DOI Heft:
No. 110 (May, 1902)
DOI Artikel:The cult of the statuette: The Fine Art Society's recent exhibition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19875#0291
The Cult of the Statuette
endeavour to popularize his products had to be one and the same face for observation and
abandoned through lack of patronage. study, a well - modelled statuette should be of
A more recent trial of public taste has just been interest from every point of sight, and should in
made by means of an Exhibition devoted to consequence appeal to the senses in a far more
statuettes, and the originators, the Fine Art Society varied manner than any work in the flat. For it
of New Bond Street, would seem to have met with lends itself to change with every hour that the light
a sufficiency of encouragement to, perhaps, tempt passes round it and to every differing aspect from
them to further effort. Should they do this, they which it is viewed. It has been said that an
may well ask, and expect, to receive from the appreciation for form is the last taste to be acquired,
sculptors a more serious support than, it is evident, and requires the longest education. Our lack of
has been afforded in the exhibition under review. appreciation may therefore be only due to lack of
For whilst it is self-evident that an advertisement opportunity which such an exhibition as this must
such as they have lately received from the exhibi- have done much to dissipate.
tion must now, and in the future, be of assistance Comment upon the works exhibited must be
to their altogether insufficiently recognized art, it brief. In the first gallery attention was at once
is also clear that their part therein has consisted in arrested by statuettes by Alfred Gilbert, Perseus
contributing little that has not
been previously seen and is
already known to those who
have busied themselves at all
with their productions.
This apathy is perhaps con-
stitutional in the artistic tem-
perament, but is hardly of
good augury to those of us
who wish well to the profes-
sion, and believe that it only
needs encouragement to hold
its own with the foreign
schools, to which it has been
so erroneously the fashion to
believe it to be altogether
inferior.
It will be the greater pity
if the attempt to popularise
the Art should once more
fail, because the time would
certainly seem to have arrived
when the man of taste in
England should follow the
example of those in other
countries who do not always
lead him. Not only would
the aspect of the wall-space,
which he has so amply occu-
pied with pictures, be bettered
by being interspersed with
bracket-held statuettes, but the
monotony of his table orna-
ments would be varied by the
intrusion here and there of a
well - modelled statuette. It
must not be forgotten that,
whilst a picture presents but " the victor "—bronze by david mcgill
276
endeavour to popularize his products had to be one and the same face for observation and
abandoned through lack of patronage. study, a well - modelled statuette should be of
A more recent trial of public taste has just been interest from every point of sight, and should in
made by means of an Exhibition devoted to consequence appeal to the senses in a far more
statuettes, and the originators, the Fine Art Society varied manner than any work in the flat. For it
of New Bond Street, would seem to have met with lends itself to change with every hour that the light
a sufficiency of encouragement to, perhaps, tempt passes round it and to every differing aspect from
them to further effort. Should they do this, they which it is viewed. It has been said that an
may well ask, and expect, to receive from the appreciation for form is the last taste to be acquired,
sculptors a more serious support than, it is evident, and requires the longest education. Our lack of
has been afforded in the exhibition under review. appreciation may therefore be only due to lack of
For whilst it is self-evident that an advertisement opportunity which such an exhibition as this must
such as they have lately received from the exhibi- have done much to dissipate.
tion must now, and in the future, be of assistance Comment upon the works exhibited must be
to their altogether insufficiently recognized art, it brief. In the first gallery attention was at once
is also clear that their part therein has consisted in arrested by statuettes by Alfred Gilbert, Perseus
contributing little that has not
been previously seen and is
already known to those who
have busied themselves at all
with their productions.
This apathy is perhaps con-
stitutional in the artistic tem-
perament, but is hardly of
good augury to those of us
who wish well to the profes-
sion, and believe that it only
needs encouragement to hold
its own with the foreign
schools, to which it has been
so erroneously the fashion to
believe it to be altogether
inferior.
It will be the greater pity
if the attempt to popularise
the Art should once more
fail, because the time would
certainly seem to have arrived
when the man of taste in
England should follow the
example of those in other
countries who do not always
lead him. Not only would
the aspect of the wall-space,
which he has so amply occu-
pied with pictures, be bettered
by being interspersed with
bracket-held statuettes, but the
monotony of his table orna-
ments would be varied by the
intrusion here and there of a
well - modelled statuette. It
must not be forgotten that,
whilst a picture presents but " the victor "—bronze by david mcgill
276