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Article OUR ARCHITECTURAL. CHAPTER. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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Our Architectural. Chapter.
and its managers . It will be long indeed before the . department Avill get over the consequences of a measure so injudicious . Whether innocently done , or whether originating in a mania for puffery , it gives a false construction , to the whole plan , and much detracts from the effect which might otherwise have been produced from the
consideration of the works of the pupils alone . Undoubtedly , for reasons good enough , and for reasons such as we hav ^ e given , the results of the incipient schools of art cannot be expected to be great , but they should still have shown some progress , as compared with the state of manufacturing art twenty years ago Avhen the first efforts were made for the establishment of these schools .
In the present exhibition we cannot witness their progress unalloyed , or appreciate it truly , because the works of the pupils are in some cases overborne by those of teachers and foreign designers ; and yet it is one part of the progress effected through the influence of the schools of ' arts on the public taste , that not only has extensive employment been created for the pupils of these schools , but also for many studying and teaching outside their Avails , and more particularly
for a large number of able foreign artists . Hiese latter again become teachers of pupils , who , though they may never enter a school of art , owe their instructions , in fact , to the establishment and influence of these institutions . So , Lord Brougham , on every occasion that he boasts of the progress of UniA ersity College , always claims as a part of its success the success of King ' s College , and the other colleges established in rivalry with it , and which he calls daughters of
University College , extending the same system , and strictly partaking of its constitution , though some of them were founded from motives of rivalry . Had not , therefore , the authorities of South Kensington professed to open to the public an exhibition of the Avorks of those educated Avithin these schools , they might have thrown open an exhibition , which , sIioaving the present state of manufacturing design , Avould have been an effectual declaration of our progress , and the merit of which would have been attributed to the schools of art .
Twenty years ago the men were not procurable to execute the works which are now exhibited . A . first rate artist , sufficiently skilled in modelling and drawing , either'treated manufacturing work , as beneath him—though not beneath Michael Angelo , llafiaelle , Benvenuto Cellini , and many men of genius—or he asked exorbitant prices for trifling services , and the second and third rate artists travelled in his wake .
Thus , a man who wished his mansion decorated or furnished in a manner corresponding in taste to what he bad witnessed abroad , had to . import the whole body of artists , a circumstance , Avhich uoav seldom happens , except some fanatic or court sycophant imports
foreigners for tin ; mere sake of employing foreigners , for now tlie work can be done with , native artists , or by the assistance of resident foreign artists , who eagerly compete in such , afield of employment ; and thus we have been enabled in the late exhibitions on . the continent , as at the Exposition of 1855 for instance , to win prizes against the French themselves by tlie aid of some of their oavu picked men . This was
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Our Architectural. Chapter.
and its managers . It will be long indeed before the . department Avill get over the consequences of a measure so injudicious . Whether innocently done , or whether originating in a mania for puffery , it gives a false construction , to the whole plan , and much detracts from the effect which might otherwise have been produced from the
consideration of the works of the pupils alone . Undoubtedly , for reasons good enough , and for reasons such as we hav ^ e given , the results of the incipient schools of art cannot be expected to be great , but they should still have shown some progress , as compared with the state of manufacturing art twenty years ago Avhen the first efforts were made for the establishment of these schools .
In the present exhibition we cannot witness their progress unalloyed , or appreciate it truly , because the works of the pupils are in some cases overborne by those of teachers and foreign designers ; and yet it is one part of the progress effected through the influence of the schools of ' arts on the public taste , that not only has extensive employment been created for the pupils of these schools , but also for many studying and teaching outside their Avails , and more particularly
for a large number of able foreign artists . Hiese latter again become teachers of pupils , who , though they may never enter a school of art , owe their instructions , in fact , to the establishment and influence of these institutions . So , Lord Brougham , on every occasion that he boasts of the progress of UniA ersity College , always claims as a part of its success the success of King ' s College , and the other colleges established in rivalry with it , and which he calls daughters of
University College , extending the same system , and strictly partaking of its constitution , though some of them were founded from motives of rivalry . Had not , therefore , the authorities of South Kensington professed to open to the public an exhibition of the Avorks of those educated Avithin these schools , they might have thrown open an exhibition , which , sIioaving the present state of manufacturing design , Avould have been an effectual declaration of our progress , and the merit of which would have been attributed to the schools of art .
Twenty years ago the men were not procurable to execute the works which are now exhibited . A . first rate artist , sufficiently skilled in modelling and drawing , either'treated manufacturing work , as beneath him—though not beneath Michael Angelo , llafiaelle , Benvenuto Cellini , and many men of genius—or he asked exorbitant prices for trifling services , and the second and third rate artists travelled in his wake .
Thus , a man who wished his mansion decorated or furnished in a manner corresponding in taste to what he bad witnessed abroad , had to . import the whole body of artists , a circumstance , Avhich uoav seldom happens , except some fanatic or court sycophant imports
foreigners for tin ; mere sake of employing foreigners , for now tlie work can be done with , native artists , or by the assistance of resident foreign artists , who eagerly compete in such , afield of employment ; and thus we have been enabled in the late exhibitions on . the continent , as at the Exposition of 1855 for instance , to win prizes against the French themselves by tlie aid of some of their oavu picked men . This was