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#0054
Royal Academy Students
invention. Here and there a student broke away
from the fetters of a tame routine, and showed that
he was glad and proud to enjoy his strength ; but
the result of this salutary holiday-making was
not always artistic, being more remarkable for
a sort of scenic bravado than for dramatic fer-
vour and vigour. Nevertheless, it was very wel-
come—much more so, indeed, than the uniform
dull accomplishment shown by those among
the students of sculpture who took part in the
competition of the four models from the life.
Very different from the standpoint of individuality,
and far more promising of good things to come,
were the sketch-models for a group repre
senting “ The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from
Paradise.” In this competition the prize-winner,
Mr. F. C. Chrisfield, scored a truly imaginative
success, and realised in the movement of his
figures a pathetic beauty of according senti-
ment and rhythm that had a rare charm and
distinction. Among the other competitors there
were some who had the chief failing of their
schools, a fear of being individual in purpose and
robust in handling.
Now, that fear, so antagonistic to the genius ot
the Anglo-Celtic temperament, has probably its
origin in the fact that an athletic race suffers more
than a non-athletic one from such a sedentary
occupation as the study of art in over-heated life'
classes ; and hence, no doubt, the Academy should
counteract the influence of that study by a course
of physical training for the students affected by it-
The British school of painting suffered greatly in
the nineteenth century from a neglect of health on
the part of Girtin, of Bonington, of Pinwell, of
Fred. Walker, of George Mason, and of other
gifted men; and everyone who saw the Academy
students last December must have noticed that
plenty of exercise in the open air would be good
both for them and for the nerve-energy required in
their handiwork.
No useful purpose would be served by criticising
all the competitions one by one, so let us pass
on at once to the more important, beginning out
“THE TOWER BRIDGE” BY MISS MABEI. ROBINSON
38
invention. Here and there a student broke away
from the fetters of a tame routine, and showed that
he was glad and proud to enjoy his strength ; but
the result of this salutary holiday-making was
not always artistic, being more remarkable for
a sort of scenic bravado than for dramatic fer-
vour and vigour. Nevertheless, it was very wel-
come—much more so, indeed, than the uniform
dull accomplishment shown by those among
the students of sculpture who took part in the
competition of the four models from the life.
Very different from the standpoint of individuality,
and far more promising of good things to come,
were the sketch-models for a group repre
senting “ The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from
Paradise.” In this competition the prize-winner,
Mr. F. C. Chrisfield, scored a truly imaginative
success, and realised in the movement of his
figures a pathetic beauty of according senti-
ment and rhythm that had a rare charm and
distinction. Among the other competitors there
were some who had the chief failing of their
schools, a fear of being individual in purpose and
robust in handling.
Now, that fear, so antagonistic to the genius ot
the Anglo-Celtic temperament, has probably its
origin in the fact that an athletic race suffers more
than a non-athletic one from such a sedentary
occupation as the study of art in over-heated life'
classes ; and hence, no doubt, the Academy should
counteract the influence of that study by a course
of physical training for the students affected by it-
The British school of painting suffered greatly in
the nineteenth century from a neglect of health on
the part of Girtin, of Bonington, of Pinwell, of
Fred. Walker, of George Mason, and of other
gifted men; and everyone who saw the Academy
students last December must have noticed that
plenty of exercise in the open air would be good
both for them and for the nerve-energy required in
their handiwork.
No useful purpose would be served by criticising
all the competitions one by one, so let us pass
on at once to the more important, beginning out
“THE TOWER BRIDGE” BY MISS MABEI. ROBINSON
38