Studio: international art (57.1913)

Edward

ceaseless study and informing a temperament essen-
tially that of the artist.

At the age of twenty-three he became chief
assistant to Sir Edgar Boehm, which position he
held until Sir Edgar’s death in 1890. Ten years
previously to this date he had succeeded M. Dalou
(whose Life he afterwards wrote) as Professor of
Modelling at the National Art Training School,
South Kensington, now known as the Royal
College of Art. Of this appointment Mr. Spielmann
says: “When M. Dalou departed in 1880, he left
in his stead M. Lanteri, now a naturalised
Englishman, who has proved an ability for teaching
fully equal to that of his predecessor; singularly
endowed with the capacity for inspiring students
with a passion for their art, and for securing from
successive generations of them their admiration
and affectionate esteem.”

Great changes have taken place since 1880 in
the history and character of our national sculptural
art, and in congratulating ourselves on our progress,
we must remember to “ give honour to
whom honour is due ”—to the one
Rodin addressed as “ Homme precieux
pour nos nombreux eleves.”

The great French sculptor paid a
tribute to the modelling section of the
Royal College of Art when he visited it
with a group of French painters. He
said: “ We have nothing like this in
Paris ; nothing to approach it ”; and he
also added : “ If ever a renaissance in
sculpture should take place in England,
it must come through the teaching of
M. Lanteri!” This prophecy has
already come to pass. We are ex-
periencing to-day a very real revival of
the art of sculpture, in great measure
the outcome of Lanteri’s work. During
the last thirty-two years, numbers of
thoroughly qualified men and women
have passed out of the Royal College 01
Art to fill positions in schools all over
the United Kingdom, and have in-
culcated his methods and extended his
influence on art far and wide.

The standard of work at the Royal
College of Art is of an unusually high
order: the amateur is neither wanted
nor received, and a test examination is
set before entrance, to exclude beginners
and all who are not serious workers.

Those who are fortunate enough to
gain admittance, therefore, are in
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Lanteri

a position to immediately profit by the instruction
given. In the “ life ” rooms are to be found
the right type of students, animated with the
spirit of art, and an enthusiastic capacity for work
to a marked degree. The life-size figures wrought
in clay from the living model are quite wonderful,
both in the men’s life rooms and in those of the
women, and whether in the plastic or glyptic art,
in every one of the many branches of the crafts
so thoroughly taught by Prof. Lanteri, all sections
show that the most excellent results have been
attained. Prof. Lanteri is a rapid and dexterous
manipulator, and his students say that only those
who have witnessed the “ demonstrations ” which
he gives every now and then, can have any con-
ception of how marvellous they are. He will
build up a complete figure in four hours, and a
demonstration bust will take him only one hour
and a half!

The method by which Prof. Lanteri teaches is
entirely his own, and it has well been described

BUST OF MONSIGNOR X. BY EDWARD LANTERI