International studio (16.1902)

Royal Academy Students

tradition, Mr. G. Dupre is beyond doubt the most
highly-gifted of the medallists who, since M.
Vernon, have succeeded in winning the Prix de
Rome. Much promise is shown too by M.
Gregoire, at present a pensionnaire at the Villa
Medicis, and by M. Louis Fuchs, a portrait by
whom, exhibited at the last Salon du Champ-de-
Mars, remains in one’s memory.
Of recent years mourning has in truth fallen
heavily on the French school. We have lost in suc-
cession Daniel Dupuis and Maximilien Bourgeois.
Yet there is sufficient evidence of new talent to
show that the source is far from being dry, that
decadence is remote, and that the future may be
faced with equanimity. Roger Marx.
HE ROYAL ACADEMY AND
ITS STUDENTS’ COMPETI-
TIONS.
“ Why do you desire so much to be in the
Academy? You must be aware that none but
the lame require crutches ! ”

It was thus that James Northcote (1746—1831)-
himself a distinguished Academician, spoke to :l
painter who had called upon him to beg his vote
On other occasions, with equal frankness, North'
cote said much bitterer things about the Acadeffl)
—things, too, unfortunately, which retain to tin5
day an air of contemporary half-truth that provoke
remark. Thus, for example, the Academy 'vaS
often described by Northcote as “ Fools’ Hospital
not because he had permitted himself to be elected
but because he could not hide from himself the
fact that its schools produced a commonplacS
manner, and that its social influence was so strong
as to be harmful to its artistic purpose, so that
many who hankered after membership found time
serving of greater use to them than talent. John
Opie, also, another distinguished Academician
the same period, was keenly alive to the same
defects of the institution. He used to say of the
Academy, “ I wish we could contrive some means
to knock it up ! ”
Since those words were spoken, and spoken
seriously, events of vast and enduring moment have



BY GEORGE MURRAY