Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/426

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erratic genius, Aubrey Beardsley, which still lie about unregarded on bookstalls for a few shillings, containing poems and stories by poor Ernest Dowson, brilliant criticisms by Mr. Bernard Shaw and Mr. Frederick Wedmore, and fine literary fare from the pens of a brilliant school of writers, and last, but not least, crowded with drawings by Beardsley himself. Here are three fine lithographs by Mr. Charles H. Shannon entitled Salt Water, two nude figures by the seashore, The Diver, a most delicate drawing in the nude of a woman about to dive, and a third exquisite lithograph of two girls, which is supremely exquisite in its Watteau-like grace.

It is difficult among a crowd of worthy artists in lithography to differentiate with nicety between men where the work of all is so excellent. Mr. William Strang has done noteworthy lithographs in his Ian Strang and other portraits. Mr. Frank Short, in his Timber Ships, Great Yarmouth, and his Eel Fishing, Volendam, has exhibited a mastery of the possibilities of the technique. Mr. Shannon, whom we have already mentioned, has done delicate and sensitive work which is always delightfully precious. Mr. J. Pennell, in a long series, among which we select almost at random View in Penzance and Street in Rouen, has contributed to the advancement of lithography, in addition to being its historian. Mr. Oliver Hall, Colonel Goff, with his powerful effects and breadth of treatment, Mr. Frank Brangwyn, Mr. Anning Bell, Mr. Edwin Hayes, Mr. George Clausen, and, of course, M. Alphonse Legros, have all made lithography a living art.