DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51520#0031
But man is full of subterfuge and evasions.
He would fain educate somebody but he
shrinks from doing anything that would dis-
turb the present ; that is the great fear of the
ordinary man, to disturb the present ever so
slightly ; so he would fill museums with dead
things that can never awaken desire or impulse
or idea, and gain credit for contributing to the
education of a nation without contributing
anything at all. Or maybe I am unjust to
the ordinary rich man. Perhaps the reason
why his gifts to museums consist principally of
old dead things out of which the spirit of life
has departed, ancient coins, ancient parch-
ments, and ancient pictures, is because he
does not know how to acquire valuable modern
pictures. I admit that the difficulty is a
serious one, and the attempts that have been
made to acquire collections of modern pictures
have not been successful. I am alluding now
to the Tate Gallery and the Chantry Bequest.
But of the value of the present collection of
modern pictures there can be no question,
and what is wanted is a standard, a criterion.
London wants this, and so does every town in
England, but no town wants it so much as
Dublin. Though there be no unimpeachable
collection of modern pictures in London, yet
there are modern pictures to be seen in
different galleries, but in Dublin there is no
criterion. The only beautiful pictures in the
National Gallery are ancient pictures, and for
the purpose of instruction in the art of
2 I
He would fain educate somebody but he
shrinks from doing anything that would dis-
turb the present ; that is the great fear of the
ordinary man, to disturb the present ever so
slightly ; so he would fill museums with dead
things that can never awaken desire or impulse
or idea, and gain credit for contributing to the
education of a nation without contributing
anything at all. Or maybe I am unjust to
the ordinary rich man. Perhaps the reason
why his gifts to museums consist principally of
old dead things out of which the spirit of life
has departed, ancient coins, ancient parch-
ments, and ancient pictures, is because he
does not know how to acquire valuable modern
pictures. I admit that the difficulty is a
serious one, and the attempts that have been
made to acquire collections of modern pictures
have not been successful. I am alluding now
to the Tate Gallery and the Chantry Bequest.
But of the value of the present collection of
modern pictures there can be no question,
and what is wanted is a standard, a criterion.
London wants this, and so does every town in
England, but no town wants it so much as
Dublin. Though there be no unimpeachable
collection of modern pictures in London, yet
there are modern pictures to be seen in
different galleries, but in Dublin there is no
criterion. The only beautiful pictures in the
National Gallery are ancient pictures, and for
the purpose of instruction in the art of
2 I