DOI Heft:
No. 61 (March, 1902)
DOI Artikel:The Royal Academy and its students' competitions
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22773#0045
Royal Academy Students
"SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR ” (proxime accessit) BY FRED. API’LEYARI)
changed the Western type of civilisation, making
tresh kinds of methodised knowledge essential to
'success in all walks of life. Yet, somehow, the
K-oyal Academy has not been much affected by the
general alteration in the requirements of society.
is to-day essentially what it was in the time
°f Northcote and Opie—a backward institution,
having a strong tendency, if not towards its
°wn ruin, at least towards the weakening of its
Public utility; that is to say, its utility as a national
Pioneer in all matters affecting the prosperity of
the arts in their relation to the country’s needs.
From time to time, no doubt, some virile new
hlood is forced into its old corporate system; but
can anyone say with justice that the new blood has
the effect of giving a youthful vigour and alertness to
the whole governing policy of the institution ? If
■So, why is it that the Academy is still content to
dawdle behind the times ? Not only does it
treat with contempt the renewed interest taken
ln decorative handicraft, but with equal short-
■S1ghtedness it still persists in giving undue en-
couragement to one art, the art of painting easel
pictures, as though such pictures were not already
so numerous as to exceed by a thousandfold the
people who have surplus money enough to invest
in modern paintings. It is not kindness, but a
foolishness having tragic consequences, to train
large numbers of boys and girls for a profession
which not only unfits them for other occupations,
but in which not one in fifty can hope to earn even
a scanty livelihood. Painting, indeed, having
ceased to be a general need of life, ought to be
made like the edelweiss—an object of love placed
far beyond the reach of most passers-by, and there-
fore most attractive to those whom nature has best
fitted for the perils of the slow ascent to its high
solitudes.
That the President of the Academy holds dif-
ferent views is made clear by the speech delivered
to the students on Prize Day, the ioth of last
December. In this speech (“The Times,”
Dec, nth) he not only tries to discredit the present-
day tendencies in the evolution of art, but he
29
"SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR ” (proxime accessit) BY FRED. API’LEYARI)
changed the Western type of civilisation, making
tresh kinds of methodised knowledge essential to
'success in all walks of life. Yet, somehow, the
K-oyal Academy has not been much affected by the
general alteration in the requirements of society.
is to-day essentially what it was in the time
°f Northcote and Opie—a backward institution,
having a strong tendency, if not towards its
°wn ruin, at least towards the weakening of its
Public utility; that is to say, its utility as a national
Pioneer in all matters affecting the prosperity of
the arts in their relation to the country’s needs.
From time to time, no doubt, some virile new
hlood is forced into its old corporate system; but
can anyone say with justice that the new blood has
the effect of giving a youthful vigour and alertness to
the whole governing policy of the institution ? If
■So, why is it that the Academy is still content to
dawdle behind the times ? Not only does it
treat with contempt the renewed interest taken
ln decorative handicraft, but with equal short-
■S1ghtedness it still persists in giving undue en-
couragement to one art, the art of painting easel
pictures, as though such pictures were not already
so numerous as to exceed by a thousandfold the
people who have surplus money enough to invest
in modern paintings. It is not kindness, but a
foolishness having tragic consequences, to train
large numbers of boys and girls for a profession
which not only unfits them for other occupations,
but in which not one in fifty can hope to earn even
a scanty livelihood. Painting, indeed, having
ceased to be a general need of life, ought to be
made like the edelweiss—an object of love placed
far beyond the reach of most passers-by, and there-
fore most attractive to those whom nature has best
fitted for the perils of the slow ascent to its high
solitudes.
That the President of the Academy holds dif-
ferent views is made clear by the speech delivered
to the students on Prize Day, the ioth of last
December. In this speech (“The Times,”
Dec, nth) he not only tries to discredit the present-
day tendencies in the evolution of art, but he
29