Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Light tanning. Plates bright and vivid. 26 of 150 copies. Some marking and foxing on pages. Year 1924. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> They have endeavoured however to disembarrass themselves from the national tendency to belittle or disown anything meritorious if it happens to be British; nor can they associate themselves with the view held in some quarters that if medieval paintings in England are good they cannot be English and that if they are English they cannot be good. It is not contended that every painting here exhibited is of high merit. In this respect the Exhibition does not differ from others. Still less is it claimed that all are certainly English; the science of diagnosis in this field is not sufficiently advanced to justify dogmatic statement on one side or the other but no painting (or reproduction) has been included unless in the opinion of the Committee there is a prima facie case for its British origin or for its evidences of British influence. Some exhibits are more frankly doubtful than others for example the Sherborne Triptych (No. 47); but the disinterment of William Baker’s astonishing series of frescoes at Eton and their pronounced Flemish style suggests that we may have to re-examine and possibly revise our judgements upon many paintings long domiciled in England. (MP)