International studio (20.1903)

is now being decorated by Mr. Frank Brangwyn
in conjunction with Mr. Campbell Jones, the
architect, and with Mr. R. Anning Bell. Mr.
Brangwyn is engaged upon a series of panels illus-
trating the history of the Company, and the work
to be done will occupy live years or thereabouts-
It is an encouraging thing that two great City Com-
panies should thus place themselves at the head of
the art patrons, and renew in England that wise
patronship which the arts in other countries
received so often in bygone times from the
historic guilds of traders.
It is said that the City Companies were long at
odds with the suggestion that they should encourage
the arts, as they did not wish anything to interfere
with the interest they felt
in certain public charities
of a very deserving kind.
Was any form of art ot
sufficient national import-
ance to deserve the
strenuous support of their
members? This question
has been asked many a
time in England by public
and private institutions,
but in recent years the
answer to it has been
dictated by the competi-
tions of trade, which find
the services of art ever the
more necessary. England,
indeed, for the first time
in her history, is becoming
alive to the fact that the
arts are not merely luxuries,
but necessary servants to
all the needs of life in a
progressive country. When
they are neglected, the
standard of workmanship
is lowered in a thousand
ways throughout a whole
nation, and the dignity of
independent labour de -
dines at a rapid pace,
much to the injury of
national character. To
encourage art is thus a
national charity, and the
City Companies of Lon-
don have set an excellent
example to other insti-
STUDY OF CHERUBS AKD A]R-SPIR[TS BY HERBERT J- DRAPER tutions.
4C

become bolder and firmer year by year, without
losing any of that refinement which is so welcome
a characteristic of Mr. Draper's style. In art, let
us remember, refinement without masculinity is a
weakness; and it is precisely in the masculine
qualities of his work that Mr. Draper now shows a
rapidly strengthening grasp on the essentials of art.
Finally, the members of the Drapers' Company
have every reason to be satisfied with the manner
in which their commission has been carried out.
Their encouragement of art has made an excel-
lent beginning, and we may expect it will be
continued with a thoroughness of temper equal
to that which is shown by the Skinners' Com-
pany in the ornamentation of their Hall, which