Studio: international art (28.1903)

Studio-Talk

DOOR FROM LAHORE

ever was, but he appears to have lost, if he
ever had it, all originality in design, and has not
progressed in technique. The old designs are not
developed and adapted to newer methods, but are
merely well copied in the style of centuries ago,
and in some instances seen in the exhibition,
only needing the alchemy of time to equal the
originals. His patience, industry, and manual
skill appear to be without a brain to direct them,
and he is content to quietly sponge for ideas upon
his ancestors, when kept, as has been the case in
the present instance, from extending his depreda-
tions further afield. When this mental stagnation
is contrasted with the virility and alertness of the
workers of Europe, and the ingenuity and taste of
the Japanese, it seems almost impossible to combat
the assertion that the Indian craftsman owes his
present depression to the fact that he has been
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brought into competition, under entirely new con-
ditions, with races stronger than his own. Whether
he has the capacity or even the desire to wake up,
time alone can show; anxiety for his future has, it
must be confessed, been shown more by his rulers
than by himself so far, a solicitude of which this
splendid exhibition is the latest evidence. One
can but express a hope that the knowledge therein
acquired regarding his limitations, as well as his
capacity, may bring to his directors and advisers
the wisdom to apply the fitting remedy, and to the
worker himself a real awakening, so that yet another
peaceful triumph of British rule may date from this
exhibition, and the future may see the thousands of
skilful and docile craftsmen of India led by its
means once more into the path of prosperity.

C. L. B.

CARVED WOOD WINDOW FROM LAHORE