE of HISTORY, by H. G. Wells, was published by Macmillan in 1920. Recently Little, Brown published THE OUTLINE OF EVERYTHING.