DOI Heft:
The editor's room
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0283
The Editor s Room
gallery which can claim to possess any such aims,
or to desire to serve in these ways as an imposing
memorial.
With this explanation we now offer the sugges-
tion made last month for the consideration of all
experts and art-lovers. Criticism upon the scheme
will be welcome, for it is only by expressions of
opinion of the most outspoken kind that the
possibility of arriving at any worthy result can be
estimated. If the Gallery is to be established, it
must be in response to a general demand, and as
the outcome of a national effort. Even if it could
be brought into existence by the generosity of a
small number of individuals, it would lack its chief
essential, for it would be shorn of its representa-
tive character. At all events, a really strenuous
effort to carry the idea from a simple possibility
into the practical region of probability is well worth
making. Half-hearted energy would be lament-
ably out of place in such an undertaking, and
would lead only to a reduction in the scope of the
memorial, which would destroy its importance and
make its significance inappreciable. If the work
can be done at all it must be done well, perfectly
completed, exquisitely finished. So carried through,
it would be a magnificent monument, an honour
both to the nation which created it and to the
Sovereign whose virtues it would commemorate.
MR. HENRY TATE AND
THE VICTORIAN GAL-
LERY PROPOSAL.
Perhaps the best evidence that
there is no idea of competition between the pro-
jected Victorian Gallery and that which is now in
course of erection at Millbank is afforded by a
communication which we have received from Mr.
Tate himself. This opinion of the generous donor
of our British Luxembourg is particularly valuable,
because it disposes of any suggestion that an insti-
tution designed especially to commemorate the
artistic achievements of the Queen's reign might
weaken the value of his gift and reduce the import-
ance of the gallery, which he intends to make a
permanent rallying place for our native school.
He writes : " I have read a copy of the article in
the January number of The Studio. I quite
approve of the scheme, but I do not see where the
money is to come from to enable you to carry it
out and maintain the building." It is really for the
country to decide whether the necessary funds can
be provided. The amount required is not so large
that it cannot be easily raised by a national sub-
ii
scription, and if once the meaning and significance
of the proposition we make is generally appreciated,
we can scarcely believe that a sufficient sum of
money to erect and endow the building will be
withheld. How the scheme is regarded by lovers of
art will appear from the criticisms which we re-
ceive ; and by the general consensus of opinion
we shall be guided in our eventual efforts to put
the whole affair into a practical form.
We have already received a large number of
letters expressing very hearty approval of the Vic-
torian Gallery suggestion, and extracts from these,
together with some further remarks on the subject,
will appear in the March number of The Studio.
Count Filippo Grimani, the mayor, asks us to
announce that the municipality of Venice has
decided to offer three prizes amounting to 1500
lire, 1000 lire and 500 lire respectively, for the best
critical essays on the Second International Art
Exhibition, which will be open in that city from
April 22 until October 31.
Mr. Greiffenhagen has pointed out a slight error
in the article upon his work which appeared in the
January number of The Studio. It was not Mr.
Monat Loudan who gained the Academy's gold
medal on the occasion referred to on page 239.
On the 15th, 16th and 17th of this month (Feb-
ruary), will be sold, at the Hotel Drouot, Paris, the
world-famed Goncourt collection of designs, water-
colours and pastels, of the eighteenth century. M.
Edmond de Goncourt wrote : " Ma volonte est que
mes dessins, mes estampes, mes bibelots, mes
livres, enfin les choses d'art qui ont fait le bonheur
de ma vie, n'aient pas la froide tombe d'un musee,
et le regard bete du passant indifferent, et je
demande qu'elles soient toutes eparpillees sous les
coups de marteau du commissaire—priseur et que
la jouissance que m'a procuree l'acquisition de
chacune d'elles soit redonnee, pour chacune d'elles,
a un heritier de mes gouts." At the famous Paris
auction rooms this will is now about to be finally
carried out. To the many lovers of art who must
perforce forego the delight of being present, as well
as to the more favoured ones, the magnificently
illustrated catalogue, prepared by the auctioneer, M.
Georges Duchesne, 6 Rue de Hanovre, Paris, should
be a desirable possession. It contains not only a
full description of each one of the 377 lots to be
offered for sale, but also 41 excellent photogravures
of drawings after Baudouin, Boucher, Cochin,
Fragonard, Gravelot, Claude Hoin, La Tour,
Moreau, Pater, Saint Aubin, and Watteau.
gallery which can claim to possess any such aims,
or to desire to serve in these ways as an imposing
memorial.
With this explanation we now offer the sugges-
tion made last month for the consideration of all
experts and art-lovers. Criticism upon the scheme
will be welcome, for it is only by expressions of
opinion of the most outspoken kind that the
possibility of arriving at any worthy result can be
estimated. If the Gallery is to be established, it
must be in response to a general demand, and as
the outcome of a national effort. Even if it could
be brought into existence by the generosity of a
small number of individuals, it would lack its chief
essential, for it would be shorn of its representa-
tive character. At all events, a really strenuous
effort to carry the idea from a simple possibility
into the practical region of probability is well worth
making. Half-hearted energy would be lament-
ably out of place in such an undertaking, and
would lead only to a reduction in the scope of the
memorial, which would destroy its importance and
make its significance inappreciable. If the work
can be done at all it must be done well, perfectly
completed, exquisitely finished. So carried through,
it would be a magnificent monument, an honour
both to the nation which created it and to the
Sovereign whose virtues it would commemorate.
MR. HENRY TATE AND
THE VICTORIAN GAL-
LERY PROPOSAL.
Perhaps the best evidence that
there is no idea of competition between the pro-
jected Victorian Gallery and that which is now in
course of erection at Millbank is afforded by a
communication which we have received from Mr.
Tate himself. This opinion of the generous donor
of our British Luxembourg is particularly valuable,
because it disposes of any suggestion that an insti-
tution designed especially to commemorate the
artistic achievements of the Queen's reign might
weaken the value of his gift and reduce the import-
ance of the gallery, which he intends to make a
permanent rallying place for our native school.
He writes : " I have read a copy of the article in
the January number of The Studio. I quite
approve of the scheme, but I do not see where the
money is to come from to enable you to carry it
out and maintain the building." It is really for the
country to decide whether the necessary funds can
be provided. The amount required is not so large
that it cannot be easily raised by a national sub-
ii
scription, and if once the meaning and significance
of the proposition we make is generally appreciated,
we can scarcely believe that a sufficient sum of
money to erect and endow the building will be
withheld. How the scheme is regarded by lovers of
art will appear from the criticisms which we re-
ceive ; and by the general consensus of opinion
we shall be guided in our eventual efforts to put
the whole affair into a practical form.
We have already received a large number of
letters expressing very hearty approval of the Vic-
torian Gallery suggestion, and extracts from these,
together with some further remarks on the subject,
will appear in the March number of The Studio.
Count Filippo Grimani, the mayor, asks us to
announce that the municipality of Venice has
decided to offer three prizes amounting to 1500
lire, 1000 lire and 500 lire respectively, for the best
critical essays on the Second International Art
Exhibition, which will be open in that city from
April 22 until October 31.
Mr. Greiffenhagen has pointed out a slight error
in the article upon his work which appeared in the
January number of The Studio. It was not Mr.
Monat Loudan who gained the Academy's gold
medal on the occasion referred to on page 239.
On the 15th, 16th and 17th of this month (Feb-
ruary), will be sold, at the Hotel Drouot, Paris, the
world-famed Goncourt collection of designs, water-
colours and pastels, of the eighteenth century. M.
Edmond de Goncourt wrote : " Ma volonte est que
mes dessins, mes estampes, mes bibelots, mes
livres, enfin les choses d'art qui ont fait le bonheur
de ma vie, n'aient pas la froide tombe d'un musee,
et le regard bete du passant indifferent, et je
demande qu'elles soient toutes eparpillees sous les
coups de marteau du commissaire—priseur et que
la jouissance que m'a procuree l'acquisition de
chacune d'elles soit redonnee, pour chacune d'elles,
a un heritier de mes gouts." At the famous Paris
auction rooms this will is now about to be finally
carried out. To the many lovers of art who must
perforce forego the delight of being present, as well
as to the more favoured ones, the magnificently
illustrated catalogue, prepared by the auctioneer, M.
Georges Duchesne, 6 Rue de Hanovre, Paris, should
be a desirable possession. It contains not only a
full description of each one of the 377 lots to be
offered for sale, but also 41 excellent photogravures
of drawings after Baudouin, Boucher, Cochin,
Fragonard, Gravelot, Claude Hoin, La Tour,
Moreau, Pater, Saint Aubin, and Watteau.