THE DISCOURSES OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (Macmillan and Co. 10s. 6d.)
THE Royal Academy has issued on the occasion of the bi- centenary of his birth a new edition of The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds. There was never, perhaps, a time when the teaching and principles embodied in these fifteen Discourses delivered to the students of the Royal Academy were more likely to be misunderstood than the present. Early in the nineteenth century tradition, which in painting as in anything else can persist with dignity only so long as it is believed in with conviction, began to harden into sterility. By the middle of the century its breakdown was complete. The subsequent history of art has been, as a distinguished contemporary writer has remarked, the story not of a gradual process of construction but of successive revolutions. Each has been illuminated by one or more heroic figures, yet each has ended without establishing more than a provisional government. The greatest art of tht period, the same critic has said, has been the art of revolt ; and it bears the trace of its origins in its extravagant individualism; its waste of power in fruitless experiment and its small actual accomplishment. And these revolts seem still to increase rather than to diminish in frequency. So that now each small .group of artists must construct for itself some system of aesthetics from the very foundation, instead of being content like the traditional artists. to be merely links in the chain, to stand on the shoulders of their predecessors as Mr. Bernard Shaw somewhere says he stands on Shakespeare's.
Whatever the ultimate significance of this state of affairs may be, it is obvious that the weary but still fiercely critical and individualistic mood of this age must be entirely hostile to any fully stated and comprehensive profession of artistic faith founded on tradition. And such a profession is to be found in these Discourses. Reynolds believed that art was a means of expression of human experience, which, though it might take on many different forms, nevertheless ultimately depended on certain principles more or less dis- coverable in the traditions of the great masters of the past. This naturally entailed a belief in the possibility of a further advance in the knowledge of these principles. Regarding the present position in the light of history, it would appear that., a return to some sort of tradition is inevitable, but for the moment in the world of art, as in the world of politics, the forces of individualism hold the field awaiting the onset of the forces of collectivism.
The Discourses themselves, with their largeness of vision, comprehensiveness and . essential moderation, are truly
English. After advancing sonic precept he is alway; ready with a warning against following it to excess, as, for instance, after encouraging his pupil to enlarge his mind by reading, he at once warns him that for this purpose he should not go into such a compass of reading as must, by distracting his attention, disqualify him for the practical part of his profession and cause him to sink the executant in the critic. As Reynolds was broadly putting together for the help and encouragement of his pupils his whole concep- tion of the meaning of art, together with many precepts for its practice, it is not to be wondered at if some of his argument is loose and obscure, and his use of such general words as " Nature " and " Unity " inconsistent in the extreme. Though some of Reynolds' value as a teacher, and still more his value as a critic, is impaired for us, his Discourses remain a remarkable and comprehensive statement of artistic belief of a large, sincere and able nyind, and, what is perhaps rarer, of
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