Studio: international art (2.1894)

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition, 1893

expended on one piece of work for its own sake, conditions, it can be otherwise. Art is, in its true
the very best thing shown will only provoke similar, sense, after all, the crown and flowering of life and
though possibly more elegantly expressed, criti- labour, and we cannot reasonably expect to gain
cism from the modern economist with his machine- that crown except at the true value of the human
made opinions. Of course there is half a very life and labour of which it is the result."
important truth in an objection to artistic works The general impression of the exhibition is that
that are by their cost removed from the masses— it is a good selection of creditable work, excellently
for one would fain see the common pottery, the arranged, and this hasty verdict is strengthened by
ordinary furniture and every-day objects of the subsequent visits. The gorgeous specimen made
houses as beautiful as possible. But the lesson the specially for the purpose of arresting the attention
" Arts and Crafts " aims to
teach—that beauty is not to
be found merely in ornament
—is not yet learned by those
who can afford expensive pro-
ducts, and has been long ago
forgotten by the poorer classes,

who take now their ideas of

beauty from richer folk. Sim-
plicity, in short, is unpopular

to-day when the average ad-
vice, if given frankly, would

be, " If you cannot afford a

well-made piece of furniture

discreetly ornamented,choose

one badly designed, badly

made, with plenty of mere-
tricious ornament, so long as

it looks its cost." In the last

phrase one discovers the real

objection to much excellent

work; not because its design

is good and its work lasting;

Philistia with its theories of

worldly probity will approve

of both, if only it proclaim

to the world at large the high mother and child, group in plaster, by mary sargent Florence

price paid for it.

In a reprint of the essays contributed to former among a medley of conflicting objects, which an
catalogues, Mr. AValter Crane meets this com- International Exhibition must needs present, is to
monly raised objection when he says : " In some seek. Beyond a cartoon for St. Paul's by Mr.
quarters it appears to have been supposed W. B. Richmond, R.A., and the Morris-Burne-
that our exhibitions are intended to appeal, by the Jones tapestry, which, although they demonstrate
exhibition of cheap and saleable articles, to what their presence by size and intrinsic value, in no way
are rudely termed ' the masses '; we appeal to all, belong to the sensational objects produced for a
certainly, but it should be remembered that cheap- World's Fair, there is little that in an average shop-
ness in art and handicraft is well-nigh impossible, window would arrogantly obtrude its clever craft
save in some forms of more or less mechanical or its prodigal cost upon a chance passer-by.
reproduction. In fact, cheapness, as a rule, in the One has to find out the good things—like Mr.
sense of low-priced production, can only be Lethaby's fireplace, Mr. Blomfield's furniture, Mrs.
obtained at the cost of cheapness—that is, the Walter Crane's embroidery, and a hundred
cheapening of human life and labour; surely in others ; they do not shout at you from the end of
reality a most wasteful and extravagant cheapness, the Gallery. More than this, they need some
It is difficult to see how, under present economic amount of intelligent study to appreciate their

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