ART.
THE ACADEMY. I.
WE have become so used to the yearly exhibitions of the A.eademy that we are liable to be deadened to their monstrous nature. If we translate into terms of music the Gargantuan entertainment provided for us we shall perhaps in lame small way be able to realize the senseless nature of the proeeeding. It us in imagination construct the prograknase4f a eoneert which might be an equivalent for the varied and lieteree geneous collection thrown down before us by the Ateadeuaidaual in the 'name of art. Our concert would take .,plaee ,,at Olympia ; it might open with brass •bands • playing setae, tions from musical comedy. As soon as the last .bray !;of
the cornets, so well described by a musician as cheap and
nasty trumpets, had ended the first notes of a.olassioal string quartet would be heard (for ;do :not the frames of the.
pictures at the Academy touch-each other ?). This would be followed by a comic music-hall turn,bothvelgar and inane. Room would, of course, be .found for the interpretation of is severe masterpiece by a great performer, to be hurriedly- succeeded by wayof change by the tuities'of .performingeets. and monkeys or the tricks of the last fashionable -vietaega Sentiment would naturally occupy a considerable
tion of the programme, with its variations—emoroae,.
domestic, heroic, and reiigioso. The last • would, of course, be accompanied by coloured; lights " and all the. apparatus of the melodrama and Herr Reinhardt. Nor would the charms of rural life be left out, but-it.w.ould no longer be "the feeling one has on going into the •eountry,"• but rather the noises one encounters:there ; and a realistic representation of the sounds of the farmyard and the hooting Qf motor/a along the country roads would form the material for a new pastoral symphony. But worse than all these would-be thcese- pompous and pinchbeck imitations of 'great art in • which, poverty of ideas takes refuge in learned ,dallnese,a)r where the vulgar-minded by assuming the trappings of style. persuade the ignorant that they are familiar with the „grand manner.
If it were possible to conceive of the Acadenv unbending from, their Olympian pose and defending -their actions:they. might say, " We ourselves only produce -a small proportion:of the- pictures,,and we are not to be blinnedlor thole Who.alo. not. paint great works. We should 'be thauleful if all the artiste sent us masterpieces to 'hang, bet if -they do 'not are .we le. close half our rooms P " The answer is • that we do net expect a yearly crop of .masterpieces, but we do expect that there should he some classification of the materiel put at the disposition of 'the .11anging Couunittee. Why should not the various categoriesbe groupedlogether so that the ,admirers of the typical Academy pietneeawould not have the annoyance, as they do' now of occasionally tri- countering works of art? It is imposelble tampose that the people who flock to see gorgeously Liveesed.1udiss painted by popular Academicians can do anything but resent:le:au interruption pictures like those of Mr: Clausen. Mr.•Dieliarees. lady in a green .dress (180), with :the absurd .feather ;Lof the same colour stuck upright on the top of ,her head, and Mr. J. J. Shannon's "creations'' in foam. and fluff, with artificial flowers blooming in property' 'backgrounds, 'no.donlit give pleasure to people of uneducated orvitiated tastes. Whine lookingat the form er the simple-minded can rejoice. in the decep- tion of the eye which is afforded bythe painting ofillioluanitairah. and 'in the works of the latter the readers of the penny novelette can find realized their idealfruf::high-born ladle& adorned with all the luxuries of wealth. The people who gloat over those sentimental songs which .are itt the same time both melodramatic and vulgar, will find their taste catered for. pictorially by Mr. Herbert Draper in Mounktda Mists (730). Here airily clad ladies float in languoroue'tekttides about paste. board snow mountains, and their admirees'o'voitid be infitailieli
it would be tedious to enumerate, but of 'wh
happier if this picture and many others of thei'tsaiiin;67(t,71)e, vi(1112ela);•, (312), (349), and (401) are examples, were phased- in a roona together. How much better, too, it would be if,.to resume tile- musical metaphor, what might be eallodthe.lrass .band pica tures were given the large room to thsitaelrjs'l No denbt,tha cacophony would be terrible to sensitive seat-lees, laltAhoee- who rejoice in .royal pageautries and ••ceremeniel:,,porteaite. would have a satisfying meal if to these were added The Merry Wives of Windsor (313), by Mr..Bundyrne liezraciada (302), by Mr. P. Roe ; and Mr. and Mrs, Knight'ablating anna light pictures, (744) and (701), which:, last .males via , think regretfully of the smoked glasses we lately -need' for the eclipse. If some selection of this kind could' be made •one 'modest room would containallthattlie visitue wha levtuet, ;for ,erito", art wants to see. He could have his eenee4,9f OlasSietQ,innsic without interfering with the pleasures of those who crave 'liar
the more highly seasoned joys of the variety entertainment. Sometimes, no doubt, a strayed reveller would enter the temple of art by mistake, and, perhaps, be would there learn eothething. At present how is the ordinary man to improve his taste P He goes uninstructed to the exhibition of the leading society of painters in the country and sees works of every kind, good and bad, jumbled together with no hint as to their relative value. What hope is there that taste can be cultivated by such a process ? He who is already instructed can pick out the grain from the chaff, but how should even a willing learner progress if both are presented to him as of equal importance ?
Now let us look for some of the pictures which might adorn the room of the true artists if one were set apart for them here. Mr. Clausen would occupy a distinguished position— his works are so complete, so subtle, and unaffected. In one picture—The Window (204)—he gives us a full and strong realization of clear daylight as it streams into the room, illuminating, and detaching by contrast of shade the two white-clad girls by the flower-decked table. In another— The Stars Coming Out (683)—a little picture of a farmyard, the light is dying and evening putting her sober livery on ricks and buildings. By the magic of twilight things are becoming mysterious and the sky is filling 'with stars. In The 'toad (287) the air is full of warm sun- light, here caressing and not blazing, and all rendered with extraordinary beauty. The light is realized without the sacrifice of the loveliness of the paint surface, for the artist has known how to convey his emotional intention by means of craftsmanship beautiful in itself. Here are none of those splashes and daba of paint which have now commonly taken the place of the over-polished surface of a few years ago, and which are merely a reaction and a fashion, and not in them- selves vital. Mr. Adrian Stokes has painted a picture which is unapproached by any other work here inspired by the mountains. It is not only the fine drawing and colour of An Autumn Evening in the Alps (151), but the feeling of the per- 'tonality and loneliness of great snow mountains, which makes this picture delightful. Mr. Stokes brings to the Alps the same high seriousness and love shown by Mr. Hughes- Stanton in his treatment of trees. The smaller of this latter artist's two pictures, The Ferry, Sunbury.on-Thames (388), is the more effective, even if its clouds seem a little too solid ; for the painter's large Moonrise (353) is handicapped here by its .sombre hue and the glaring untoned gold of its preposterously aigly frame, which, as well as its unsympathetic neighbours, makes it difficult to estimate its true value. Mr. Lindner has painted a picture, The Maas at Dordrecht (129), in which he has *concentrated and made effective the good qualities which he sometimes scatters in his works. There is nothing here to edetract from the effect as a whole, and the colour is rich without being in any way forced. To next week must be left the consideration of the figure pictures and the one really noble piece of sculpture contributed by Mr. Havard Thomas. H. S.
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