International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

The Lay
HE LAY FIGURE : ON LEAVING
THINGS UNDONE.
“ I wonder how much longer our legis-
lating wiseacres intend to go on discussing the
question whether or not the British Houses of Par-
liament are to be decorated,” said the Art Critic.
“ I notice that a Select Committee has just issued
another report on the subject with a whole
batch of recommendations. Will it lead to
anything being done, do you think?”
“ I should say that it is extremely doubtful,”
replied the Man with the Red Tie. “ On artistic
questions we talk indefinitely—it is a national
habit—but we always shirk action in such matters.”
“ But why ?” asked the Critic. “ What do you
imagine is the reason for our inactivity in artistic
matters ? We are supposed to be a practical race,
and to pride ourselves on not putting off till to-
morrow what may be done to-day. Why should
we allow ourselves to treat art in such a totally
different way?”
“You know the reason quite as well as I do,”
answered the Man with the Red Tie; “because it
is the national conviction that art does not count
anyhow, and that it is a mere triviality which is
unworthy of serious consideration. This question
of the decoration of the Houses of Parliament at
Westminster will, I am sure, never get beyond the
stage of discussion. Every attempt to carry it a
stage further is doomed to failure.”
“ Of course it is,” broke in the Practical Man.
“ Do you imagine for an instant that any Parlia-
ment which is pledged to administer the national
affairs with care and economy will sanction the
expenditure of large sums of money for such
useless work ? We have no right to encourage
waste, and I hold that it would be a scandal if any
of the public revenues were laid out upon anything
so futile and so absolutely unnecessary.”
“That is your view,” laughed the Man with the
Red Tie ; “ the view I should have expected of you,
because you cannot see anything beyond the tip of
your nose. But I look at the matter in an entirely
different way, I am glad to say, and I suggest that
the real scandal is in the fact that for nearly half
a century we have neglected an obvious and
important duty.”
“ What duty have we to art that we fail to fulfil ? ”
asked the Practical Man. “ Do we not spend an
enormous and unnecessary amount of money
annually on art education ? What need is there
to spend more upon decorating a building that is
intended for use and not for show ? What earthly
88

Figure
return, what possible benefit, should we get from
such expenditure ? ”
“ More than you think,” cried the Critic. “ I
will omit from the discussion one point in which
I firmly believe, that the dignity of the nation
demands that its Parliament House should not
be left in a condition of evident incompleteness
and should be something more than an empty
barn. I will confine myself only to your query
as to the return we may expect from expenditure
on decorations. Has it never occurred to you
that money spent on art education is wasted if the
men educated are given no chance of showing
how they can apply the knowledge they have
acquired; and do you not realise that men
without opportunities are as much wasted as the
money spent in training them ? ”
“ But they must make their own opportunities,”
returned the Practical Man; “they cannot expect
the State to support them in after life simply
because they have been trained at the expense of
the State. You are arguing that all art students
ought to be kept in luxury out of the public funds,
and that they ought to be looked upon as a
privileged class for which well-paid work must
always be found.”
“ Nothing of the sort,” replied the Critic. “ I
am only arguing that it is the duty of the State to
set a good example in the matter of art patronage,
and that it could not possibly set this example in
a better way than by spending the small annual
amount necessary for the efficient decoration of
our national buildings. In this way one of the
best assets which any commercial nation could
desire—a great school of designers and decorative
artists of the highest type—could be called into
existence, and the services of the men composing
it would be available for carrying out other work
which would come in their way. Even now there
is a demand for our art products abroad, and this
demand would be enormously increased if we as a
nation did our duty to art. There is the way, if
you would only see it, in which the return would
come for the money spent in decorating our public
buildings. I would like to see every place in which
national business is transacted beautified by fine
decorations commissioned and paid for by the State.
Other nations do not grudge this kind of expendi-
ture. In Paris, Berlin, Washington, and other
capitals money for this purpose is given without
stint. Are we less civilised or less intelligent?”
“ Great Heavens ! What extravagance; what
wicked waste !” cried the Practical Man.
The Lay Figure.