FINE ARTS.
DISPLAY OF ORNAMENTAL ART AT THE SCHOOL OF DESIGN.
Tits annual distribution of prizes among the students of the Government School of Design, at Somerset House, took place on Wednesday. Recent revelations of internal dissensions, and complaints of inefficient teaching, by the senior students, had stimulated the managers to get up a grand dis- play of specimens for this occasion. And certainly it was a very attractive show-one well calculated "to strata the public"; which seems to be the paramount consideration here. But, looking at it for what it is presumed and ought to be, the results of the past year's studies of the pupils, we saw much reason to doubt the genuineness of some specimens, and but little cause for gratulation in what had been fairly accornplished.
The three most prominent performances--elaborate and showy compo- sitions of decorative painting-were avowedly the production of salaried masters. As such, we might pass them by unnoticed, but that they ac- count for the want of clearness, force and decision in the execution of the pupils. One of this triad of pannelt., with a figure in the centre, by Mr.
Stewart, is beautiful in design and colouring; but the style of painting is
more suited to easel-pictures than to decoration: it has not the firm, sharp, and free touch essential to the rapid and off-hand practice of the de-
corator. The specimens by pupils on either side-one a lunette, the other a mass of foliage-had these defects exaggerated in muddy colouring and timid handling, especially in the figures; which betrayed want of know- ledge of the human form.
The absence of figure-draughtsmen was made more conspicuous than it otherwise would have been, by a solitary head in crayons-the only draw- ing from the antique in the room. The prize chalk-drawings of ornament from casts were feeble and heavy; showing a lax and laboured touch, the result of a bad method of practice. In looking at the scanty show of crayon-drawings, the bast in point of execution were mostly copied from shaded drawings, where the pupil had only to imitate the touch of the original. The difference in execution between the drawings from "the round" and from "the flat" was very apparent in the outlines: the copies were neat and clean, and the points well accented; while such as were deduced from solids were tremulous and tame like tracings, showing that the pupils worked mechanically and without intelligence. A profi- cient copyist of prints and drawings, when a solid figure is first put before him, finds his power of hand fail: accustomed only to imitate what an- other has done, he is at a loss to do himself what he had found always done for him; and for want of knowledge of light and shade and perspec- tive, and the requisite skill to select the salient points of form, he cannot properly represent on paper the appearance of projection.
The imperfect study of form by the mass of pupils was obvious to every practised eye, even in the coloured drawings. The painted vases were, devoid of rotundity; the groups of flowers inaccurate in the details of form and in relief; and the studies of drapery, sculpture, and other still-life ob- jects, had not the precision of handling that denotes power of depicting form by means of light and shade. Even in the patterns of chintzes and paper hangings-in short, wherever representation of relief is wanting-this im- perfect knowledge of form is apparent. The best things, therefore, were the patterns, where flat tints only are required,-as in the designs for shawl- borders, of which there were two rich specimens; and for lace-work, in which the female pupils showed great taste in design and freedom of hand. In- deed, the ladies bear the bell both in invention and execution. One of the copies of Vatican arabesques, by a female painter, was very good; the other was laboured and timid in the handling. The arabesque paintings generally were not particularly well executed.
Among the designs professing to be original, there were but few of a really novel character; and of these some were more strange than beauti- fuL Two vases modelled for sculpture were undoubtedly free from any imputation of antique origin; for uglier shapes could not well be chosen. A. design for a candelabrum, one for a "pia," and another for a glass chan- delier, were fanciful and elegant. The patterns for paper hangings were neither novel nor handsome; and designs for a table-cover and carpet were too much like what one sees in the shops to have any claim to particular notice. In short, there were no evidences of the application of fixed prin- ciples of design to the production of new shapes and patterns: but there were indications of taste and feeling for ornamental art, especially in colour, that, under proper training, might be developed effectively. The merits of this exhibition are attributable to individual talent and painstaking among the students; its defects to inefficient instruction. No teaching can be efficient that is not founded on thorough knowledge both of the theory and practice of decorative art, in its several departments of manufacture and its various styles of ornament. The teaching at the School of Design is empirical, not scientific: it has neither the practical skill of the workshop nor the methodized theory of the academy; whereas it ought to include both to be productive of any real good. A com- plete and well-considered system of instruction is as essential as are competent and zealous teachers.
• Since the foregoing remarks were written, our doubts have received confirmation to an extent beyond what we had supposed possible. We are informed by some students of the School, that "Out of the nineteen prizes given for original designs in the Male School, only three are the bond fide productions of students taught in and by the School; two out of these three being exhibitioners appointed by Mr. Dyes. The whole of the others are either by practical designers previously accustomed to design, or by students not eligible to compete for prizes according to the rules of the School."
We have not space to give the list that has been sent to us; but it may suffice to say that the mass of prize designs show what has been done with- out 4he School, not what its instruction has enabled the designers to accom- plish. The prize designs for the carpet, table-cover, shawl-border, paper hangings, chintz pattern, chandelier, candelabrum, and pix, mentioned above, are among the productions of professional designers, who have only attended the School within these few months, and cannot, therefore, be much indebted to its tuition. By a very proper rule, that would appear to have been framed expressly to prevent unfairness, no student is allowed to compete for a prize who has not regularly attended the School for at least twelve months previously. Had this rule been observed, the majority of the prize-men would have been excluded. What must be thought of a public institution which is bolstered up by practices in direct violation of the letter and spirit of its laws?
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