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#0046
Royal Academy Students
gives unusual emphasis to a belief of his that
cannot but act as a strong tonic on the wastrel
hopes of ambitious incompetents : the belief,
namely, that love for his work is the best equip-
ment for an artist—far better than brilliant qualities
or what is called cleverness ; and thus, although
original genius is a gift granted to but very few, it
is still within the power of all who have an artistic
temperament to. arrive at excellence—even at
eminence—by the determination to neglect nothing.
Shall we be told next that perseverance will turn a
minor poet into a Milton ? If the President were
to say that the determination to neglect nothing is
always admirable, but that this excellent quality of
character is of little avail in true art without genius,
original ability—if he said this, then he would give
expression to a truth which might prevent dozens
of young art students from wasting their time
in a fool’s paradise of vain hopes. All the plod-
ding in the world will not help commonplace
talents to feather themselves with the wings ot
genius.
And let it not be thought that the President’s
belief is to be studied only in his speech ; it appears
also, more or less conspicuously, in much of the
work produced in the schools under his supervision ;
and for this reason, and no other, the recent com-
petitions invite and deserve franker criticisms than
those which are usually passed on the work of
students. But care must be taken to aim the
criticisms at the right target; not at the students
of the Academy (who, one and all, do their very
best), but at a system of training which fails, to get
in touch with the strong, adventurous qualities of
the British character, being far more favourable to
the gentle and imitative talents of girls than it is
to male abilities. If British art students have a
right to err in any one way more than another
it is not in that way which leads to a boudoir-like
elegance or sweetness ; and yet, in the recent com-
“ THE MASQUE OF CUPID—SPENSER’S ‘ FAERIE QUEENE ’ ”
BY OSMOND PITTMAN
3°
gives unusual emphasis to a belief of his that
cannot but act as a strong tonic on the wastrel
hopes of ambitious incompetents : the belief,
namely, that love for his work is the best equip-
ment for an artist—far better than brilliant qualities
or what is called cleverness ; and thus, although
original genius is a gift granted to but very few, it
is still within the power of all who have an artistic
temperament to. arrive at excellence—even at
eminence—by the determination to neglect nothing.
Shall we be told next that perseverance will turn a
minor poet into a Milton ? If the President were
to say that the determination to neglect nothing is
always admirable, but that this excellent quality of
character is of little avail in true art without genius,
original ability—if he said this, then he would give
expression to a truth which might prevent dozens
of young art students from wasting their time
in a fool’s paradise of vain hopes. All the plod-
ding in the world will not help commonplace
talents to feather themselves with the wings ot
genius.
And let it not be thought that the President’s
belief is to be studied only in his speech ; it appears
also, more or less conspicuously, in much of the
work produced in the schools under his supervision ;
and for this reason, and no other, the recent com-
petitions invite and deserve franker criticisms than
those which are usually passed on the work of
students. But care must be taken to aim the
criticisms at the right target; not at the students
of the Academy (who, one and all, do their very
best), but at a system of training which fails, to get
in touch with the strong, adventurous qualities of
the British character, being far more favourable to
the gentle and imitative talents of girls than it is
to male abilities. If British art students have a
right to err in any one way more than another
it is not in that way which leads to a boudoir-like
elegance or sweetness ; and yet, in the recent com-
“ THE MASQUE OF CUPID—SPENSER’S ‘ FAERIE QUEENE ’ ”
BY OSMOND PITTMAN
3°