ART STUDIES FROM NATURE.*
TIIAT architects, designers, and manufacturers need to have their attention directed to the production of more beautiful forms of ornamentation, no one who observes the poverty and ungraceful- ness of our present attempts at decoration will be prepared to deny ; for ugliness, enshrined in our churches, enthroned in our palaces, domesticated in our homes, meets us at every turn. Conven- tionalism, bad taste, and hurried, thoughtless execution, are three fatal bars in the way of improvement. The first should be utterly eschewed, the second corrected by proper training, the third is the most difficult to overcome, since it is the outgrowth of this money-making age, which requires that everything shall be done rapidly, and refuses the necessary time for slow and careful work. The man who will not execute a commission in a perfunctory way is often superseded by one who has no each scruples, his bread is taken out of his mouth, and unless he has a great name, he is forced to slur over his labour or to starve. If, however, our national taste should become so elevated as to render unendurable the miserable specimens of ornamentation we now are con- teat to use, supply keeping pace with demand, designers of every kind will find it to their advantage to qualify themselves by an amount of intelligent study of which at present very few of them perceive the advantage. It may be said that the true artist studies from pure love of his art ; this is gsrantel, but how many of the ill-paid labourers in what may be called the mechanical branches of Art are imbued with this love ? Are they not men and women who have taken up their vocation in order to earn a livelihood, and who find the doing so hard enough, without adding to their ill-paid labours additional and probably unappreciated toil? We welcome such a book as the one miler consideration, because it must awaken all who read it to the perception of theartistie possibilities that lie before us, and in doing so it will have ite effect in leading our people towards a greater desire for truth and beauty. The four essays of which it is composed were published originally in the Art Journal, and "have been, after careful revision by their several writers, pub- lished in this detached form, in order that they may be still more commonly accessible." The preface, written by Mr. Huline, after pointing out the pleasure which is to be derived from the study of nature and the higher thoughts to which it leads, contains these true and suggestive words :— " Art that is msthetic and sensuous, though pleasing to the eye, must ever in the nature of things hold a subordinate place to that art which is symbolic, to those forms in which an Miler meaning may be -traced, and though one work of Art may perhaps necessarily contain less of this reflected thought than another, yet this proposition, we think, will hold good, that no work of Art that does not in some way testify to this can be altogether satisfactory, for while pleasing for a time to the eye, it yet leaves,the mind unsatisfied. The reverse will equally hold good. and 'vs may safely repeat that in proportion to the thought bestowed and expressed by the artist will be the enjoyment and profit to be derived by others from it."
In the first paper the same writer endeavours to show " the adaptability of our native plants to the purposes of ornamental Art," and after observing that on looking back at the past history and practice of ornamental Art, in the midst of many marked dif- ferences of style, one principle is very general, namely, the use in any given country of the plants familiar to it, he goes on to say that "beautiful as the Greek anthemion and other allied forms are, they by no means represent the limit available in ornamental Art," and that our hedgerows, streams, and meadows teem with subject's by the introduction of which we may bring architecture nearer to the sympathies of those who now regard it only with indifference. In saying this Mr. Hulme is careful to acknowledge that our leading architects do recognise and act upon • Art &odic, from Nature as Applied to Design. For the Use of Architect,, De Signers, and Manufacturers. Reprinted from the Art Journal. London: Virtue and Co. this truth, but he would have it also considered by all who are in any way concerned with ornamental design. Some knowledge of botany is, of course, essential to those who would successfully introduce vegetable growth into any composition, as the absence of such knowledge is very easily detected ; and in giving examples of the way in -which common plants may be adapted to decorative purposes, Mr. Hulme has been careful to describe the habit and home of such as he has brought forward, and to mention in connection with them many interesting facts, such as their uses in old times, the derivation of their names, and any peculiarity connected with them. The illustrations abundantly show that in the commonest of our plants may be found forms of beauty peculiarly suited for use in architecture. Take, for instance, the comfrey (Symphytum officinale, so called from the Greek verb" to unite," because it was held to be efficacious in healing wounds) ; what more suitable than the scorpoid arrange- ment of its little bell-like flowers, and its graceful leaves for a central adornment? while the different convolvuli, the ivies of many varieties, the harebell, the fever-few, and numbers of others, naturally arrange themselves in scrolls—the ox-eye daisy, the winter crow-foot, the hazel nut, &c., form beautiful bo sses—and even the herb-Robert and the horned poppy come in admirably in the space over an arch. But one point must be clearly born e in mind. Mr. Hulme says, quoting from Hudson :—"There is a great difference between the terms applied and adapted ; they, in fact, express the wrong and the right use of vegetable forms. All natural forms require certain modifications to adapt them for other than their own natural situations, and it is the neglect of this, and the simple application of these forms without adapting .them, which constitute a false principle." Now this is a rock upon which the young Art-student who desires to imitate nature is very apt to split. As Dresser says, " mere imitation is not ornamentation," and he who would 'worthily use the great book of models which is spread out before him must know- how to make them fulfil his purpose, which should be to express the beauty of natural objects without producing what would in many-instanees be ridiculous, a close copy of them. Mr. Hulme advises not merely the study of those good botanical works which contain accurate representations of plants and. flowers, but that the Art student should undertake for himself a diligent search after new and beautiful plant forms, of svhich sketches should be made and retained for after use ; "of such reserves of material," he says, "a designer cannot have too many,—though he may very easily have too few."
As a proof that we are by no means insensible to the fitness of adaptations of natural objects to manufacturing purposes. when such adaptations are well managed, an example may 'be given. Many years ago, as all our readers are aware, the patterns in use in the damask factories of the North of Ireland' were ex- ceedingly stiff and conventional. A young man, however, who had succeeded to the ownership of a factory, the business of which was so small as barely to cover its expenses, conceived the idea of weaving table linen upon which foliage, fruits, and 'flowers should appear in graceful and natural combination. The innovation, opposed at first, soon made its way, the beauty of the new designs was widely appreciated, and that house, once so insig- nificant and struggling, now has its branches and correspondents all over the world.
In the second of the papers which this interesting book contains, Mr. Mackie takes up sea-weeds as being peculiarly adapted for most ornamental purposes. He justly defends these -wonderful productions from the charge of "vileness," and claims for them the possession in a high degree of beauty of outline and-graceful- ness of form, which he fully bears out by the illustrations he has selected. The suggestion that the mathematical solids or traceries to be found in the magnified sections of different kinds of sea-weeds might be adopted by jewellers to vary their set- tings of pearls and precious stonea, and that bronze settings of similar design might be employed in the ordinary bijou- terie of every-day wear is well worthy of consideration, although it is unlikely that ornament of so sombre a tone would find favour with those whose meretricious taste delights in the gaudiness of French jewellery. More favour is likely to be shown to the notion of having articles devoted to the service of fish decorated with some of the many beautiful and appropriate forms. of marine plants, which in their native element often display colours of as vivid a hue as do the flowers which at present maintain almost exclusive possession of public favour for the adornment of pottery and china.
Mr. Glaisher's paper on crystals of snow will probably be re- ceived by many with surprise. Few, we imagine, are acquainted
with the wondrous variety of geometrical patterns which under certain conditions snow crystals are wont to assume, although everyone has observed the beauty of the designs which after a night's severe frost will appear upon the window pane. The symmetry and diversity of the forms of snow crystals are indeed astonishing ; during one winter Mr. Glaisher observed as many as two hundred, and he has figured for our benefit a large number of them, which he suggests are admirable models for the patterns of mosaics, inlaid work, encaustic and painted tiles, as well as for foot-cloths, printed calicoes, and indeed for every description of decoration where geometric designs are admissible. "Here is," he justly says, "a book of patterns, no one of which has ever been used ;. leaf after leaf maybe turned over, and still find something new, something that may be copied as it presents itself, something that will he suggestive."
The-volume closes with Mr. Hunt's essay -4Dn the symmetrical
and ornamental forms of organic remains. These- are, naturally, less accessible than the subjects of the former papers to the Art student, but not less worthy of his careful consideration, for the beautiful spirals of the Ammonites, the regularly dentie.ulated
edge -of the • Pectens, the wonderfully elegant curves of the Trigonias, as well as all the marvels of the fossil flora, are full of models .and Suggestions to' him who, with-diligent care; devotes himself-to their study. In them he will find varieties "no less
beautiful and far less common than their living analogues," varieties which are capable of adaptation to almost every form of Art-manufadture. We cannot do better than close -our notice of- these thoughtful and suggestive Art Studies with a few of Mr. Hunt's own words:—
"The influence of the study of Nature in refining and puri- fying the human mind has been often insisted on, and its truth is evident. No effort of human thought, which-is of a merely terrestrial character, can ever rise to the truly beautiful. Whether the artist desires to paint upon his canvas, to chisel out of marble, to mould in clay, or to cast in metal, forum which shall possess the charm, the secret-of inspiring a feeling of the beautiful, he must go to Nature for her inspiration. Looking into the mirror of her works, like the influ- ence -of gazing into loving eyes, he draws from it a pure, a holy inspiration, which he may, if his practised hand be obedient to his creative mind, transfer to the- gross element which is to express to mankind the power of the true."
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