DOI article:
The editor's room
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17294#0251
The Lay Figure at Home
THE LAY FIGURE AT HOME.
" Forecasts of the Royal Academy in-
terest me even less than the show itself,"
said a young " decadent" painter to the
Lay Figure. " I never care for the May Meetings
at Burlington House, or at Exeter Hall. Indeed, I
never go to the summer show at the R.A."
" I see you prefer old masters to middle-aged !
Well, it is hard to hear one's more successful
praised," an elderly painter observed.
" That is not the reason," the " decadent" replied
hastily. " I have found my audience, but not at
Burlington House."
"I know," said the journalist; "they think you
improper and a proof of advanced ideas. So
Clapham and Tooting, Little Pedlington and the
Colonies, proclaim you the coming man and buy
your work, though they prefer not to be suspected
of understanding it."
" It does not appear as if Art always progressed,"
said the elderly artist. " The Impressionists were
bad enough, but really the school of Beardsley is
more irritating. No ! (he went on, unheeding a
protest); I can, and do, admire some of that
erratic artist's work, but his imitators sadden me."
" I believe Art is about to redeem the ' picture '
once more," said the journalist. " It is odd to see
how the genius of a period finds various mediums
for its expression—now frescoes, now paintings, and
then perhaps metal-work or pottery."
" Yes ; it looks as if modern painters were about
to pluck up heart and dare bigger things," said the
man with a clay pipe. " Courage is an important
factor in Art; you cannot expect to achieve success
in fresco, if you only attempt cabinet pictures."
" I hope to see the Poster lead the way to a
change in the permanent advertisement," said the
journalist. " Why should every blank wall of a
warehouse or shop bear merely gigantic lettering ?
Good mural paintings, or bold mosaics, after well-
planned designs, would surely attract more atten-
tion and secure the publicity commerce delights
in."
"A good idea," said the Lay Figure; "one
might begin with sign-boards—indeed, I have seen
a capital sketch-design for one. Then shop-fronts
could do much ; those two admirable panels by
Harry Bates each side of a confectioner's door-
way in Kensington High Street, show how easily
bas-relief lends itself to commercial use."
" I saw lately in Paris," said the "decadent," " a
lot of colour high-reliefs—modern figures advertis-
ing cheap drapery houses, watches, and other things ;
viii
awfully bad, but suggesting something all the same."
" If stained-glass windows can be turned into
placards," said the man with a Liberty silk tie, " why
not adapt some of the beautiful Delia Robbia
schemes to commercial ends ? "
" It is easy for us, who are interested in Art, to
suggest all these changes," said the Lay Figure.
"They can be designed all right—we have plenty of
capable artists—and they could be easily carried
out by plenty of capable processes, and, I think,
the public would approve ; but the middleman bars
the way. The taste of the buyer for the trade, or
the commercial traveller, these are our worst
enemies, especially the trade buyer."
" Yes, because least suspected," said the jour-
nalist, " he is the irresponsible censor of Art. We
see how angry playwrights are with a censor of
plays; but every manufactory has its censor of Art,
who alters, degrades, or flatly refuses to produce
xcellent designs submitted to him."
"Not quite all," said the Lay Figure; "a few
notable instances must exist to the contrary, other-
wise how would the good things be made that are
in all our shops to-day ? "
"I suspect in almost every case, if a good thing
be made for ordinary sale, and not to a special
order of the shopkeeper, who has often excellent
taste, we should find that it was a partner of the
firm producing it who was responsible for it; not
the clerk, promoted from office-boy to arbiter
elegantiarium, who strangles Art in its birth."
" You always lose your temper over these
officials," said the journalist.
"Is it possible to do otherwise," said the Lay
Figure, " when you know many designers, and
see their schemes, practical as well as beautiful,
rejected by a vulgar taste that, seeking for profit
only, often enough misses that also, so persistently
commonplace are its ideals? What right has a person
of no natural taste, or artificially acquired culture,
to decide on questions of Art ? Let him criticise
their cost of reproduction, their method, and every
practical detail; there we accept his opinion. But
when he poses as an Art critic, not the most
incompetent journalist who ever gleefully blundered
through a column of ridiculous paragraphs about
paintings, is so preposterously absurd as this ' trade
buyer,' or what ever you care to call him. For
his absurdities are done in the dark. Did people
of taste realise that one such man can do more
active mischief in a year than the President of the
Royal Academy could undo, he would be hunted
out from obscurity and gibbeted."
The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE AT HOME.
" Forecasts of the Royal Academy in-
terest me even less than the show itself,"
said a young " decadent" painter to the
Lay Figure. " I never care for the May Meetings
at Burlington House, or at Exeter Hall. Indeed, I
never go to the summer show at the R.A."
" I see you prefer old masters to middle-aged !
Well, it is hard to hear one's more successful
praised," an elderly painter observed.
" That is not the reason," the " decadent" replied
hastily. " I have found my audience, but not at
Burlington House."
"I know," said the journalist; "they think you
improper and a proof of advanced ideas. So
Clapham and Tooting, Little Pedlington and the
Colonies, proclaim you the coming man and buy
your work, though they prefer not to be suspected
of understanding it."
" It does not appear as if Art always progressed,"
said the elderly artist. " The Impressionists were
bad enough, but really the school of Beardsley is
more irritating. No ! (he went on, unheeding a
protest); I can, and do, admire some of that
erratic artist's work, but his imitators sadden me."
" I believe Art is about to redeem the ' picture '
once more," said the journalist. " It is odd to see
how the genius of a period finds various mediums
for its expression—now frescoes, now paintings, and
then perhaps metal-work or pottery."
" Yes ; it looks as if modern painters were about
to pluck up heart and dare bigger things," said the
man with a clay pipe. " Courage is an important
factor in Art; you cannot expect to achieve success
in fresco, if you only attempt cabinet pictures."
" I hope to see the Poster lead the way to a
change in the permanent advertisement," said the
journalist. " Why should every blank wall of a
warehouse or shop bear merely gigantic lettering ?
Good mural paintings, or bold mosaics, after well-
planned designs, would surely attract more atten-
tion and secure the publicity commerce delights
in."
"A good idea," said the Lay Figure; "one
might begin with sign-boards—indeed, I have seen
a capital sketch-design for one. Then shop-fronts
could do much ; those two admirable panels by
Harry Bates each side of a confectioner's door-
way in Kensington High Street, show how easily
bas-relief lends itself to commercial use."
" I saw lately in Paris," said the "decadent," " a
lot of colour high-reliefs—modern figures advertis-
ing cheap drapery houses, watches, and other things ;
viii
awfully bad, but suggesting something all the same."
" If stained-glass windows can be turned into
placards," said the man with a Liberty silk tie, " why
not adapt some of the beautiful Delia Robbia
schemes to commercial ends ? "
" It is easy for us, who are interested in Art, to
suggest all these changes," said the Lay Figure.
"They can be designed all right—we have plenty of
capable artists—and they could be easily carried
out by plenty of capable processes, and, I think,
the public would approve ; but the middleman bars
the way. The taste of the buyer for the trade, or
the commercial traveller, these are our worst
enemies, especially the trade buyer."
" Yes, because least suspected," said the jour-
nalist, " he is the irresponsible censor of Art. We
see how angry playwrights are with a censor of
plays; but every manufactory has its censor of Art,
who alters, degrades, or flatly refuses to produce
xcellent designs submitted to him."
"Not quite all," said the Lay Figure; "a few
notable instances must exist to the contrary, other-
wise how would the good things be made that are
in all our shops to-day ? "
"I suspect in almost every case, if a good thing
be made for ordinary sale, and not to a special
order of the shopkeeper, who has often excellent
taste, we should find that it was a partner of the
firm producing it who was responsible for it; not
the clerk, promoted from office-boy to arbiter
elegantiarium, who strangles Art in its birth."
" You always lose your temper over these
officials," said the journalist.
"Is it possible to do otherwise," said the Lay
Figure, " when you know many designers, and
see their schemes, practical as well as beautiful,
rejected by a vulgar taste that, seeking for profit
only, often enough misses that also, so persistently
commonplace are its ideals? What right has a person
of no natural taste, or artificially acquired culture,
to decide on questions of Art ? Let him criticise
their cost of reproduction, their method, and every
practical detail; there we accept his opinion. But
when he poses as an Art critic, not the most
incompetent journalist who ever gleefully blundered
through a column of ridiculous paragraphs about
paintings, is so preposterously absurd as this ' trade
buyer,' or what ever you care to call him. For
his absurdities are done in the dark. Did people
of taste realise that one such man can do more
active mischief in a year than the President of the
Royal Academy could undo, he would be hunted
out from obscurity and gibbeted."
The Lay Figure.