Colour of London, historic, personal, & local by William Loftie

The colour of London, historic, personal, & local by William John Loftie (Toronto, 1910). - 416 pages

With illustrations by Yoshio Markino.

London and its life of revelry and wealth, of sordidness, of grime and struggle, and he saw the beauty that is in them; and though often enough he has " heard the East a-calling " he has paid no heed, preferring to die in London than to live in the dainty land that gave him birth. Not that he lacks patriotism by any means, but he obeys the call of his art and lets his country wait a little.
That art of his has been called "hybrid" by some, because he has quite naturally en-grafted Western methods and pra6lice on to Eastern vision and Eastern taste.

Many have been the painters of London, more numerous still its illustrators, since Hollar recorded for us the City as it stood before the Great Fire, since Pugin and Rowlandson pictured the scenes of the town, even since Mr Herbert Marshall began to paint the effects of London in sunshine, rain, and fog.

Take a few of his drawings of effects. In "Hyde Park" it is not the young lady who has interested him most, although she holds her skirt — what Japanese drawing in that skirt ! — in the way, presumably, which he tells us stirs his admiration so deeply; it is the mist, rather, which floats among the trees in red and russet autumn, and heightens by contrast the colors of the leaves as they lie upon the ground, and throws into strong relief the branches that hang across the top, as in Katsugawa-Shunsho's " Colors in Character," or in the well-known "Samurai and two Girls" of Torii Kiyonaga.

[Reprinted, Paperback, perfect binding]