Part 5 (1/2)

The building at the back sees of a dirty palette, and the sky in the left-hand corner comes out of the picture I have only to add that the picture has been purchased out of the Chantry Bequest Fund, and the purchase is considered to be equivalent to a formal declaration that Mr Hacker will be elected an associate of the Royal Academy at the next election

Mr Hacker's election to the Acadeone conclusion--following as it does the election of Mr Stanhope Forbes, makes it plain that the intention of the Acadereat power a lish art, which, in the opinion of a large body of artists--and it is valuable to know that their opinion is shared by the best andand destroying our English artistic tradition Mr

Hacker's election, and the three elections that will follow it, those of Mr Shannon, Mr Alfred East, and Mr Bromley, will be equivalent to an official declaration that those who desire to be English Academicians must adopt the French methods Independent of the national disaster that these elections will inflict on art, they will bethe forty Academicians there is not one who considers these future Academicians to be comparable to Mr Whistler, Mr Albert Moore, Mr Swan, or Mr

Sargent No one holds such an opinion, and yet there is no doubt which way the elections in the Acadeo

The explanation of this incredible anoiven, the explanation is not a noble one, but that is not a matter for which I can be held responsible; suffice it to say, that my explanation is the only possible explanation The Academy is a private commercial enterprise, and conducts its business on the lines which it considers the rant and undeniable If this is so--how the facts can otherwise be explained I cannot see--it is to be regretted that the Acaderets are vain The only thing to do now is to see that the Acadeer allowed to sail under false colours

This article may awaken in the Acaderant defiance of public opinion, or it may serve to render the Academicians even more stiff-necked than before

In either case it will have accomplished its purpose

THE ORGANISATION OF ART

No fact is more painful to the modern mind than that row more and more determined to thwart Nature's desire of inequality by public education Whether everybody should be taught to read and write I leave to politicians--the matter is not important; but that the nation should not be instructed in drawing, lish literature I will never cease to land for the last thirty years goes to prove that systematised education in art means artistic decadence

To the ordinaryin the words institutions, professors, exas have been given of late years to art, and parents and guardians need no longer have any fear for those confided to their charge: the art of painting has been recognised as a profession! The principal institution where this profession is practised is called the Royal Acadeentlee the Third, and it has been dowered by the State to the extent of at least three hundred thousand pounds Professors from Oxford, even bishops, dine there The members of this institution put RA after their names; the president has beento be made a lord, and that he was not we nity of art

Literature does not offer so ; but strenuous efforts are being anise it, and, by the aid of academies, exa, it will be brought into line with the other professions

And the journalists too are anxious to ”erect their craft to the dignity of a profession which shall confer upon its members _certain social status_ like that of the barrister and lawyer” Entrance is to be strictly conditional; no one is to have a right to practice without a diploma, and members are to be entitled to certain letters after their nalish literature at the universities, and every month Mr Walter Besant raises a wail in the _Author_ that the peerage is not as open to three-volume novelists as it is to brewers He bewails the fact that no eminent man of letters, with the exception of Lord Tennyson, has been made the enforced associate of brewers and politicians Mr

Besant does not think that titles in these democratic days are foolish and absurd, pitiful in the personality of those n therotesque in the personality of those on whom they have been conferred Mr Besant does not see that the desire of the baker, the brewer, the butcher, and I may add the three-volume novelist, to be addressed by small tradesmen and lackeys as ”yer lordshi+p”, raises a smile on the lips even of the ime_ I know, for the s are not being raised, if official recognition of merits is not proclairaphs concerning the ho of teeth that were heard when an intelligent portion of the Press induced Mr Tate to withdraw his offer to build a gallery and furnish it with pictures by Messrs

Herkoed that the pictures were valuable pictures; the merit or demerit of the pictures was not what interested, but the fact that a great deal of es, iven to those whose pictures were enshrined in the new temple of art The Tate Gallery touched these folk as would an ies, or a coronation in Westminster Abbey Their senses were tickled by the prospect of a show, theirwas about to be organised, and nothing appeals so anisation

An epoch is represented by a word, and to organise represents the doanise is to be respectable, and as every one wants to be respectable, every one dreaanisation Soldiers, sailors, policemen, members of parliament, independent voters, clerks in the post office, bus drivers, dockers, every iinable variety of worker, domestic servants--it is difficult to think of any class that has not been organised of late years

There is a gentle in the way of social organisation for the gipsies The gipsies have not appealed to him; they have professed no desire to have their social status raised; they have, I believe, disclai, whoever he may be, all participation in the scheentleht the worthy gentleanisers, is an unreasoning instru--or, put it differently, to educate so as it is not hiipsy under the hedge, the artist painting under a hill, it matters not A technical school of instruction would enable the gipsy to harness his horse better than he does at present; and the artist would paint ht to stipple, and exaiven prizes for stippling The general anisation of every kind, and froeneral ipsy whose very condition of existence is freedoroups himself under no standard, who can live only in disastrous tis, and allows hiht of the stars, finds himself forced into a uniforh stool in the South Kensington Museu the professors his hand drops fro-board, unable to accomplish the admired stipple

But solenition must be extended to art Art is an educational influence, and the Kensington galleries are soreeable places, where sweethearts can s under divine masterpieces The utilitarian MP h to understand that art justifies its own existence, that it is its own honour and glory; and he nourishes a flie su schools of art and founding picture galleries Then there is another class--those who have fish to fry, and to who-pan Mr Tate craves for a ained him a title, which it may, the museum would be called--What would be an appropriate name? There are men too who have trifles to sell, and they talk loudly of the glories of

That France should have a Luxeh; that we should have one would be ano country I pass over the failure of the Luxeenius a struggle with insolent ignorance What did the Luxeas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, pissaro? The Luxe chose rather to honour such pretentious uereau, Jules Lefebvre, Jules Breton, and their like What has our Acadeenius froreat sculptor of his generation, fro fire-irons? How often did the Academy refuse Cecil Lawson's pictures? When they did accept him, was it not because he had become popular in spite of the Academy?

Did not the Academy refuse Mr Whistler's portrait of histo a threat of one of the Acaden if a place was not found for it? Place was found for it seven feet above the line Has not the Academy for the last five-and-twenty years lent the whole stress and authority of its naenius was sufficient for the fight, and it was not until he had conquered past all question that he left this country The record of the Acadenificant one But if it has exercised a vicious influence in art, its history is no worse than that of other acadeenius when it was popular, and when it was not popular it has trampled upon it

We have Free Trade in literature, why should we not have Free Trade in art? Why should not every artist go into the market without title or masquerade that blinds the public to the value of what he has to sell?

I would turn art adrift, titleless, RA-less, out into the street and field, where, under the light of his original stars, the iht dream once more, and for the mere sake of his dreams

ART AND SCIENCE

”Mr Goschen,” said a writer in a nu successfully resisted the attempt to induce hiton to those of art” An excellent theme it see praise of Mr Tate for his good intention, the opportunity wasbetween the false claie and protection True it is that to differentiate between art and science is like drawing distinctions between black and white; and in excuse I ueness and weakness of the public s the eneral tendency to atterounds of utility--that is to say, educational influences and the counter attraction that a picture gallery offers to the public-house on Bank Holidays Such reasoning is well enough at politicalthinkers It is merely the flower of foolish belief that nineteenth century wisdoes; that we are far in advance of our forefathers in religion, in morals, and in art We are only in advance of our forefathers in science In art we have done little ood canvas and marble, and not content with suchto her utilitarian ends and moral purposes

Modern puritanisuised speech it is pleaded that art is not nearly so useless as ed that art may be reconciled after all with the ress, and religious belief Such is still the attitude of lishists, even if we have to ad is not so easily defined as that of mixed pickles or umbrellas Another serious indictment is that art appeals rather to the few than to the many True, indeed; and yet art is the very spirit and sense of the many Yes; and all that is most national in us, all that is most sublime, and all that is most imperishable The art of a nation is an epitoence and prosperity