 have reality, a living
    throb, and so are indeed autobiography."


HUBERT AND JOHN VAN EYCK: Their Life and Work. By W. H. JAMES WEALE.
With 41 Photogravure and 95 Black and White Reproductions. Royal 4to.
L5 5_s._ net.

                       SIR MARTIN CONWAY'S NOTE.

    _Nearly half a century has passed since Mr. W. H. James Weale,
    then resident at Bruges, began that long series of patient
    investigations into the history of Netherlandish art which was
    destined to earn so rich a harvest. When he began work Memlinc was
    still called Hemling, and was fabled to have arrived at Bruges as
    a wounded soldier. The van Eycks were little more than legendary
    heroes. Roger Van der Weyden was little more than a name. Most of
    the other great Netherlandish artists were either wholly forgotten
    or named only in connection with paintings with which they had
    nothing to do. Mr. Weale discovered Gerard David, and disentangled
    his principal works from Memlinc's, with which they were then
    confused. During a series of years he published in the "Beffroi,"
    a magazine issued by himself, the many important records from
    ancient archives which threw a flood of light upon the whole
    origin and development of the early Netherlandish school. By
    universal admission he is hailed all over Europe as the father of
    this study. It is due to him in great measure that the
    masterpieces of that school, which by neglect were in danger of
    perishing fifty years ago, are now recognised as among the most
    priceless treasures of the Museums of Europe and the United
    States. The publication by him, therefore, in the ripeness of his
    years and experience, of the result of his studies on the van
    Eycks is a matter of considerable importance to students of art
    history. Lately, since the revived interest in the works of the
    Early French painters has attracted the attention of untrained
    speculators to the superior schools of the Low Countries, a number
    of wild theo