Studio: international art (65.1915)

Art School Notes

To do this—to revive a form of art which, as
he says only existed within Italy at Rome, and
outside Italy in the tapestries of Larsson and
Boberg in Sweden, of Merton Abbey in England,
and the ancient tapestry factory in France of the
Gobelins, supported by the Government, Count
Marcello needed to study his subject thoroughly,
to go to the old tapestries themselves to learn
their secret, and, finally, to locate his factory,
to select his first apprentices from intelligent girls
just leaving the primary schools, and also to give
them that elementary training in art which is
indispensable for the tapestry weaver. Just as he
had succeeded in this and had found in Sig. Elio
Mazzi a designer of imagination and a fine sense of
colour, forming around him in Florence a little
group of intelligent and enthusiastic assistants, the
terrible conflict of the nations of Europe broke
out, and though the intervention of his own country
on the side of the Entente has, I know, his entire
approval, it has materially hindered the progress of
the undertaking and the realisation of the aims to
which he has devoted himself for so many years,
so that he is now able to continue his school of
tapestry at Florence only under great economic
difficulties. It is for this reason that such an
artistic effort, belonging to the best traditions of
Florentine art creation, has a special claim upon
English sympathy and support. S. B.

PARIS.—The journalistic side of art has
lost one of its most prominent represen-
tatives by the death of Auguste Dalligny,
who in 1879 founded the “Journal des
Arts ” and continued to take an active part as its
director until the beginning of the war, when his son
Etienne Dalligny and most of the members of his
staff having been called to the colours, the publica-
tion of the paper was interrupted. Mons. Auguste
Dalligny, who had reached his eighty-fifth year,
was trained for the legal profession, and when in
later years, after holding responsible administrative
appointments, he devoted himself entirely to art
matters, he was instrumental in disseminating
among artists a knowledge of the laws affecting
their interests. Some years before he founded the
“ Journal des Arts,” he had had practical experience
of the sale of works of art at the Hotel Drouot
through being associated with a well-known
commissaire-priseur Me. Charles Pillet, and it was
primarily with the object of furnishing the public
with a compte-rendu of these sales that he started
his journal. The high esteem in which he was held
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by the art world of Paris is well expressed in the
tributes paid to his memory by the French daily
journals. “ Auguste Dalligny,” says the “Figaro ” in
its obituary notice, “ etait un critique averti, qui
avait suivi avec attention le mouvement de l’art
depuis un demi-siecle, et qui avait consacre aux
artistes des articles pleins de finesse et de bonhomie
. . . II laissera d’unanimes regrets a tous ceux qui
Pont connu ou consulte.”

ART SCHOOL NOTES.

LONDON.—The winter session of the Central
School of Arts and Crafts, Southampton
Row, will begin on September 20, and
—^ the inaugural lecture will be delivered on
October 8 by Professor Selwyn Image, Slade
Professor of Fine Art in the University of Oxford,
whose subject will be “The Work and Influence
of John Ruskin.” Prof. Image has also arranged
to deliver a consecutive course of lectures on
Friday afternoons during the session, dealing with
“Some Historical Aspects of Art.” Though the
programme of classes for the session shows little
deviation from that of previous sessions, the war is
responsible for numerous changes in the staff of
instructors, as many as twenty-five of those who
were on the list a year ago having relinquished
their appointments to join his Majesty’s forces.
Mr. Niels M. Lund will take charge of the etching
class in place of Mr. Luke Taylor, who holds
a commission in the Loyal North Lancashire
Regiment. Mr. A. S. Hartrick, besides assisting
in the school of painting, has been appointed to
take charge of a special class in tempera painting.
Mr. Douglas Cockerell has arranged to resume the
direction of the school of bookbinding which
he originated in 1897, when the work of the
institution was carried on in the temporary premises
in Regent Street. The list of students of the
Central School who have joined the colours
comprises over twTo hundred names.

At the Chelsea School of Art carried on in
connection with the South-Western Polytechnic,
Manresa Road, two scholarships, each of the
annual value of ^24, are awarded to enable
students to study illustration work, the course
of study being so arranged as to lead directly
to the execution of saleable commercial work.
The scholarships are known as the “ Christopher
Head ” scholarships; they are open to all and
have few restrictions attached to them.