old French art during the period of stagnation
through which it has passed ... It is her excellent
example which has encouraged the greater number
of the young miniaturists of to-day who are so
actively working in co-operation."

Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon was born at Dijon
during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Her
father was a distinguished musical conductor and
composer of studies, symphonies, operas and ballets.
Mme. Debillemont's vocation was strongly marked
out for her, and luckily she found no obstacle
placed in the way of her following it by a family
of independent spirit and artistic tendency. About
the age of eighteen, having brilliantly passed the
examinations of the city of Paris, she received her
certificate as teacher of drawing, and sought for a
position as head of a school, successfully obtaining
such a post some few years later in the loth
arrondissement of Paris. After seven years of
professorship the young woman became anxious
to assure herself greater liberty, and was full of a
belief that she could attain some eminence in the
branch of miniature painting, which at that time
had become so debased in the hands of the fair
unmarried girls who wiled away the time spoiling
ivories with their villainous daubs. M. de
Pomeyrac, miniature painter to Napoleon III.,
was her first adviser and her guide in the new
214



technique to which she now desired to devote her
talents. After her first timid essays and her
earliest stippled drawings, she grew bolder to the
point of desiring to innovate and to wander in
untrodden paths. She sought to gain a freedom
of execution that should not exclude delicacy and
grace of modelling. A visit that she paid to
Flanders and Holland sufficed to enlarge her
conceptions and to arouse in her the determina-
tion of equalling the work of certain petitsmaftres
in the Netherlands, and of doing for her epoch
what they had done for theirs.

Bom under a lucky star, Mme. Debillemont-
Chardon had no time to become impatient, for
success came to her at once. Her contempo-
raries appreciated her original talent, and the
acknowledged beauties of the beau-mondc made
it a point of vanity to be painted in miniature by
the young artist. In 1894, and again in 1901,
she received the medal of the Salon des Artistes
Fran9ais, and is to-day hors concours. The Mus^e
du Luxembourg in Paris and the Walker Art
Gallery, Liverpool, acquired examples of her most
original work. Her reputation established, pupils
came to her from all parts of the world, and these,
for the most part, in their turn have attained an



•RfeVERIE" BY GABRIELLE DEBILLEMONT-CHARDON



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Mme. Debillemont-Chardon! s Miniatures



**JEUNE NYMPHE." BY GABRIBLLE
DEBILLEMONT-CHARDON

\Musie du Luxembourg)

excellent notoriety at the Exhibitions of Paris,
London, Copenhagen, Munich and elsewhere.
Mme. Debillemont-Chardon is able to explain the
difficulties of the art of miniature painting, and
can teach how they may be overcome, how to
obtain that lightness of hand, that accuracy of
touch, that taste for harmonious colouring and that
subtle blending of tones without which no charming
miniatures capable of
resisting the ravages of
time can exist. " It is a
great mistake," she re-
marks in an excellent
treatise on miniature paint-
ing on ivory published
under her name, " to sup-
pose that it is not neces-
sary to be able to draw
well in order to paint a
good miniature. I counsel
all my pupils who desire
to study painting on ivory,
not to begin this art until
they have been well pre-
pared by good years
devoted to drawing. My
long experience," she
adds, "has taught me
that only those who know
how to draw have ever



attained any measure of success ; the others have
remained by the wayside, and despite an execu-
tion which might become pretty and charming,
have served but to swell the ranks of the medio-
crities. The miniaturist in portrait work must
not remain content with mere external resem-
blance, but must endeavour to look deeper and
to divine the spiritual side of the sitter, his char-
acter, his personality, for besides the face it is
also the soul that the artist must try to see."

Madame Debillemont - Ch,ardon has aimed
to lifi the art of miniature' paintmg from the
level of the conventional, pretty, coquettish,
and, if I may be allowed the expression, "bon-
bon box " kind of work. She has conceived with
much truth the idea that too often subjects of
mere dainty elegance have been chosen by
miniature painters, and that in reality all human
beings, even the most lowly, are worthy of being
set down upon ivory amid their own proper
environment. It is for this reason that she has
chosen for one of her subjects Deux vieux
Bourguignons^ in which we are sensitive to the
earthy savour of the old vineyards of the Cdte
d'Or. La petite Kabyle, and the little giri in
a red dress of the Island of Marken, have the
merit, one sees, of having been done in the open
air, and of trapping the sunlight in the beautiful
eyes of the little models who have served as
her types. To make new experiments in colour,
in effects of light, studies under all conditions ; not
to subordinate the rdU of the miniaturist to the



DEUX VIEUX BOURGUIGNONS" BY GABRIRLLB DBBILLEMONT-CHARDON

(/« the Walker Art Gallery^ Liverpool)

215



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in modern art, should reproduce here certain of
Madeline Debillemont-Chardon's miniatures. These
portraits, in themselves, are full of suggestion and
teaching, and my part in surrounding them with
these few remarks has simply resolved itself into
saying — such is the artist who has signed them,
and therein proved the value of the theories which
she so ably puts into practice. O. U.



E



TCHED BOOK-PLATES. BY
FRANK NEWBOLT.



ETCHED BOOK-PLATE

BY SIR CHAS.



portrayal merely of fair
women or pretty high-
bom children, but to
realise that the aged, too,
are wonderfully pictur-
esque, that the sailor,
the countryman, the
workman, the artisan of
the towns, the Arab, the
Bedouin, the fellah, all
offer to the artist physiog-
nomies no less interesting
than those of the exotic
mondaines in the salons
of the metropolis — these
are some of the lessons
which Madame Debille-
mont - Chardon endeav-
ours to inculcate in her
pupils. She shows them
unceasingly how neces-
sary it is to maintain ever
a fresh and youthful out-
look in their work, how to
cultivate a sane and exact
appreciation of things
and a big and bold tech-
nique, and also to hesi-
tate ere determining too
abruptly what is " minia-
turable " and what is not
I am glad that The
Studio, the pages of
which are always open
to all independent efforts
216



HOLROYD, R.E.



If Sir Lancelot of the Lake had lived in
modern times, or if ex-Ubris had been known
where Arthur held his court at Camelot, we should
doubtless have seen in books,

** Sir Lancelot's azure lions, crown*d with gold
Ramp in the field "

of an engraved shield, and the royal book-plate



ETCHED BOOK-PLATE



BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A.



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ceased to be seen in war, though it is only within
h'ving memory that standards have fallen out of
use as rallying points in the mel^e. Khaki has
taken the place of scarlet, guns have a range of
three thousand yards, and the frontal attack is as
much out of date as the naval tactics of Actium.

Book-plates are the product of democracy, and
afford evidence of the spread of education. They
give an opportunity for the use of arms akin to
their original object, but the modem appreciation
of design, and the consequent existence of a
number of designers, supply an incentive to the
production of special symbols for individuals who
are attracted by the prevailing fashion. They are



ETCHED BOOK-PLATS

BY SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, R.B.



would have given the Mr. Eve of the time an
opportunity of creating a delicate design of the
gilded dragon of Britain in the days of chivalry,
when a coat of Arms was almost as necessary for a
knight as a coat of mail. The invention of gun-
powder has much to answer for. Until the four-
teenth century heraldry gave the only clue by
which a man, prince, baron, knight, or servant,
could be distinguished in the field, and an intimate
acquaintance with the principal blazons, marks,
and terms was much commoner than an elementary
knowledge of letters. It is now a mere survival,
but it still remains a symbol of family, and a better
one than a name itself, because, while a tinker may
call himself Norfolk Howard, the right to arms
must be legally established, as those who receive
titles of honour sometimes discover to their cost.
There is more than one blank shield in the Inner
Temple Hall, and doubtless in the halls of other
Inns also, where the arms of successive treasurers
are emblazoned in order round the walls.

After the battle of Agincourt heraldic emblems
218



ETCHED BOOK-PLATE BY SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, R.E.

inexpensive, useful, and a graceful addition to the
most modest library. They may be printed from
any kind of block or plate, and each kind has
some special quality to recommend it, but etched
book-plates appeal to the taste of many as the
most interesting, and it is with these alone, saving
one slight exception, that we have here to deal.

It is difficult to lay down exact rules for anything
in art. Each new movement bursts the bonds of
tradition, and where tradition is paramount, art
decays. When Whistler, himself a genius and an
outlaw, dogmatically insisted upon the criminality



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it must generally do, the individuality of the etcher.
The perfect label suggests at once the owner and
the designer. The old heraldic engraving sug-
gested nothing except that the owner claimed the
right to bear arms. In the unnamed book-plate
by Mr. Brangwyn, which we are also allowed to
reproduce, the idea of the owner was to suggest
the soaring spirit of intellectual development over-
riding all material obstacles to mental progress.
A symbolical figure rises wingless above a city^
though I confess that the object of the cymbals is
not apparent.

The other example of this artist's book-plates is a
combination of several ideas. It is heraldic, though



ETCHED BOOK-PLATE



BY D. Y. CAMERON



of large etched plates, he was too shortsighted or
too vain to foresee the development of their
decorative value, and other instances might be
given from mediaeval or Eastern art. It may,
however, be safely stated that book-plates should
not be too large for convenient use in books, and
they should possess either some striking individu-
ality or some special beauty of design, and of
course the execution should be of the best.

The modern label often suggests that the owner is
fond of books. Thus in one of our reproductions
we see Labour storing up great piles of volumes.
But in Mr. Frank Brangwyn's design for Mr. Victor
Singer, the prominent feature is not really the
books, but the virile force of the designer who
loves to design virility. This example suggests
another side to the question of ideas for book-plates.
The owner admires the work of an artist, and
desires to possess an etching of his, which is to be
all his own, but not, like a portrait, a plate from
which only a few impressions will naturally be
required. A book-plate satisfies the wish, and the
design may be of any kind so long as it recalls, as



ETCHED BOOK-PLATE. BY GEORGE W. EVE, K.E.

not in the manner of Mr. Eve, who, like Mr.
Sherborn, seems devoted to what is exclusively
knightly, and it suggests an interest on the part ot
both the owner and the etcher in ships, and it is a
beautiful, free, and characteristic design. Like the
other two, it is primarily an etching, and in its
original state almost unsuitable, for reasons of size
and expense, to be used as a book label ; but it has
been well reproduced on a small wood block, and
the comparatively cheap impressions of the flatter

219



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some are very simple, and some purely heraldic in
treatment.

Mr. Eve, who designed and executed the King's
book-plates, of various sizes, and also those of
Queen Victoria, has brought the art of etching
these armorial plates to such technical perfection
that he seems to be throwing down the gauntlet
to the old engravers, and the peculiar richness of
his process gives a distinctive quality which can
never be obtained by the burin. His work is best
suited to the best books : for really fine printing,
for the books of a royal library, for instance.



BTCHED BOOK-PLATE



BY D. Y. CAMERON



form ideal book-plates. They have no plate-mark,
and, when inserted in books, harmonise delightfully
with the printed pages. This may serve as a useful
hint to owners or would-be owners of large etched
examples. Sir Charles Holroyd's decorative plates,
on the other hand, are small and easily printed, so
that they preserve the character of original etchings.
One or two of them are reminiscent of Italy, and
all have the charm of marked individuality and
spontaneity.

Mr. Cameron's work, in this as in other fields,
is known to readers of The Studio. The present
specimens are also interesting, and worthy of their
fellows, fulfilling all the conditions suggested for
the execution of a useful and decorative label.
Take, for instance, that of Sir James Bell.
The name is easily legible (though perhaps not
quite so satisfactory as that of Mr. John A. Downie
in the other), the heraldic element, which we
should naturally look for in the book-plate of a
baronet, is introduced, though not obtrusively,
and the design and execution suggest the hand
of the well-known etcher. We are also reminded
that the late Lord Provost of Glasgow was the
owner of the Thistle when it challenged for the
America Cup. Mr. Cameron's book-plates are
small and somewhat typographical in character,
and their technical qualities are so fine that re-
productions cannot do them justice. All of them
give due prominence to the name of the owner ;
220



ETCHED BOOK-PLAIE BY GEORGE W. EVE, R.E.

where we imagine everything must be of the best,
nothing could be more suitable. The worst that
can be said of them is that in a democratic age,
which has witnessed this growth of popular taste,
they are undemocratic. When compared with
those of most artists they remind us of the deer-
hound in High Life and Law Life. There is a
blare of trumpets about them, a hint of polished
steel, of clanging arms and mantlets of ermine
They recall Jacquemart's matchless imitations.

Much has been written about ex-libris^ an
expression, by the way, which has passed into
current slang, like omnibus. Societies are formed
for collecting the labels, and by exchange or
purchase some have secured large numbers of
them, but with this secondary and less noble use
of the book-plate I have nothing to do. For



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. C/f \:tn -us hiji/s, .it;.1 ai-;v> liV,>«* '.■!

;â–  l:i'' i, h.i> hfiMchi th'- art of ct<'ii:h;

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ILLUMINATED TEXT DESIGNED and executed
BY F. SANGORSKI and G. SUTCLIFFE.



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regards the lettering and its decorative setting.
The selection of a passage from a modern author
is fully justified by the beauty of the thought
expressed by Sir Walter Scott. Here and there in
the writings of the great authors of the present age
one drops upon some precious saying that is no
less worthy of being enshrined in this way than
many of those on which the illuminators of the
Middle Ages displayed their talent.



This year the winter exhibition of the Royal
Society of Painters in Water-Coloura seems to be
in advance of preceding ones, though these have
all reached a high standard of late. We think
much credit must go to Mr. Anning Bell for his
Going to the Hunt^ rare in colour scheme as in
design ; but brilliant indeed are the studies of Mrs.
Laura Knight. Notable pictures are The Goose
Girl^ by Mr. Arthur Rackham ; On the Giudecca^
by Miss Clara Montalba ; Fittleworth Mill^ by the
president, Sir Ernest A. Waterlow, R.A. ; Lock
Alsh, by Mr. Robert W. Allan ; Bains de la Ville,



ETCHED BOOK-PLATE BY GEO. W. EVE, R.E.



those who take an interest in the subject on any
side there are many books to read, and the late
Mr. Gleeson White wrote a charming essay about
it, profusely illustrated, which was published as an
extra number of The Studio. F. N.

STUDIO-TALK.
(From Our Own Correspondents,)

LONDON.— The bust of the King which
Mr. Albert Bruce-Joy has executed for
the Victoria University at Manchester
is notable as being to some extent a
departure from the usual conventions of royal
portraiture. In carrying out this work the sculptor
had the advantage of special sittings from the
King, and was therefore able to make a very close
study of those subtleties of modelling which count
for so much in arriving at a likeness in portrait
sculpture. The bust in consequence is not less
successful as a record of a personality than as a
dignified and effective representation of a great
personage.

The illuminated text which we reproduce in
colour from the design of Messrs. Sangorski and
SutclifTe is a very successful achievement, and
reflects much credit on these artists, both as



BUST OF KING EDWARD FOR VICTORIA UNIVERSITY,
MANCHESTER BY A. BRUCE-JOY

223



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St Vaiery-sur-Somme^ by Mr. Walter Bayes ;
and White Phlox, by Mr. Francis E. James. Both
Mr. George Clausen and Mr. Edwin Alexander
on this occasion well support the society of
which their art is such an ornament. There
is no water-colour by Mr. Sargent this year;
but Mr. D. Y, Cameron is well represented by
A Mosque in Cairo ; and Mr. Hopwood's Sheep
Market, Biskra, is a singularly successful work.



The pastoral staff, illustrated on this page, is the
gift of a private donor to the present Bishop of
Salisbury for his use and that of his successors
in the See. It will be placed, when not in use,
in a specially designed case near the Bishop's
Throne in the Cathedral. It is executed in ivory,
silver gilt, jewelled and enamelled, with ebony



BISHOP S STAFF IN CARVED IVORY

DESIGNED BY J. A. REEVE
CARVED BY I. E. TAYLERSON



Stem. The group at the top represents Christ's
charge to St. Peter, the statues on the lower part
are those of the Blessed Virgin, to whom the
cathedral is dedicated, St. Aldhelm, St. Osmund, and
Bishop Poore, the founder of the present cathedral.
The length of the staff is 6 feet 3 inches. The
sculptor, Mr. I. E. Taylerson, is an old Lambeth
student, and a frequent exhibitor at the Academy.



The Society of Portrait Painters' Exhibition at
the New Gallery is by far one of the most successful
they have held, though Mr. Sargent is only repre-
sented by one sketch in oil and one in charcoal.
Mr. Orpen's Lewis R, L. Tomalin, Esq,, is, frankly, an
interior painting, and nothing he has done hitherto
in this department has approached it in lucidity.
Mr. Wm. Nicholson's Lady Denman is a triumph
of portraiture, but though the motive of a figure
isolated in the fashion of this has served him so
well in poster-designing, it scarcely recommends
itself to us as a new convention for portrait
painters. Mr. Charles Shannon's Phcebe seems to
fail in the face, but as a scheme it has much of
the refinement and beauty of his Mrs, Patrick
Campbell, which represents his distinguished art
at its best. The high level of the exhibition
is attained by many painters making unusual
successes, as, for instance, M. Blanche in Anniver-
sary ^ Mr. Harrington Mann in Portrait Head, Mr.
W. Llewellyn in T, W, Meates, Esq,, Mr. Maurice
Greiffenhagen in Sir James Fleming, Mr. W. B. E.
Ranken in Mrs. Brown Potter, Miss La Primaudaye
in The Egyptian Dancer, and the Hon. John
Collier's A Gentleman,



The great success of the National Loan Exhi-
bition at the Grafton Galleries is in accord with
the objects which its organisers had in view — viz.,
to assist the National Gallery, and direct to it,
through material demonstration, the wide interest
of the public. We British are so apathetic to un-
practised theory and pen-and-ink appeal, that it is
almost invariably the appearance of impatient en-
thusiasts, whose motto is "Actions not words,"
that marks each period of our advance. The
organisation of this exhibition of masterpieces is
the outcome of such enthusiasm, but no small
measure of credit is due to Mr. Francis Howard,
who has again given proof of his rare organising
skill. Public interest has been aroused to such an
extent that all records of attendance at the Grafton
Galleries— or any similar gallery, we believe — have
been broken. But the most important result of the
undertaking, and one of which the organisers can



224



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,,, . ,, ^,,,, , PORTRAIT OF A BURGOMASTER

[Nat tonal Loan Exhibition^ lent

by Messrs. Duvcm Brothers) BY FRANZ HALS



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be most proud, is the voluntary recognition by
both political parties, through Mr. Harcourt on
the one side and Mr. Balfour on the other, of
the growing necessities of the National Gallery
and its claim to increased financial help from
the State. This result is very gratifying, and
the more so having regard to the fact (as we
believe it to be) that a recent appeal to the
Treasury on the part of the National Gallery
Trustees met with no greater encouragement than
others which have been made to it in late years. But
while welcoming these signs of a changed attitude,
we must urge that if Art has any claims at all to
encouragement by the State, the claims of con-
temporary British Art should not be lost sight of.
One need only turn to Mr. Hugh Stokes' "Art
Treasures of London" to see how scantily our
living painters of eminence are represented in the
National and other public collections, a defect
which we are glad to recognise is being remedied
to some extent by the exertions of those who
control the National Art
Collections Fund.



This exhibition is re-
markable for its compre-
hensiveness. Rubens,
Velasquez, Rembrandt,
Hals, Van Dyck, Watteau,
Reynolds, Gainsborough,
are all represented by
important works. Then
a very complete collection
has been made of the
Italian School, including
works of the Primitives,
Raphael Madonnas, and
as many as four Gior-
giones, as well as examples
of Titian and Tintoret.
Of the works we repro-
duce the Portrait oj
Giovanni Onigo^ ascribed
to Giorgione, only lately
came from the Onigo
family, one of the most
ancient aristocratic fami-
lies in the North of Italy.
The three portraits by
Franz Hals, whose
methods provide such a
remarkable precedent for
the modern style, were
purchased by Messrs.