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Books 75 memory'. And in reference to the projection process he also states that 'This [process] is especially helpful when striving for an exact likeness in a portrait'. I personally find this attitude unacceptable as a painter, and the suggestion that painters should be freed from making sketches or from the exercise of their visual memory bad advice. The book is a clearly written, well illustrated 'how-to-do-it' guide, the kind of book that is very popular in the U.S.A. nowadays. I highly recommend the book to illustrators. Those who aspire to be painters of good calibre should use the book with caution. James McNeillWhistler. Hilary Taylor. Studio Vista, London. 1978. 192pp., illus. £15.00. Reviewed by Christopher Crouch" Despite Whistler's insistence that his pamtmgs should be valued as intrinsically aesthetic objects, independent of their subject matter and genesis, it is difficult for a critic to do so, as his work is so well documented. The mature Sickert's reaction to Whistler's work is probably the key to subsequent criticism of it; it is the reaction of the burgeoning materialist against the work of an idealist. Sickert's main contention was that Whistler was a painter whose aesthetic sensibilities were stronger than his artistic ability. Whistler's aesthetic preferences and the dandified connection between his life and work makes it difficult to assess it independently from his personality, and a reevaluation of his paintings, unless they are viewed objectively as isolated artifacts, can lead to only two things, either a duplication, with minor additions and alterations, of The Life ofJames McNeill Whistler (1908) by E. R. and J. Pennell or a reaffirmation of Whistler's own taste. Taylor treads a confident path between these problems, examining Whistler's painting from his early days in the Parisian studios to the summit of his achievement and his attempts to widen the scope of the English art world. Biographical details are mentioned but briefly, and one's view of the man is governed through the manifestation of his pictures. The examination of the paintings is carefully balanced between chronological orderings and thematic groupings-for instance the 'Nocturnes' are examined as a group, as are the 'White Girl' paintings, both themes overlapping and interlocking with other aspects of his work, the Japanese influence for example. There is little mention of the etchings and lithographs , except where they elucidate the paintings. Her interpretative approach is literary rather than visual, emphasis being placed on iconography and symbolism, as opposed to colour and structure. Much attention, for example, is given to an examination of the derivation of his musical terminology for the naming of his paintings. The paintings are seen in relation mostly to his contemporaries, such as Courbet , Manet and Fantin La Tour. Sometimes the pictorial comparisons are a little vague; a comparison between Vermeer 's 'Lady at the Virginals' and Whistler's 'At the Piano' is unconvincing, a minor point, perhaps, but one that does have its echoes in what are often rather lack-lustre analyses of the structural components of some of the pictures and also in the absence of any real criticism of Whistler's draughtsmanship. Whilst Taylor examines Whistler's reliance upon the preconceived and premeditated gestural response, she does evaluate its success in relation to the finished work. Lucidly written and interesting, this book, I think, provides the most easily accessible introduction to Whistler's paintings. .It is well illustrated with a thoughtful selection of paintings. Of particular interest is the closing section of the book, which is an examination of the contemporary critical response (both adverse and complimentary) towards his attempt to shake the English art world from its isolationist lethargy. "36 Springbourne Road, St. Michaels in the Hamlet, Liverpool 17 7BJ, England. William Holman Hunt and Typological Symbolism. George P. Landow. Yale Univ. Press, London 1979. 192 pp., illus. £14. Reviewed by John F. Moffitt* This is an essential study whether one is dealing with the rather specialized subject of the didactic and devotional paintings of William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) or with the broader topic of the 19th-century English movement called pre-Raphaelism or with the meaning of many paintings of...

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