NATIONAL GALLERY.
TO TIIE EDITOR OE TIIE sercr.vron.
Sra—A Committee has been granted ; and a great lever let us trust it will prove. Let us earne,tly hope it will examine—First, as to the value of the connexion of art and manufacture, as at Lyons; secondly, as to the effect pro. duce(' on art by the influence of the Royal Academy, as at present conducted ; and lastly, on the probable effect of state patronage on high art, afforded on the same principle as in all other countries where high art has been developed. There is one thing I beg respectfully to suggesa—viz. that if schools of design are made a part and parcel of national education, they will be merely drawing- schods, subordinate, and of little eff.ct. Schools of design, in the great towns, should be separate, independent, and distinct, as in Fiance,—on this principle, that a knowledge of the human figure is the basis of all knowledge in art ; that the power of drawing that perfectly, gives a power of drawing every thing el,e as will; and that any schools of design where this principle is not the 1):1:i8, willing in producing that thorough reform wanted in English art—viz, that of adding correct form to the inherent, vigorous, original genius of the English Rehm].
Let us earnestly hope the Committee will not undermine the present in- fluence of the members of the Royal Academy ; but be wary and cautious of advice from them, whether given in the freedom of colloquial chat on a sofa, at coffee-time, or across the table at dinner, or at that most dangerous of all dangerous times—when sitting to be painted. With earnest prayers for success to the Honourable Committee's labours, ALPHA.
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