DOI issue:
No. 56 (October, 1901)
DOI article:Glasgow International Exhibition, [3]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22775#0338
Glasgow Exhibition
TAPESTRY: “THE WISE AND THE FOOLISH VIRGINS”
BY MISS FRIDA HANSEN
that the good work being done by the Schools of
Art will not only elevate the public taste but also
raise the ideal of the producer, though it seems
doubtful whether this is possible to any practical
extent unless the customers are educated first.
Manufacturers cannot choose but be men of
business; certainly there are a few not deterred
by unprofitable ventures, who purchase and use
designs which can never hope to attain to more
than an artistic success ; yet even the en-
lightened merchant has to face his annual balance
sheet, and the cost of production of the purely
imaginative or individualist design is prohibitive in
most cases, and manufacturers cannot fairly be
blamed for hesitating to embark on doubtful
ventures. To do them justice, what they want is
good art which will also show a profitable return,
and it is for the schools of art to meet this demand
by bringing their students into contact with
material, and teaching them in and through the
use of material to produce schemes which shall be
thoroughly practical in form and colour, and
adapted to the peculiarities of the material for
which they are designed. They should be pre-
pared to meet the views of manufacturers by
producing designs capable of being carried out
economically and in strict obedience to certain
restrictions, always bearing in mind the require-
ments of possible future employers, and learning
how best to recommend their work not only to the
artistic susceptibilities of the manufacturer, but
also to his business instincts.
We lay stress upon this point because, generally
speaking, hardly enough importance seems to be
attached to the adequate training of students in
the properties and characteristic treatment and
manipulation of the materials in which they may
be called upon to design. A manufacturer who
finds a design attractive enough at first sight, but
hopelessly unpractical on further inspection, must
either return it to the artist or have it mechanically
corrected by his own craftsmen, with a result that is
bed cover
BY MISS LEADBETTER
24I
TAPESTRY: “THE WISE AND THE FOOLISH VIRGINS”
BY MISS FRIDA HANSEN
that the good work being done by the Schools of
Art will not only elevate the public taste but also
raise the ideal of the producer, though it seems
doubtful whether this is possible to any practical
extent unless the customers are educated first.
Manufacturers cannot choose but be men of
business; certainly there are a few not deterred
by unprofitable ventures, who purchase and use
designs which can never hope to attain to more
than an artistic success ; yet even the en-
lightened merchant has to face his annual balance
sheet, and the cost of production of the purely
imaginative or individualist design is prohibitive in
most cases, and manufacturers cannot fairly be
blamed for hesitating to embark on doubtful
ventures. To do them justice, what they want is
good art which will also show a profitable return,
and it is for the schools of art to meet this demand
by bringing their students into contact with
material, and teaching them in and through the
use of material to produce schemes which shall be
thoroughly practical in form and colour, and
adapted to the peculiarities of the material for
which they are designed. They should be pre-
pared to meet the views of manufacturers by
producing designs capable of being carried out
economically and in strict obedience to certain
restrictions, always bearing in mind the require-
ments of possible future employers, and learning
how best to recommend their work not only to the
artistic susceptibilities of the manufacturer, but
also to his business instincts.
We lay stress upon this point because, generally
speaking, hardly enough importance seems to be
attached to the adequate training of students in
the properties and characteristic treatment and
manipulation of the materials in which they may
be called upon to design. A manufacturer who
finds a design attractive enough at first sight, but
hopelessly unpractical on further inspection, must
either return it to the artist or have it mechanically
corrected by his own craftsmen, with a result that is
bed cover
BY MISS LEADBETTER
24I