DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1312#0129
OF THE "WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 77
CHAPTER XIV.
PICTORIAL ART—ITS EXCLUSION EROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION—THE ROYAL ACADEMY—ITS
TLLIBERALITY—ROMAN AND PARISIAN IMPARTIALITY—PUBLIC OPINION, ETC. ETC.
When the question, of the fine arts was agitated, as doubtless it was, in the council of the
Great Exhibition; when it may be presumed that the claims of painting were as ably
put forward as those of sculpture, and that in the president of the Royal Academy they
would both find an able as well as an impartial advocate, how was it that in the one
case they should be admitted, and in the other altogether rejected?—that the pro-
ductions of the chisel should be received with honourable distinction, and placed in im-
posing situations in the Crystal Palace, while those of the palette were ignominiously
rejected, and denied all admission within the envied precincts. "Where, we ask, was
the presiding genius that should have watched over the interests of the fine arts, when
so strange a resolution was adopted ? Where was the pleading voice that might have
been expected from the members of the Royal Academy in behalf of their neglected
art, at so momentous a juncture? To what cause are we to look for the noninterference
of the president and members of that self-elected and irresponsible body in a matter
so important to their own pursuits? or did they really join in proscribing the produc-
tions of their own genius from any participation in the renown that the praises of an
admiring world might have bestowed? Can it be supposed that any selfish motive
actuated that irreproachable assembly, the Uite of connoisseurship ? Are we to imagine
that any possible feeling of distrust could arise in their minds at being submitted to
equal and no greater advantages in the Exhibition than their untitled brethren in the
broad field of art ? It is true there would, we presume, have been no special privilege
in that Palace of Truth, no line of demarcation between the simple exhibitor and the
gifted R.A., as is the case in the halls of the academy, where the best lights, and the
most conspicuous situations, are invariably appropriated to their own members, while
their less fortunate brethren are thrust into obscure and deteriorating localities. And
here it may not be inappropriate to say a word or two upon the different manner in
which exhibitions are conducted in other countries, and the far more liberal treatment
the artist experiences abroad than he does at home. In Paris and in Rome, after the
exhibition has continued one-half of its destined period, it is closed for a short time,
and the situations of all the pictures are changed; those which were in the best and
the most prominent situations are made to exchange places with those which previously
occupied the less favourable ones; so that every one in turn receives the same impar-
tial justice. Would our academicians be less eminent artists, were they to follow so
praiseworthy an example ? We are of opinion that whatever tends to refine and en-
noble the mind conduces to the perfection of art.
But to return to our subject. In the long-extended aisles and galleries of the Crystal
Palace there was
" Ample space and verge enough"
to satisfy the requirements of all who aspired after the favour of the public. Enough
in that glorious edifice to have realised the glowing description of the poet, in his
fancied " Castle of Indolence," where, as he tells us,
" Sometimes the pencil in cool airy halls,
Bade the gay bloom of vernal landscapes rise,
Or autumn's varied shades embrown the walls:
CHAPTER XIV.
PICTORIAL ART—ITS EXCLUSION EROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION—THE ROYAL ACADEMY—ITS
TLLIBERALITY—ROMAN AND PARISIAN IMPARTIALITY—PUBLIC OPINION, ETC. ETC.
When the question, of the fine arts was agitated, as doubtless it was, in the council of the
Great Exhibition; when it may be presumed that the claims of painting were as ably
put forward as those of sculpture, and that in the president of the Royal Academy they
would both find an able as well as an impartial advocate, how was it that in the one
case they should be admitted, and in the other altogether rejected?—that the pro-
ductions of the chisel should be received with honourable distinction, and placed in im-
posing situations in the Crystal Palace, while those of the palette were ignominiously
rejected, and denied all admission within the envied precincts. "Where, we ask, was
the presiding genius that should have watched over the interests of the fine arts, when
so strange a resolution was adopted ? Where was the pleading voice that might have
been expected from the members of the Royal Academy in behalf of their neglected
art, at so momentous a juncture? To what cause are we to look for the noninterference
of the president and members of that self-elected and irresponsible body in a matter
so important to their own pursuits? or did they really join in proscribing the produc-
tions of their own genius from any participation in the renown that the praises of an
admiring world might have bestowed? Can it be supposed that any selfish motive
actuated that irreproachable assembly, the Uite of connoisseurship ? Are we to imagine
that any possible feeling of distrust could arise in their minds at being submitted to
equal and no greater advantages in the Exhibition than their untitled brethren in the
broad field of art ? It is true there would, we presume, have been no special privilege
in that Palace of Truth, no line of demarcation between the simple exhibitor and the
gifted R.A., as is the case in the halls of the academy, where the best lights, and the
most conspicuous situations, are invariably appropriated to their own members, while
their less fortunate brethren are thrust into obscure and deteriorating localities. And
here it may not be inappropriate to say a word or two upon the different manner in
which exhibitions are conducted in other countries, and the far more liberal treatment
the artist experiences abroad than he does at home. In Paris and in Rome, after the
exhibition has continued one-half of its destined period, it is closed for a short time,
and the situations of all the pictures are changed; those which were in the best and
the most prominent situations are made to exchange places with those which previously
occupied the less favourable ones; so that every one in turn receives the same impar-
tial justice. Would our academicians be less eminent artists, were they to follow so
praiseworthy an example ? We are of opinion that whatever tends to refine and en-
noble the mind conduces to the perfection of art.
But to return to our subject. In the long-extended aisles and galleries of the Crystal
Palace there was
" Ample space and verge enough"
to satisfy the requirements of all who aspired after the favour of the public. Enough
in that glorious edifice to have realised the glowing description of the poet, in his
fancied " Castle of Indolence," where, as he tells us,
" Sometimes the pencil in cool airy halls,
Bade the gay bloom of vernal landscapes rise,
Or autumn's varied shades embrown the walls: