Without any vain boasting, it is interesting to note that whereas most artistic movements affecting England are commonly supposed to have been imported from the Continent, we are credited at last with a genuine home growth in artistic development. Although, regarded in the large sense, country or nationality is nothing to art (being at its best always cosmopolitan and international) yet in the history of design, national and local varieties, racial characteristics and local developments must always have their value and historic interest. [Illustration: H. GRANVILLE FELL. FROM "CINDERELLA." (J. M. DENT AND CO.)] [Sidenote: BELGIUM.] We may, perhaps, take it as a sympathetic response to English feeling, the appearance of such books as M. Rijsselberghe's Almanack, with its charming designs in line, from the house of Dietrich at Brussels. M. Fernand Knopff's work, original as it is, shows sympathy with the later English school of poetic and decorative design of which D. G. Rossetti may be said to have been the father, though in book-illustration proper I am not aware that he has done much. In Holland in black and white design there is M. G. W. Dijsselhof and M. R. N. Roland Holst. [Illustration: JOHN DUNCAN. FROM "THE EVERGREEN." (GEDDES AND CO., 1895.)] [Illustration: JOHN DUNCAN. FROM "THE EVERGREEN." (GEDDES AND CO., 1895.)] [Illustration: ROBERT BURNS. FROM "THE EVERGREEN." (GEDDES AND CO., 1895.)] [Illustration: MARY SARGANT FLORENCE. FROM "THE CRYSTAL BALL." (BELL, 1894.)] [Illustration: PAUL WOODROFFE. FROM "SECOND BOOK OF NURSERY RHYMES." (GEORGE ALLEN, 1896.)] [Illustration: PAUL WOODROFFE. FROM "NURSERY RHYMES." (BELL, 1895.)] [Sidenote: GERMANY.] In Germany, such original and powerful artists as Josef Sattler and Franz Stück; the former seemingly inheriting much of the grim and stern humour of the old German masters, as well as their feeling for character and treatment of line, while his own personality is quite distinct. While Sattler is distinctly Gothic in sympathy, Stück seems more to lean to the pagan or classical side, and his centaurs and graces are drawn with much feeling and character. We have already mentioned the "Munich Calendar," designed by Otto Hupp, which is well known for the vigour and spirit with which the artist has worked after the old German manner, with bold treatment of heraldic devices, and has effectively used colour with line work. The name of Seitz appears upon some effectively designed allegorical figures, one of Gutenberg at his press. [Sidenote: "JUGEND."] "Jugend," a copiously illustrated journal published at Munich by Dr. Hirth, shows that there are many clever artists with a more or less decorative aim in illustration, which in others seems rather overgrown with grotesque feeling and morbid extravagance, but there is an abundance of exuberant life, humour, whimsical fancy and spirit characteristic of South Germany. [Illustration: M. RIJSSELBERGHE.]