Studio: international art (45.1909)

Art School Notes

delivery Turner’s many mispronunciations included
“spearides” for spheroids, and “ mithematics ”
for mathematics.

Among the Turner relics is a study from the
life made when the artist was a pupil in the
Academy schools, probably about 1790. It does
not compare favourably with the life studies of to-
day, and may not, of course, represent the best work
of its period in the schools, for Turner, great artist
as he was, did not shine as a draughtsman of the
figure. Yet he used to take his turn with the figure-
painting Academicians in visiting the life school, and
it is said that his hints were most useful to such of
the students who could understand the mysterious
growls and monosyllables that followed his “ What a
doing ? ” Landseer, who knew the Academy schools
both as a student and as a “ visitor,” declared that
Turner’s instruction was invaluable. “No man,”
he said, “ could be more accurate in his observation
or more thoroughly grounded in the education of
the artist. He was thoroughly grounded in
everything, and I should say the best teacher
without exception I ever met with.” One of
Turner’s practices when visitor in the schools
was to pose the model by the side of and as
nearly as possible in the same action as one of
the casts from the antique. In Turner’s colour
box at the Tate Gallery the paints are contained
in the old - fashioned bladders that were in
general use until the introduction about seventy
years ago of compressible metal tubes, and
some artists who have seen them have wondered
how the contents were extracted. According
to one of the oldest of our living painters the
method of the Academy students of his time
was simplicity itself. The little bladder was
pricked with a tin tack, sufficient paint for present
use was squeezed out, and then the tack, pushed
home to the head, was used to seal the hole.

The exhibition at the new Central School ot
Arts and Crafts in Southampton Row had no
pretensions to illustrate completely the work of
the school during the past year. The removal in
the summer from Regent Street and the difficulty
of gathering together the best examples deprived
the exhibition of its representative character, but
it contained some attractive and promising work.
The ornamental writing was capital, the book-
bindings, if unambitious, were for the most part
tasteful and simple, and the excellence of the
specimens of printing justified the high ambitions
of the school in the direction of book-production.

There were also creditable examples of die sinking
and seal engraving, of silversmith’s and cabinet
maker’s work, of glass painting, and of drawn and
modelled design. This great institution, in which
Professor W. R. Lethaby will direct the energies
of eight or nine hundred students, is now fairly
launched. It has every advantage of situation
and construction, and the financial backing of the
London County Council, and a distinguished future
should lie before it. The next exhibition of the
school’s work ought to be of uncommon excellence.

A charcoal study of a head from the life, which
gained an award in the National Art Competition,
was one of the best things in the autumn exhibition
at the Birkbeck School of Art, Chancery Lane. It
was the work of a very young and clever student, Mr.
Isaac Rosenberg, who gained the Pocock prize for
the best study from the nude in oil, and one of the
Garrould prizes for the best set of time studies
in line from the nude. These awards are two of
the many local prizes that are offered yearly to
Mr. A. W. Mason’s students. The carefully
selected subjects cover a wide range, and the

BLACK LEOPARD (CHARCOAL) BY OLIVE BRANSON

(School of Animal Painting)

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