The Royal Academy, its Uses and Abuses. By W. J.
Laidlay. Simpkin and Marshall. ls.) —Mr. Laidlay brings a heavy indictment against the Academy, which he proceeds to support by the cita- tion of innumerable authorities, through some two hundred pages. With his general conclusions most unprejudiced persons must agree. Who can seriously believe that the schools are good when the system necessitates the change of the teacher once a month, the defence of the Academy apparently being that teaching does not matter? If a student is clever he teaches himself in spite of the conflicting instruction he receives monthly ; if he is stupid no teaching will be of avail. On this matter educational authori- ties generally, like Mrs. Gamp, "thinks different" Mr. Laidlay brings a great many charges of bad administration and favouritism. Such charges, of course, cannot be proved outside Court of Law. But after all the worst and most damning criticism possible to bring against the Academy is its yearly exhibition. Not that there are net plenty of good pictures to be found there. But the hideous jostling together of good and bad, vulgar illustrations and works of art treated as equals, shows that the Academy think of making a popular show first, and an artistic exhibition after. Mr. Laidlay justly observes that one of the most pressing reforms might be carried out by a stroke of the Academic pen. The Academicians are never tired of exclaiming against the quantities of pictures submitted to them, and of the impossibility of dealing fairly with twelve or fourteen thousand pictures. Why is not the number which every artist is allowed to send in, reduced from eight to two ? Mr. Laidlay would tell us that the Academicians fear that a corre- sponding reduction might be forced upon them also. Throughout this book Mr. Laidlay shows a keen and earnest desire that a truly National Art Academy should exist, but we cannot help thinking that he has pushed his zeal a little too far. His case was so strong that he need not have almost accused the Academy of being a secret society for the stifling of all art except their own. And is it not inconsistent to accuse this body first of undue commercialism, and then of losing the American market? Mr. Laidlay proposes a scheme of reform which is inter- esting. He wishes the Academy to be merely an executive body for conducting schools and exhibitions. He would reduce the number of members to fifteen or twenty,—just enough to carry out these duties. He thinks, and with great show of reason, that if the number of prominent outsiders were much larger than at present, the abuses of the Academic body would receive a check not experienced at present.
Mr. E. T. Cook has compiled an excellent Popular Handbook to he Tate Gallery (Macmillan and Co., 5s.) It is a good deal more than an annotated catalogue, for the biographies and criticisms are well done, and while being popular, are full of insight and appreciation.
The Peasant Art Society, 8 Queen's Road, Bayswater, send us two portfolios of drawings, The Song of the Bower and Our Daily Bread, by Godfrey Blount. Both show that the artist has been deeply impressed by Blake. This influence is not quite so strong in Our Deity Bread as in the other, and we like it better for being more originaL The colour design of the sprouting blades of corn with the little genii is charming, and so is the design of the harvest. The spirit in which these decorative drawings are carried out is thoroughly artistic.
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