OXFORD- AND THE PINE ARTS.
23d Iforember 1865.
Sin--Nearly half a century ago our iminortal Turner caused a large ari- l/ass to be'carried to a lofty eminence Southward .of the city of 'Oxford, and there be beheld and painted a scene so calm and dignified in its character as pot to need tricks of the palette (which mark his later works) to " lend enchantment to the view.". Groups of colleges and churches, walled in by ancient groves, fertile -mess- dowa, intersected by rivulets, fringed with hawthorn and willow, beheld by sober daylight, satisfied the then athaest cravings of the painter's fancy.' Douglas Jerrold when on a visit to the University is said to have remarked that Oxford contained "enough to make forty cities!" "Something may be said for Cambridge," observed a friend who was standing near. "True," re- turned the wit, "but Oxford speaks for itself." The wonder is, that a city so rich in associations so 'endowed with all that genius most covets, should never have instituted a school for the fine arts of Painting and Sculpture, So that it might have become a resort for painters and sculptors. Here are to be seen streets and quadrangles which might arrest the attention of a Vander Heyden or a Canaletto, and quiet nooks, made up of cloister, glooniy casement, and archway, adapted to the tragic genius of a Rembrandt. Every lane and by-way has its pictures. Thera is a quiet, characteristio" thoroughfare running zigzag-wise from the 014 Claroudou to the Church of St. Peter's in the East. Early on a June morning, when the lane is wrapt in gloom, and the sun's rays fall on the strange airy towers of All Souls, and the time-worn architecture of New College, imparting a rich warmth to the crumbling walls, the eye glancing as from a fissure in the earth, beholds a palace with bronze-like pinnacles gloving in saffron light, while the warm sunbeams contrasting with long parallel lines of purple shadows, yield a subdued splendour, like the mellow glory of Correggio's heaven.
And what can exceed the dazzling beauty of the interiors of the numerous chapels, with vaulted roofs, tesselsited pavements and windows of stained glass, gleaming like piles of monster gems, .enalesed irt gigantic cabinets ! Thus, within the chapel of New College, when morning reveals the purple and ruby of the painted windows, and the organ's swelling voice blends softly with the melodious choir, every object seems "clothed in rainbow and in fire."
The painter, who has once feasted his eye on such a scene, in such a mo- ment, must ever after shudder as he contemplates the cold inanimate tran- scripts of your Stenwycks and Peter Neefs. But of all times, Oxford appears most imposing on a clear, sparkling winter's night. When ice and snow hang crusted on blackened towers; battlements, and spires, and glisten in quilks and hollows of gothic carvings and on the ledges of quaint windows and gateways, then by the light of the moon and stars, the grave, fantastic piles rise up like a city of the dead, or tombs of fabled kings, hung with tro- phies and glittering spoils.'
It satisfied a schoolboy's solicitude for the noble arts of painting and sculpture to know that Oxford was rich in-masters of art; and it never oc- curred that painters and sculptors were excluded from "her studious walks and shades," and from every honourable distinction which the University :lifer& Experience has, however, brought to light the fact that an Oxford Master of Arts is not called upon to handle either pencil or chisel. Of all the comfortable hearths within that abode of learning, not one affords refuge to painter or sculptor. Tet one would think that our young nobility and gentry would be gainers by the society of men skilled in the practice of arts with which every gentlemen is expected to be familiar ; and it is no less certain that the artists themselves would equally profit by an intercourse with professors in every department of human knowledge. No better place in England than Oxford could be named where the art-student might spend a few " terms " in patient study. There he would find a good collection of the antique, and the antique carefully east and restored; there, too, are the original drawings of Raphael and Angelo, (embodying the spirit of the an- cients,) still breathing of inspiration. Rich old libraries and well-stored mu- seums are also there ; and, perhaps not the least feature of attraction to the historical student, innumerable portraits of distinguished personages. Nor must the small but thriving gallery of pictures in the Randolph Buildings and the brilliant collection of Old Masters at Woodstock be omitted. Why, then, should not the artist find a welcome and brief home where there are such abundant materials for enriching his mind and so many incitements to excellence ? But if our artists are excluded from the advantages which a residence at and membership of the University afford, there is no law to pre- vent their going there to paint its picturesque scenes,—scenes so worthy, of the thoughtful painter's pencil, so well calculated to bring into play his happiest
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