IN the last year there has been a surprising number of books on French art. This is an encouraging fact, since it shows that the interest of the general reading public is no longer limited to the Renaissance. This book by the art critic of the London Times is an "introduction" and no more. It adds nothing to the study of French painting, and merely repeats rather well to be sure, what has been said many times before.

Mr. Clutton-Brock has the slightly academic point of view of the illustrious but conservative paper for which he writes. The Baroque is to him anathema; and Boucher, but an insignificant follower of Watteau. Luckily he ends with the nineteenth century. One is frightened at what he would have done with the twentieth. And yet there is some good criticism in it.

The book is written in much the same manner as the daily review of the Royal Academy exhibition. The words round out nicely, but when you come to analyse them, they mean little or nothing. It seems to be the sort of criticism in which Englishmen excell.