FINE ARTS.
PRIZES OFFERED BY THE BRITISH INSTITUTION'.
Tine Directors of the British Institation, with a view to retrieve its cha- racter, have announced their intention to give four premiums of 501, each to the painters of the four best pictures sent in to the ensiling Exhibition. We hail this act of liberality as a sign of a return to the judicious system of encouraging talent for which the Institution was once distiuguished ; before the Directors adopted the notable means of promoting British art recommended by disinterested dealers—pay- ing large sums for bad old pictures. In order to give effect to their bounty, however, it is necessary that the artists should know in what way the prizes are to be distributed ; because the "four best pictures" will in all likelihood be the productions of men already sufficiently dis- tinguished, and to whom neither the honour nor profit would be a con- sideration. The Academicians, for instance, can hardly be said to need such kind of encouragement ; though the Associates include some to whom it would be welcome. Artists are desirous to know before- hand, whether one prize is to be awarded to the best production of each of four classes of subjects—as designs of elevated character historical or poetical, incidents of familiar life and comic character, landscape and marine scenes, animals, flowers, and still life : or what classifi- cation of candidates or subjects is to regulate the award : and it would make the difficulty of determining, less, and the satisfaction of the decision greater, were some explanation made public, while there is yet time for the competitors to shape their efforts accordingly.
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