THE WORKMEN'S INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.
THE Workmen's International Exhibition has fallen upon hard times. The interest which several, at least, of the local -working-men's exhibitions held within the last few years had -excited, seemed well to warrant the expectation that an expansion -of the idea, which should aim at bringing before the public the -occupations and the achievements of the artisans of other countries -on a line with those of our own fellow-citizens, would open a new source of interest, and appeal to wider curiosities and sympathies than any similar undertaking hitherto had awakened. That this view was not a mistaken one is shown, not only by the list of guarantees, headed with £1,000 by the King of Wiirtemberg, but by the choice character of the articles actually contributed by several foreign countries, Italy and Denmark perhaps more cape- -daily. But the terrible struggle between France and Germany has, in the first place, maimed the completeness of the Exhibition, and thus paralyzed its success. Both Germany and France, but -especially the latter, are very inadequately represented by their products. But above all, the absorbing interest of the war has diverted the attention, the curiosity, the sympathies of the public. People cannot care much for a Workmen's Inter- national Exhibition at Islington, when the question is whether Paris shall stand or crumble to dust, whether France shall live or die. The choice of place for the Exhibition was indeed a mistake. No doubt, Islington is very much improved from what it was in our younger days. The velvet turf, and smiling parterres of the "Green," with its statue of Sir Hugh Myddleton, contrast marvellously with the scrubby waste which most of us remember there. The Hall itself is a vast one, and is quite accessible from most parts of London on special occasions,— a great political meeting, a horse-show, a cattle-show. But it lies too far out of the way to suit for an exhibition of some permanence. It is not habitually before the eyes of London ; its neighbourhood has not sufficient attractions to be worth frequenting. Most visitors will be induced to go but once ; many would-be visitora will intend to go, and intend to go, till they forget going altogether.
Nevertheless, though rather late in doing so, since the Exhibi- tion closes with the present month, we can assure our readers that the Exhibition is well worth the trouble of wandering beyond "The Angel, Islington," that ullima Thule of many a West-ender, and much more than the threepence which they may pay for admission. We take the word "readers," be it observed, in the most general sense, as including any amount of possible ignorance, even to the measure of that of the present writer. We defy them to be more incapable than himself of any useful haudywork, or more dense in com- prehending any piece of machinery ; and, therefore, we assure them that if he could spend a couple of hours with real interest, and, as he trusts, profit in the Exhibition, there is not one of them who may not go and do likewise.
Furthermore, for the better enjoyment of the Exhibition by visitors, we begin by assuring them, first, that two-fifths at least of the Exhibition are trash not worth looking at ; second, that the catalogue is not worth consulting. The combined result of these two points is that, unless they are specialists, they will find quite enough to interest them, and avoid much that will disgust them, by simply sauntering up and down the central area on the ground floor, the labels and cards generally containing as much informa- tion, and very often more than, the catalogue itself. When by. the way, will learned getters-up of exhibitions and compilers of catalogues realize the very simple fact, that numbers and cata- logues are not primarily made to display the scientific classifica- tion of the articles they enumerate, but simply as a clue to the dis- covery of such articles, and that therefore the only rational way of numbering articles, to whatever extent they may be classified, is the continuous one ? If, for instance, I wish to identify some Danish jewellery of Mr. Christesen's, and the numbering being continuous, it were numbered, say, 1,004, all I should have to do would be to turn to that number of the catalogue. As it stands, however, it being designated as "Denmark, class 6, No. 1," I have first to turn to the beginning of the catalogue to find that "Den- mark" begins at p. 48, then to hunt down Denmark till I come to the particular number of the particular class referred to. The want of system in the catalogue is indeed such that for some foreign countries the numbering is actually continuous (though not with the articles of the British catalogue) whilst in others, as Denmark, Spain, and even "Rio Grande" (which appears to be treated as a sovereign state, whilst it is only a province of Brazil) —it begins afresh with each class.
Let the visitor then, we say, putting by the catalogue if he chooses for home use on his return, quietly stroll through the central area. It will be impossible for him not to be charmed with a large portion -of the Italian exhibition, the cameos, the mosaics, the carved woods, the frames, the jewellery, the Venetian glues. Denmark, too, has some extremely interesting wood and ivory carvings, jewellery, and goldsmiths' work. From Austria he must not overlook some exquisite ornamental bindings, in which on a slate-grey morocco runs a green and white inner border of lilies of the valley with their foliage. France is scarcely represented but by Boulogne, but those terra-cottas of Eugene Blot, though fortunately not unknown already to Eng- lishmen, are alone worth the journey of seeing so many of them together. If art be essentially, as Wilhelm von Humboldt defined " das Wirkliche in em n Bild zu werfen,"—the throwing of reality into a picture, these small figures, only a few inches high, fulfil every condition which could be required of the highest artist. Every one is most intensely real ; every one is a picture in itself. Nothing is more remarkable than the life which animates them, in spite of the literal rendering of all outward details. There is not a texture which is not unmistakably realized ; and yet expreasidh, sentiment, are so marvellously brought out that we have not the slightest sense of that deadness which is so easily the result of &
'too faithful reproduction of what is merely outward and material. Such terra-cottas may be considered to represent but a humble walk in art, but for him who knows bow to appreciate what is truly masterly, a single sailor or fishwoman of Eugene Blot is worth more than a large picture by many an R.A.
As yet we have only called upon our visitor to notice foreign contributions. He will do well to stop a moment before the mahogany sideboard of the London Cabinet-makers' Co-operative Society, (why on earth, in a NVorking-Men's Exhibition, should a co-operative society not be catalogued under its own title? or why is this difference made between the London Cabinet-makers and their brother co-operatives of the "Wolverhampton and Brewood Plate Lock Manufacturing Society ?") Beyond all question, this is the finest bit of mere furniture in the Exhibition,—not reaching to decorative art (the plaster figure at the top is an utter mistake), but giving at once the impression of good taste, good workman- ship, solidity,—in short, money's worth for money. But the real triumph of English art workmanship in the Exhibition is the case of Messrs. Mappin and Webb. There is here some silversmith's work
which is truly exquisite ; an almost perfect-claret-jug, a steel jewel-
casket with gilt diamond ornaments in relief, which looks almost a-fire, so dazzling is it. Nor can we forbear observing that in this instance not a single foreign name occurs among the workmen em- ployed; that the design and handy work appear alike to be English. Everything else in the English Exhibition is poor beside this, and besides some more good silversmiths' work, we need only mention the wood-carving. Compared indeed with the Italian, it is im- possible not to perceive that with often greater reality, there is generally far less grace of form and outline, thereby rendering it less adapted for beautiful decoration.
We have reserved the best for the last,—the Indian collection. One painful feature, indeed, occurs in connection with it. The
principle of the Exhibition (though not always strictly adhered to, even as respects articles of European workmanship) is the record- ing of the names of the workmen employed. Not one such name occurs in the Indian collection. And yet a large proportion of that collection is such that a true workman might well go on his knees before it. Those ivory, sandalwood boxes, and other articles, inlaid or carved, are utterly beyond the level of everything else in the Exhibition. Their perfect grace, taste, purity, the unspeak- able harmony which pervades them, the very music of the eye, seem to belong to an altogether different sphere of being from that of the European worker. Even where they most depart from truth—as where an elephant may be represented with the hind- quarters of a greyhound—the curves are so flowing, so congenial,
so to speak, to the rest of the carving that it does not offend one. The writer of this article, who does not profess to be by any means
sentimental, must confess that when, having already paid a first visit to this collection, he went wandering round the outlying depart- ments of the exhibition, and after nauseating himself with daubs pretending to be pictures, senseless attempts at the grotesque, and the dreariness of patchwork:quilts, he then returned to the Indian eases, the sight of a simple sandalwood glove-box, inlaid with an ivory border, almost brought the tears into his eyes. It seemed as if in five-sixths at least of the other articles exhibited man were working at cross purposes with nature,—fighting with her in order to bring out some notion, it might be only some whimsy of his own,—whereas here man and nature were at one with each other, matter seemed rather4o have grown into form, than to have been wrought into it. Talk of teaching art to the Hindoo workman ! send rather all South Kensington to learn from him !
Of course we are not speaking here of art proper, but of art- workmanship. No one would dream of comparing Hindoo clay figures with those of Eugene Blot. But it is unfortunately quite certain that a large proportion of what is catalogued as European—and too often British—" Fine Art" stands not only as low in the scale as these Hindoo clay models, but really lower, through its sickening affectation, false sentiment, and pre- tentious vulgarity. Worse still, if the visitor ventures into the galleries, he will find the walls hung with certain collections of lent paintings, bearing the names of the greatest masters, a vast
number of which are the most fearful libels on the unfortunate artists to whom they are ascribed, and are not only incapable of affording the slightest pleasure, but must be positively injurious to the taste of any one who is capable of looking on them with- out horror. We might instance Nos. 300 and 301, both labelled as "Nymphs Bathing," both ascribed to Titian, and of which one 4it the utmost is of Italian origin at all, whilst the other is pal- pably a piece of the vulgarest painting of the Dutch school. Where had the Committee their eyes when they allowed such rubbish to appear on the walls? To conclude, however. The idea of a Working-Men's Inter- national Exhibition was unquestionably a good one, and there is enough in the present one to show how much might be made of it. But the time has certainly not been favourable for holding it ; the place for doing so has been ill chosen ; and far too large a proportion of the British muster of articles consists of such trash as one really feels ashamed to see exhibited to foreigners. On the other hand, there is a truly choice residuum,—fortunately not wholly contributed by foreign nations—which fully justifies the experiment, and will fully repay inspection.
Of the subsidiary purposes to which the Exhibition has been pat, as an evening lounge, and, as it were, Cockney Crystal Palace, we will say nothing, for want of experience. If the addition of second-rate musical performances is requisite to make the Ex- hibition pay, we dare not find fault with the Committee, some of whom, we know, have laboured most zealously and untiringly in the undertaking. But a really good "Workmen's International Exhibition" ought surely to pay itself.
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