Studio: international art (41.1907)

The Lay Figure.

THE LAY FIGURE : ON MIS- commercial encouragement promotes the produc-

DIRECTED INGENUITY. tion of good art ?"
" Certainly I do," replied the Business Man ;

" How true it is that the evil that men " it provides the art worker with a market for his

do lives after them," said the Art Critic. " In wares and it helps him to find out in what direc-

art, as in morals, the consequences of one wrong tions he can most profitably apply his energies,

step seem to be strangely far-reaching and to lead Good art, I take it, is that which is in widest

to developments which could scarcely have been demand, and everything which enlarges the demand

foreseen. One resthetic mistake is sufficient to tends to improve the general quality of art

set up a false tradition which spreads all over the production."

world and affects generation after generation." "What a creed ! " exclaimed the Man with the

" Pessimist! " laughed the Man with the Red Red Tie. " I should have said that the art which

Tie. " Why this portentous gravity ? What was in widest demand was usually bad, and that the

friend of yours has been committing unspeakable greater its popularity the worse it became in quality."

crimes? Tell us all about it." "That is, perhaps, going a little too far," said

"No friend of mine," returned the Critic; "I the Critic; "but there is a very large amount of

am not bewailing the misdeeds of anyone I know, truth in what you say. The popular demand is

My complaint is a general one and applies to usually for an art of a comparatively low type, and

principles rather than individuals, but I feel that as it is solely with the popular demand that the

it is justified, nevertheless." commercial man concerns himself, it follows that

"No doubt," said the Man with the Red Tie, he usually encourages an inferior kind of art pro-

" but we want to know what is the meaning of duction."

your dark sayings. Who has been setting up false " But what has all this to do with aniline dyes?"

traditions and upsetting the world ? " asked the Business Man.

"Well; you have, of course, heard much of "More than you think," replied the Critic,

late of the vast commercial advantage which has "The invention of these dyes has put at»-the dis-

resulted from the invention of aniline dyes," said posal of commerce a cheap and effective way of

the Critic, "and you have noted, no doubt, how appealing to the popular craving for crudity of

the recent death of the inventor of them has colour. The colour effects attainable by means of

been made the occasion for many enthusiastic these dyes please people who know no better—in

comments upon the wonderful nature of his other words, the majority of the public; and bad

discovery." though these effects are, they have been accepted

" And quite rightly," interrupted the Business by commercial men as establishing a really popular
Man ; " the discovery to which you allude is one colour standard. As a consequence, by the mis-
of the most important that has been made in our directed ingenuity of a single inventor, the colour
time. It has revolutionised many branches of taste of the world has been perverted. The mis-
trade, and has had a practically world-wide chief began in this country, and like a kind of
influence." contagious plague it has spread in every direction

"I know it," sighed the Critic, "and for that with extraordinary rapidity; every nation in turn

very reason I lament that it should ever have been has caught the infection. Not only has the colour

made. It has put into the hands of commercial feeling of Europe been demoralised, but we have

men the power of controlling artistic production in taught the artists of the East to abandon their

a great number of directions, and of dictating the splendid colour traditions, and to adopt as a

way in which many kinds of art work should commercial expedient our new aniline convention,

be carried out; and when the commercial man We have imposed upon them our crude ideas, and

gets art under his thumb the result is usually by applying the commercial screw have forced

disastrous." them, our superiors in aesthetic perceptions, to

" Nonsense !" cried the Business Man. "Com- obey our ignorant dictation. The inventor himself

merce is the one thing which makes possible the is dead, but the evil he has done lives after him,

existence of art. Without commercial encourage- and is being exploited by commercial men for

ment the art worker would be helpless and would their own advantage. And in this vast develop-

be starved out of existence." ment of bad taste, art necessarily goes to the

" Wait a bit! " broke in the Man with the Red wall. Am I a pessimist? I do not think so."

Tie. "Do you really contend that what you call The Lay Figure.

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