FINE ARTS.
THE Art-Union Committee, in their well-meant but ill-judged efforts to
encourage by premiums a better class of art than the taste of the majority
of prize-holders enables them to patronize, have only succeeded in proving
the fruitlessness of their endeavours. The result of the competition for the 500/. History piece satisfies no one; though we still think they chose the cartoon best suited for their purpose; and the annual issue of outline designs is more likely to disappoint than gratify the subscribers. The set
for the present year, designed by Mr. Hicks to illustrate Campbell's Ger-
trude of Wyoming, is unworthy of the subject and the occasion: the theme
and the style are beyond the artist's powers of conception and skill in draw- ing. His idea is well-meant, but he has not art to give it expression and forcible development; in aiming at the ideal he only attains the artificial, and sacrifices character and simplicity in so doing. To circulate productions of this class as things to be admired, is doing injury rather than benefit to art; for the approbation of the Art-Union gives them factitious value and un- due importance. The object of the Committee was to take advantage of the popular liking for outline drawing, that Flaxman implanted and Retzsch de- veloped in the English public, under the idea that this pure and simple style was calculated to promote the severe study of form, and test the skill of English artists in drawing the figure and grouping. But the education of our artists is of so superficial a nature, that they resort to conventional tricks in order to produce the semblance of what is good, as substitute for really graceful and correct drawing. No style lends itself more readily to mannerism than outline: it makes a clever knack of hitting off figures by recipe pass for thorough knowledge, and is apt to encourage prettiness at the expense of true elegance and simplicity. Moreover, outline is better suited to sculpturesque designs than to those of painters; it is expressly sculptor's sketching. The rigid forms and severe beauty of marble are much more properly expressed by a continuous hard outline than are the flexible and blended forms of painting; and it is peculiarly adapted to represent bas-relief. The Committee would do more to elevate the popular taste, and to encourage the study of form, by limiting their outlines to designs for sculpture. This would afford sculptors of ta- lent an opportunity of showing what they could do in the way of design, especially in that neglected department bas-relief; though we believe the best thing for artists would be, to give prizes for the best drawing of the skeleton or anatomical figure from dissection. That is what is most wanted in this country, both by artists and artisans; and what both the Royal Academy and the School of Design set their faces against. Apropos of the School of Design-our prediction is fulfilled: Mr. Wallis, who wrote and printed an admirable Letter to the Council of the School of Design, propounding his views on the course of instruction for students, has been forced to resign the Mastership of the Manchester Branch of the Government School. He was, like Mr. Herbert, "too effi- cient." We hope this will open the eyes of the Manchester manufacturers to the impolicy of allowing the spirit of improvement and energy, to which they owe their superiority, to be deadened and depressed by the benumbing in- fluence of the London officials. What is the value of a paltry pecuniary grant, and a few casts, compared with the preeminence of Manchester in the art of manufactures? If the men who carried Corn-law repeal would only give a little thought to the subject of teaching the art of design- and it is a simpler matter than any question of political economy-we are quite sure they would establish a school independent of Government aid and interference, and place Mr. Wallis at the head of it.
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