THE LIVERPOOL ACADEMY.
A controversy which excited a far wider than local interest, and of which we took count at the time was fermenting last winter at Liver- pool. The Fine Art Academy oethat town had bestowed its annual prize upon Mr. Millais's picture of the Blind Girl, en suite to several previous awards in favour of works of the Prmraffaelite school. The exhibiting and other artists not of that school, backed by a considerable section of the local public, took umbrage at the decision of the Liverpool painters, and organized a rival exhibition ; and this year concurrent exhibitions are held by the old " Academy " and the new Society." We commented on the dispute as a question of principle : the point at issue being whether a body of artists, such as the Liverpool Academy, are at liberty to confer their marks of distinction according to the lead of their patrons' and visitors' taste, or bound to act upon their own perception of what is best, second-best, and worst—a perception upon which they, as themselves professors of the art, are justified in laying some stress : and we had no hesitation in concluding that the latter rule, that by which the Academy had been guided, is the right one. It is with satisfaction we find that the Liverpool Academy, whether their rule brings them fair weather or foul, have the boldness to abide by it. Their prize for the present year has been worthily bestowed upon Mr. Madox Brown's large historical picture of Chaucer reading the Legend of Custance before the Court of Edward the Third—a work well known in London' and of an importance and grand scale which, even apart from its high technic ex- sellence, entitle it to any public honour which it may be in the power of a public body to confer. We understand that opposition has not shorn the Academy of strength, and that its present exhibition is altogether of prominent merit.
Previous page