From, Beautiful Buildings in France & Belgium, Including many which have been destroyed during the war. Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome from rare old Prints and Drawings, by and after Prout, Boys, Coney, W. Callow, David Roberts, C. Wild and others, with descriptive notes, by C. Harrison Townsend, F.R.I.B.A.; New York: The Hubbell Publishing Co., 1916; pp. 1-7.
Beautiful Buildings
in France & Belgium
ARRAS : HÔTEL DE VILLE
(T. S. Boys)
Beautiful Buildings
in France & Belgium
Including many which have been destroyed during the war. Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome from rare old Prints and Drawings, by and after Prout, Boys, Coney, W. Callow, David Roberts, C. Wild and others, with descriptive notes by C. Harrison Townsend, F.R.I.B.A.
THE HUBBELL PUBLISHING CO.
NEW YORK
First published in 1916
(All rights reserved)
HE volume includes, among its reproductions in colour and monochrome from rare originals several, which, apart from the claim they make upon the artist, have the additional melancholy interest of recording beautiful works of the past now destroyed, while others, it may be feared, are still in jeopardy — if not of destruction, at least of serious damage.
To turn back the leaves of History till we reach the page that tells us of the simple days, the happy quiet life in the well-ordered city or the sleepy but prosperous country town, has a double purpose. 8 It may serve to remind us of those once happy portions of Belgium and France now racked and rent and dashed with blood by the worst of all wars, and it may, in doing so, make us more determined to maintain our resolution to see that unhappy land recreated and its wounds and scars obliterated.
The book has the further value, from a purely artistic point of view, of relying for its illustrations upon the work of artists whose reputations, based upon the sympathy and charm with which they recorded the picturesque qualities of the old towns and buildings, have of late years enormously increased.
Many of the drawings and prints have been placed at the publishers’ disposal by Mr. Augustus Walker, of Bond Street.
Copyright © 2007 by Elfinspell