FINE ARTS.
SCHOOL FOR WORKING ARTISTS.
WORKING artists are now wanted in England, and we have no schools to train them thoroughly. We think it was Professor Waagen who said, a few years ago, that our workmen were not artists enough, and our artists not enough workmen. Had this hint been taken, the deficiencies of our countrymen in both respects might have been remedied by this time: but the remark is applicable still. And what is worse, the lack of clever practical workmen, thoroughly skilled in their craft, and having heads to invent as well as hands to execute, has to be supplied from abroad. We have plenty of artisans who can do well what is set before them, but the finer tact of tasteful ingenuity is possessed by very few: not that the higher faculty is wanting, but it has not been developed by edu- cation and practice. In a higher grade of society, we have many—too many—dilettanti, who pass for artists on the strength of a few showy daubs or pencil-seratebings, but whose knowledge of art and powers of design do not entitle them to rank as artists. The Royal Academy has not qualified the one class for practical employment, nor has the School of Design ac- complished the other in taste and inventive skill. Nor is it to be expected that either institution will do differently. They are both lifeless forms— hollow pretences. They impart nothing to the students; and derive what little reputation they enjoy in the estimation of the uninitiated, from the talent and knowledge that the students acquire elsewhere. Whatever is to be done for the better education of our artists and artisans, must be effected without their aid, and in despite of their interference. For both schools being kept up by the delusion that institutions supported by the public and sanctioned by authority must needs be efficient, those interested in the maintenance of them are jealous of any movement tending to demonstrate their insufficiency.
Those who feel the want of good instruction must seek for it among themselves. The painters have done this by associating together, and hiring rooms for the study of the living model, costume, and anatomy ; and it would be well if they were to pursue the system further, and get practical instruction in chiaroscuro, composition, and painting. But know- ledge of the figure is what artists most need; and good draughtsmanship is best acquired by drawing from the skeleton, the life, and the antique.
The malecontent students of the Government School of Design have formed themselves into a society, and set up an atelier of their own, to acquire the necessary knowledge that they were denied at the national establishmrmt They have been fortunate in obtaining the use of the Drawing Gallery in Maddox Street, during the evenings, the time when
they have most leisure; and the proprietors, Messrs. Dickinson of Bond Street, have furnished it with casts and models, and provided separate accommodation on the premises for modellers and carvers. Mr. Leigh, a painter of ability, and otherwise qualified as an la_ structor, is appointed teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy; and special branches of art, such as modelling, carving, ornamental design, &c., will be taught by qualified members of the society, under the superintend enee of artists eminent in these departments; who volunteer their gratuitous services as visiting professors. Students who are in earnest and bent upon getting forward, learn as much from each other as from their teachers; and this society is in a great measure one for mutual instruction, but under proper direction. The advantages of this school will be open to all who like to join and conform to its regulations; and the terms of admission are so low that few need be excluded on the score of expense. The course of instruction will be made as complete as possible ; but the details are not yet finally arranged. Meanwhile, we may venture to augur from the spirit with which it has been begun, that this so- ciety will supply the want, so urgently felt by artists of every kind, of a place of study where each one can supply his deficiencies of knowledge and skill, at a convenient hour, for a small expense. It is intended to form a library and a collection of prints and casts for the permanent use of members and subscribers, according as the funds become available; and we doubt not that contributions will flow in from other sources. The efforts of these young men to establish a school to improve themselves and their fellow artists deserve every encouragement; and we shall be much mistaken if this self-supporting school of mutual instruction do not prove the nucleus of a great and useful institution for the education of artisans and working-artists.
The commencement is well-timed; for the latest act of the 'infatuated few who mismanage the Government School of Design has been to exclude all students of fine art—painters, sculptors, and engravers on wood, stone, and metal, and also architects, engineers, builders, and joiners! Not content with preventing workmen from becoming artists, they seem determined to prevent artists from being draughtsmen. As they cannot attract pupils by efficient teaching, they exclude them by disqualifying for admission those who are most likely to detect the badness of the instruction. With beau- tiful consistency it is announced, that "architecture and perspective" are to be taught—but not to architects and engineers. Mr. Calked Horsley is appointed teacher of drawing—but not to the numerous class of engravers who most need draughtsmanship. And Mr. Le Jeune is appointed to teach painting—to any but persons intended to be painters. It is also announced, with inimitable naivete, that a teacher of ornament will be appointed: and it is almost time, for the School of Ornamental Design has been established about eight years. But it may be expected, when he is appointed, to have it announced that " det corators are ineligible." Such proceedings can only be paralleled by sup- posing a grammar-school established from which any pupil intended for literary pursuits should be excluded, and where the appointment of a writing-master should render ineligible any boy meant to be a penman or law-writer.
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