DOI issue:
No. 82 (January, 1900)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0314
Studio- Talk
and very great care will have to be taken to make
only such additions as are likely to do credit to
British art. The chief source from which new
things will come is the Ghantrey Fund, and this
fund, judging by its past operations, will have to
be very much more carefully and intelligently
administered in the future. Already, many things
have found their way to Millbank that are quite
unworthy of places in a national collection, and
most of these have been bought by the Chantrey
Fund Trustees. These individuals are now in the
position of buyers for the nation, and must be
required to realise the extent of their responsibility
They are understood to have under their Trust
deed wide powers of purchase, and what will be
expected of them now is that they should use
these powers with liberality and taste. To buy, as
they have latterly done, only from the exhibitions
of the Royal Academy, where they have merely the
leavings of more enlightened collectors to choose
from, is simply foolish. They must take wider
ground, and bring themselves to recognise that all
the best art of the country does not annually
gravitate, as a matter of course, to Burlington
House.
It is a pathetic coincidence that the death of Sir
Henry Tate and the private view of the extra suite
of rooms in his gallery at Millbank should have
occurred within a few days of each other. The
generous art-patron just lived long enough to know
that the finished additions to the gallery had been
seen and approved by many competent judges.
The additions more than double the size of the
original building. There are eight new rooms for
pictures, all admirably lighted, and we may say,
without any great extravagance, that the vast sculp-
ture hall is the best in Europe. Were we to follow
the example of two or three critics, attention might
certainly be drawn here to a few defects of detail
in the construction, but we feel that now is not a
seasonable time for such minute criticisms.
The results of the Royal Academy Students'
Competition were shown at Burlington House
last month. Plenty of careful work was ex-
hibited, but we cannot say that all of it was
satisfactory, for the drawings were far too pretty,
and many of the paintings were weak in
technique. On the other hand, the sculpture
and very great care will have to be taken to make
only such additions as are likely to do credit to
British art. The chief source from which new
things will come is the Ghantrey Fund, and this
fund, judging by its past operations, will have to
be very much more carefully and intelligently
administered in the future. Already, many things
have found their way to Millbank that are quite
unworthy of places in a national collection, and
most of these have been bought by the Chantrey
Fund Trustees. These individuals are now in the
position of buyers for the nation, and must be
required to realise the extent of their responsibility
They are understood to have under their Trust
deed wide powers of purchase, and what will be
expected of them now is that they should use
these powers with liberality and taste. To buy, as
they have latterly done, only from the exhibitions
of the Royal Academy, where they have merely the
leavings of more enlightened collectors to choose
from, is simply foolish. They must take wider
ground, and bring themselves to recognise that all
the best art of the country does not annually
gravitate, as a matter of course, to Burlington
House.
It is a pathetic coincidence that the death of Sir
Henry Tate and the private view of the extra suite
of rooms in his gallery at Millbank should have
occurred within a few days of each other. The
generous art-patron just lived long enough to know
that the finished additions to the gallery had been
seen and approved by many competent judges.
The additions more than double the size of the
original building. There are eight new rooms for
pictures, all admirably lighted, and we may say,
without any great extravagance, that the vast sculp-
ture hall is the best in Europe. Were we to follow
the example of two or three critics, attention might
certainly be drawn here to a few defects of detail
in the construction, but we feel that now is not a
seasonable time for such minute criticisms.
The results of the Royal Academy Students'
Competition were shown at Burlington House
last month. Plenty of careful work was ex-
hibited, but we cannot say that all of it was
satisfactory, for the drawings were far too pretty,
and many of the paintings were weak in
technique. On the other hand, the sculpture