Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 2, 1909.djvu/700

 A CATALOGUE RAISONNE OF THE WORKS OF THE MOST EMINENT DUTCH PAINTERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY SOME PRESS OPINIONS ON VOL. I. (Continued). DAIL Y CHRONICLE." A work that must prove welcome and, indeed, invaluable to all students of painting, and take with English collectors and dealers the place of indispensable companion which, as Mr. Hawke says, Smith's Catalogue Raisonnt has filled for eighty years. . . . The English edition of this ' masterpiece of scholarly research,' as he truly calls it, has teen admirably prepared by Mr. Ilawke. The conveyance of descriptions of pictures from one language to another is one of the most difficult (as well as most thankless) of tasks, calling for an enormous patience and much tact if to accuracy indispensable in a catalogue raisonntQzse and elegance are to te added. In these respects, Mr. Hawke's is an excellent piece of work, but he has brought to it more than the zeal of the translator. His editorial labours, though their results are, in bulk, comparatively small, have been in reality very considerable. Following the German edition at several months' interval, his volume incor- porates the particulars of sales not available for the other, as well as descriptions supplied by Mr. Edward Robinson and Mr. Roger Fry of pictures in America, and by other slight changes and emendations he has enhanced the value of the work for the English reader. The under- taking is one on which lx>th the publishers and the scholars engaged on it are to be heartily congratulated." MOKNING POS7 "Since the appearance of Smith's first volume eighty years ago numerous treasures have been discovered in palaces, country houses, and local museums, wrong attributions have been rectified, and it lias long teen felt that a 'new edition' of Smith's ' Catalogue ' was urgently needed. . . . This new edition of Smith's ' Catalogue ' is welcome, and to the initiated it will be indispensable." DAILY MAIL." Mr. De Groot has not only followed the movements of the pictures recorded by Smith, but he has added to the list numerous works that were unknown to the original compiler pictures actually in existence, and others mentioned in records, which, though ' lost' at present, may at any moment turn up and be identified by the help of this new edition. He has added the names of some artists who, like Frans Hals, Vermeer, and others, were held in too slight esteem in the earlier part of last century to be included among the great masters. To show the thoroughness of his work on this new edition, it may suffice to state that over 250 pages, embracing 889 fully described items, are devoted to Jan Steen alone ! " The Third Volume of the Catalogue will include the works of FRANS HALS, ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE, ISACK VAN OSTADE, and ADRIAEN BROUWER. LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.