Page View
The craftsman
(June 1910)
Reviews, pp. 405-410 ff.
Page 405
ALS 1K KAN: NOTES: REVIEWS
nature is evidenced throughout the work.
Many artists of New York have been most
interested in this exhibition and have as-
sured Mrs. Hopkins that she should devote
as much of her life as she could take from
her original interest to this newer line of
c,-,deavor. The critics feel that we have in
the painting of this woman of already great
achievement an artist whose work will be
of distinct significance, if her progress in,
the future can be measured by the work of
the past two years. It is Mrs. Hopkins"
plan to spend this coming summer in Bel-
gium and to paint in and about Bruges,
which is so full of inspiration for the lover
of landscape work. Mrs. Hopkins herself
feels that the best and biggest part of her
life must be given to aiding the progress of
the students at the School of Design, and
yet she finds great joy in this personal ex-
pression of her own interest in the beauty
of the world.
REVIEWS
THE AMERICAN COLLEGE: BY ABRA-
HAM FLEXNER
A criticism of our present college sys-
tem that educators and students.
alike should read with care is "The
American College," by Mr. Abra-
ham Flexner. The book is the result of
twenty years' study of the subject, based
upon the author's own work in preparing
pupils for college, a close observation of
their development during and after .their
college careers, and his personal experience
as graduate student at universities in this
country and abroad.
Mr. Flexner first defines his problem by
outlining the work and development of the
American college from its foundation in
the days of the Puritans down to the pres-
ent time, showing the conservatism that has
so seriously hampered the wider usefulness
of these institutions, and also the tentative
efforts now being made toward widening
the curriculum sufficiently to make college
training more useful to the practical work
of after life. These efforts to reorganize
the curriculum on vital modem lines have
failed in effectiveness because, as the author
summarizes his argument: "The Amer-
ican college is wisely committed to a broad
and flexible scheme of higher education,
through which each individual may hope to
procure the training best calculated to real-
ize his maximum effectiveness. The scheme
fails for lack of sufficient insight; in the
first place, because the prepatatoty school
routine, devised by the college, suppresses
just what the college assumes that it will
develop; in the second place, because of the
chaotic condition of the college curriculum;
finally, because research has largely appro-
priated the resources of the college, sub-
stituting the methods and interest of highly
specialized investigation for the larger ob-
jects of college teaching."
The way out, as Mr. Flexner sees it, lies
in the vigorous reassertion of the priority
of the college as such; the shifting back of
the point of emphasis to the training of the
undergraduate; a reform of the preparatory
school so that the transition to college
would be less mechanically regulated, and
an emphasis of the teaching motive that will
put an end to commercialism. (Published
by The Century Company, New York. 237
pages. Price, $i.oo net.)
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE: BY
RUSSELL STURGIS
W ITH the death of the late Russell
Sturgis this country lost one of its
most notable writers on art, architecture
and the crafts, so that the second volume of
his "History of Architecture" brings with
it a sharp regret that the work must be
finished by someone else. The third volume
is in preparation by his son, and others who
have sufficient knowledge of his plan of
the whole work to finish it. In the volume
at hand the history of architecture is
brought down to the later Romanesque in
the several countries of Europe. It will be
remembered that the first volume dealt with
the classic architecture of ancient Egypt,
Western Asia, Greece and Rome. The sec-
ond, which is quite as exhaustive and schol-
arly in its handling, takes up architecture in
India and Southeastern Asia and in China,
Japan and Persia. This is followed by an
account of the styles resulting from the de-'
cline of ancient art, of which a historical'
sketch is given. Next come descriptions
and illustrations of the earlier Basilicas, the
churches of Radiate plan, and the effects
of the Byzantine influence upon Christian
architecture; then a sketch of Moslem
architecture in Syria, Egypt, North Africa,
Persia, India, Sicily and Spain, and the lat-
ter part of the book is devoted to the de-
velopment of the later Romanesque in Italy,
France, England, Germany, Spain, Scandi-
navia, Armenia and Southeastern Europe.
Mr. Sturgis' work is so well and widely
405
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