Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

ARTS.
718
Fine Arts, more artistic skill. Also, the painters of history and genre
subjects of the present time go far beyond those who prac¬
tised in the early period of the school. What works of that
day would stand in comparison with those of Etty ? In
landscape the superiority is even more striking. Turner
far surpassed Wilson and Gainsborough,—and Bonnington,
Calcott, Collins, P. Nasmyth, Muller, and many others (we
avoid names of living artists, and refer only to those lately de¬
ceased), may be successfully opposed to them ; while our
school of water-colour painters, which is of purely English
origin, is looked up to and imitated all over Europe.
Besides the revival of art on the continent, a new influ¬
ence has been brought to bear on British art, by the intro¬
duction of an element till lately unknown in this country,
namely, government patronage. It was often made a sub¬
ject of complaint, that while the governments of France and
Germany gave liberal encouragement to the arts, the govern¬
ment of our country was noted for neglecting them. But the
decoration of the new houses of parliament was at length
taken advantage of as affording a fitting opportunity for em¬
ploying native artists on national works ; and about ten
years ago competitions were instituted, and prizes offered,
both in money and commissions for pictures. The amount
of talent called forth in this way far exceeded expectation ;
and accordingly, several important commissions were awarded
for pictures in fresco and in oil, though chiefly in the former
style, as a species of painting not hitherto practised in Eng¬
land, and from its being thought best adapted for combin¬
ing with architectural decoration. Several sculptors, too,
—and the English school reckons at present many eminent
names in that high walk of art—were employed by govern¬
ment. These commissions, so far as executed, satisfactorily
demonstrate the high capabilities of the artists employed ;
but it is doubtful whether a demand for large works, espe¬
cially when executed on walls, will become general in this
country. There seem many reasons against it : the domes¬
tic habits of the people lead them to seek for enjoyment in
their private dwellings, and there to collect around them what
they prize most; works of large dimensions, therefore, can
seldom be accommodated. Besides, largeness of style is in no
degree dependent on dimensions of canvas ; in a mercantile
community too, large sums are seldom laid out without a
calculation that it may be necessary at some future time to
convert into money the property on which the expenditure
was made, and moderately-sized pictures are generally pre¬
ferred as an investment; and, indeed, extensive mansions
adorned with fresco paintings are not now considered, as they
were in former times, the means of adding importance to
and handing down a family to posterity. Even in Ger¬
many, although art was there first fostered by government
patronage, artists are turning their attention to private sales
as the most lasting source from which art is to be supported.
The King of Bavaria built churches principally with the
view of encouraging fresco painting, but these have now be¬
come so numerous that there is scarcely a pretext for erect¬
ing one more; and his palaces, rebuilt or extended for the
same purpose, are larger than he can occupy. In France
a like feeling is gradually arising, and it has lately been
strengthened by the following occurrence. The exiled
Duchess of Orleans, in spring of the present year (1853),
brought to public sale the gallery of modern French paint¬
ings which had been formed by the late duke, and a larger
sum was realized than had been expended on the collection.
In place of purchasing or commissioning easel pictures, had
the duke employed the different artists to execute frescoes
in some of his chateaux, they would never have formed a
resource for his family in adversity, nor in any way benefited
himself or others, as they would probably have been obli¬
terated to make way for compositions illustrative of the deeds
of the new dynasty.
Government has also taken up strenuously a plan which, it is
strongly hoped, will improve the taste of the people, that, Fine Arts,
namely, of art tuition in design, particularly with reference
to manufactures. With this view a number of schools have
been instituted in London, in Edinburgh, and in the princi¬
pal cities of the kingdom. These have been in operation for
several years, most of them having been founded at the same
time that government proposed competitions at Westmin¬
ster Hall with the view of encouraging the fine arts. This
latter plan seems, however, to have been discontinued, at
least it is being but feebly carried out, while the schools of
design are receiving the particular attention of government.
On this legislative procedure, public opinion is much divided,
many holding that, in place of forming schools where an in¬
ferior kind of art is taught, government should encourage
only the highest, as that would involve improvement in all
the inferior branches ; others again—and among these many
of the principal manufacturers—think that such schools now
attempt too much, the plan having lately been tried, of com¬
municating a practical knowledge of the particular trade or
manufacture for which the designs are made. They hold
that the education imparted should be limited to drawing and
modelling, it being left to the employers and the master-de¬
signers in their establishments, to instruct the pupils in the
kind of design that can be practically applied to the particu¬
lar trade they engage in; as the attempt by these schools
to turn out practical designers perfected in their profession
is hopeless; and the little practical knowledge they can learn
at the schools, serving only to puzzle them, must be all un¬
learned in the manufactory. There can be no doubt, how¬
ever, that every step taken in disseminating education should
be hailed with satisfaction,—that drawing, the medium by
which knowledge is directly communicated to the mind
through the eye, should be made a part of education as well
as letters, and that galleries of art should be acquired by the
nation, and be made available to the people in the same way
as public libraries are. For it is in vain to educate men to
execute fine designs, unless the people who are to purchase
those designs are also sufficiently educated to be able to ap¬
preciate them.
Much has been written on the subject of artists forming
themselves into societies or academies, and it has been
alleged that all such institutions are injurious to art. This is
surely very unreasonable. Artists are equally entitled to
form societies for their mutual benefit and for advancing
their profession generally, as members of the legal or medi¬
cal profession. And if such combinations were injurious to
art, it is reasonable to suppose that the artists themselves
would be the first to make the discovery, seeing that what¬
ever is detrimental to art must be hurtfid to them; and it
is surely natural that they should take a deep interest in art-
education, and desire that a flourishing school of artists
should succeed them, to maintain worthily and to perpetuate
that profession to which all their energies have been de¬
voted. The occasional outcry made against government
assistance to academies is no good indication of a love of art.
The support of that kind that this country has hitherto af¬
forded to academies of art is of the most limited descrip¬
tion, and immeasurably disproportionate to the sums ex¬
pended in the endowment in universities of chairs in the
various branches of literature and science, besides the
numerous annual grants to learned bodies.
Art in France is perhaps, at present, in a more healthy
state than it has been in any former period; for though en¬
titled to claim, on the ground of birth, many eminent artists
who flourished in past ages, the only really national French
school was that of Louis Quatorze, which sprung up in an
age when the standard of taste was extremely low. This
school, when almost exhausted, was swept away at the Re¬
volution ; and the hard and exaggerated imitations of classic
art then substituted, have not only been now much modi¬
fied, but many of the artists of the French school have en-