Page 24 - Studio International - April 1973

On the occasion of the
8oth anniversary of The
Studio we reprint here in
facsimile a page of notes
and comments, written
either by the former editor The Lay Figure Speaks
Charles Holme or the
acting editor Gleeson
White. does not bear such arithmetical analysis. If the
THE LAY FIGURE SPEAKS. would-be exhibitor of eight be limited to four,
and if sales depend upon acceptance at Bur-
THE summer has come and the painter is off to lington House, then he must, one would think,
the country again ; if in packing he could only leave double his prices, or sacrifice half his income.
behind the artificial vision acquired by too much What the Academy suffers from, if the reports of
study of other painters' work, how much more hope- foreign and therefore disinterested critics be true,
ful the new harvest might be. It is a fatal influence is undue tolerance of the mere mechanic in the
of the modern system of exhibition that not only arts, and that it might determine to reject the
young, but trained artists, fall insensibly into the habit commonplace to a tenfold degree, whether sent in
of seeing Nature through other men's eyes. This one by Academicians or outsiders, should be the
sees it as Claude Monet might, that one as Corot, petition of real lovers of art. Better twenty good
another as Bastian Lepage, and so on—or rather, pictures by a single master, than the works of
and herein lies the danger—as he himself thinks twenty deserving, hard-working craftsmen who
they would have seen it. have mistaken their vocation and essayed art with
Discipleship to a certain extent is admirable, but no natural fitness for the task.
the imitator rarely excels his hero ; and, as we find In an odd volume of Vasari's "Lives," a fine old
daily, foreign critics pass over English paintings Italian edition, probably the original, that I
showing foreign influence, to study, and at times picked from a sixpenny box this week, is a past
to appreciate keenly, works by the more distinctly owner's very legible signature, " John Flaxman,"
individual men who dare to be themselves. with a note below not very easy to decipher,
Not only those unconsciously hypnotised by signed by John Payne Collier, which runs :
contemporary painters acquire a false accent, "This immortal sculptor had no faith in the high
the man who neglects the scientific knowledge of genius supposed to be indicated by a scrawling
the later schools, the man who, secure in Britannic and illegible signature : that notion is merely
convention, deliberately adopts older methods, may modern.—J. P. C."
no less easily lose his own sight of Nature as The series of reproductions from pictures in the
she is. National Gallery, now appearing in The Building
The defect arises partly no doubt from a laudable News, are excellent, when the price is considered.
distrust of self and too hasty acceptance of advice, The Botticelli Mars and Venus and The Nativity
especially from those who do not themselves paint, show evidences of the indirect help the camera is
and one would fain see more self-conceit of the daily giving us, by bringing fairly accurate fac-
right sort and more reliance on actual impressions similes to the reach of those who can only afford
of personal study which should reinforce the British coppers for their art.
school, even as Constable left the beaten track and An American magazine thus expresses its dis-
himself attempted to paint what he saw—as he like to the cover of THE STUDIO : "A more mean-
saw it. ingless and deplorable medley of the what is it'
The salvation of British art by statistics is the with the guess if you can' would be hard to
newest attempt to improve the Royal Academy. scare up even a museum of typographic horrors."
Figures carefully tabulated to show the advantage Such a gracefully turned appreciation deserves re-
gained by limiting the Academicians and outsiders cognition.
to a certain number of works, other tables to prove We all know the legend of the riding master
the fallacy of any such alteration, bristle around us. who took his pupils to the frieze of the Parthenon
But what of art in the matter ? in the British Museum to show them, how to sit a
No exhibition of rejected works has shown over- horse. In the last train from Charing Cross, lately,
whelming evidence of the incompetence of the I heard a railway guard in mufti telling another
judges. Here and there a few as good—nay, for he had seen the old masters at the British Museum
argument's sake one may say much better—pictures with muscles for all the world like " Jem Smith."
than those hung, were shown to be rejected. Does The name of the pugilist may be misspelt, if so
any one, however, suppose that the few really apologies are freely offered him, but the newest
notable outsiders who either abstain from send- criticism by a student of the noble art adds fresh
ing or are always rejected—so far as the public is lustre to those glorious sculptures.
concerned, it matters not which—would be thereby A newly married couple were choosing a carpet
included? And for more producers of the average the other day, and an artist friend persuaded them,
picture why this artistic sympathy ? as expense was no object, to buy a genuine Persian.
If art be a trade—with a sort of competitive Calling on them afterwards he found a hideous,
examination entrance, the Academy exhibition rococo modern velvet-pile. They were regretting
being the commercial prize—such arguments would the Persian, which they liked best, but the one
be quite natural; but if Art be Art, then no proof chosen cost very little more and would get shabby
exists that limiting each exhibitor to one picture sooner, so that they could get another; "while the
would make the dull painter brilliant, or that each Persian would never have worn out and they
single canvas would thereby hold the condensed would have got so tired of it." This is a true
art of eight. story—with a moral that needs no explanation.
Even the trade of making pictures for sale THE LAY FIGURE.
212

150