ART.
ALFRED STEVENS.
Hoaroun is now being done to the memory of England's greatest sculptor at the National Gallery of British Art. Last week the Stevens Room was formally opened, and it contains, besides the works which belong to the nation, an important loan collection of drawings, paintings, and sculpture.
Most people, if they think at all about Stevens, are apt to consider him a gifted man who failed from want of oppor- tunity to express himself, and whose works, with rare exceptions, indicate a promise never fulfilled. That this is not the case the present exhibition is witness, for the first impression this assemblage of painting, drawing, and sculpture produces is one of extraordinary perfection.
In each department of art are to be found masterpieces of the highest order. The paintings are not those of a sculptor diverting himself with another medium, but in such instances as the Morris Moore the work is that of a born master of the brush. In the same way the drawings, whether they are studies from the life or great decorative projects, are in either case perfect. The works of sculpture range from the eques- trian statue of the Duke of Wellington to the ornaments for fireplaces, touching many points between these extremes, and in every case the work is that of a master.
The great and impressive fact about Stevens is that there was a perfect balance between what he had to say and bow he said it. In him there was no discrepancy between the matter and the manner. The material was never strained to express the thought, and the material never remained uninspired.
The facts of the life of Stevens are soon told. He was born at Blandford in Dorset in 1817, and was the son of a sign and heraldic painter. Some of his youthful works are to be seen in the present collection, and their precocity is astonish- ing. The project of sending Stevens to be taught by Landseer fortunately fell through on account of the high price for tuition asked by the animal painter. Instead, by the help of the Rector of Blandford, the Hon. and Rev. Samuel Best, Stevens, then net sixteen, was sent to Italy, where he stayed nine years. It is a remarkable fact that when he was in Florence he copied the works of Spinello Aretino and Giotto—painters whom a great many people imagine to have been discovered by Ruskin some years later. After Stevens's return to England he engaged in the competi- tion for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament. The disgrace of this competition is apparent when we realize that the two greatest decorative artists England has produced, Stevens and Watts, both competed, but neither of them was employed. Stevens was forced to turn his attention to designing for industrial purposes, and the Sheffield firm of Hoole, Robinson, and Hoole employed him to produce for them models of fire. grates, dogs, and stoves. A number of these models are now to be seen, and they are just what such things should be-- objects of daily use made beautiful, and not senseless incrustations which deprive the thing decorated of its utility without adding to its beauty. It is astonishing how little effect these noble examples of Stevens produced. A few old- fashioned fireplaces remain with rounded openings showing his influence if not his actual design. No doubt the advent of William Morris with his greater power of advertisement neutralized the effect of the much greater designer. Also Stevens stood alone, and Morris had with him the pre-Raphaelite movement and its great preacher Ruskin. This movement was largely literary, moral, and intellectual, and, there- fore, much more likely to appeal successfully to the British public than the work of a pure artist, however great.
Like his master Michelangelo, whom he had studied so pro- foundly, Stevens also had his " Tragedy of the Tomb." In the case of the modern sculptor it was not the Popes who hindered and troubled, but the Dean of St. Paul's and the Ministerial head of the Office of Works. The Dean insisted on destroy- ing the effect of the Duke of Wellington's tomb by refusing to allow the equestrian statue which was to have crowned it. to be put in place ; he would not, he said, have the Duke riding into his cathedral on horseback. The Office of Works interfered because a huge and complicated work of art was not turned out regularly by the yard to time, and threatened to take the incomplete masterpiece away from the sculptor and have it finished elsewhere—presumably in the Euston Road_ The monuments of that locality being no doubt on a level with official understanding, the despair of Stevens can well be imagined at the prospect of such an outrage ; but his friends were able to get the ear of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Robert Lowe. The story is told, and it is infinitely to his credit, that Lowe went to the studio of Stevens, and was so impressed by the unfinished monument that be then and there pledged himself to see that the artist should work on unmolested.
It is not difficult to understand w by Stevens was never popular_ His art was calm and impersonal, and entirely free from the literary element which seems necessary to stimulate the not very strong artistic sense of most English people. Stevens made no appeal to tired minds and jaded appetites and to those who crave for sensation, neither did he substitute for imagination that much more easily understood quality—fancy. This is why Stevens is left alone in these days when all the obscure eighteenth-century portrait painters, provided that they produced ladies in big hats, are written about in the numberless so-called art books which pour from the press.
No work of Stevens appeared at Burlington House during his lifetime, and it is to the eternal disgrace of the Academic body that they took no steps to search out and foster so great a genius. A distinguished sculptor member of the Academy was once asked why no notice had been taken of Stevens, and the answer was that as none of his works had been exhibited at their exhibitions they were not officially cognizant of his. existence—an answer worthy of the jealousies of a provincial amateur society. It is also lamentable that a man like Ruskin, who had the ear of the public in matters of art, should have wasted his praises on second-rate talent .from Miss Kate Greenaway to Miss Alexander, and never have got far enough beyond his egoism and his prejudices to have used his pen to persuade the world that there was living in contem- porary London a genius and a master. How different would have been the fate of Stevens had he lived in Italy during the Renaissance ! It is one of the chief glories of that great time that then there were no neglected geniuses and no forgotten great men. It was to this time that Stevens really belonged : he seized its style at the moment when it had reached complete freedom, but had not begun to decline into extravagance. The heady wine of the Renaissance produced in him no intoxication ; the temperance of his style is its strength ; and truly he is the last of the great Italians._ To Professor Legros is due initiation of the plan for raising some memorial to Stevens, and the result has been the placing of his portrait in the Stevens Room at the Tate Gallery. This bust has been finely modelled by Professor Lant6ri, who has generously given his work, and Messrs. Singer have done the same as regarde the casting of the work in bronze. A plaster cast of the Dorchester House fireplace has also been given by the Stevens Society. Besides these permanent additions are the various loan works which will be on view till the middle of next January. Among these is the model for the -equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. Stevens left a _plaster cast of the full size, but unfinished in some not very important details of the horse's feet and tail. These have 'been reconstructed by Mr. Tweed from the sketch model at .South Kensington, and it is to be hoped that soon this statue evill be placed in position, giving the sadly needed climax to the monument in St. Paul's. The design of the group is splendid : it combines'clignity and animation ; it is not merely a portrait, but a sculptural idea. The head of the Duke is a magnificent piece of work and dominates the lines and masses of the whole. The models for ironwork are of great interest and beauty, and among those to be specially noted is the • Original model for corner of an air stove (No. 79). Another beautiful thing is the plaster Design for the overmantel of the salon, Dorchester House (No. 45), and the three statuettes of Judith (No. 46), David (No. 47), and *Teel (No. 48) should not be overlooked, for they are not only beautiful in them- uelves but important when considering the Model for the decoration of the Dome el St. Paul's (No. 155). When we consider this wonderful project with its wealth of :appropriate figures and designs, we feel more than ever the unsuitability of the sham Byzantinism of the recent mosaics. The paintings which have been lent do not -equal those in the nation's possession. There is nothing so fine as the Morris Moore or the Portrait of an artist. The drawings in red chalk are a wonder and a delight, some so free -and full of suggestion, others, like No. 51, so marvellous in their close realization of form. Only a few instances have been mentioned ; but wherever we look we find something lovely, 'whether it be the designs for tiles, for stoves, or the beautiful wooden colour cabinet. In all the fields of art that Stevens entered be expressed himself with beauty and per- fection ; whatever he touched he adorned, and for his genius there were no boundaries, and his work truly exemplified his favourite saying, " I know but one art." H. S.
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