SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE'S PLAN

FOR THE

ENCOURAGEMENT OF HISTORICAL PAINTING.

THE almost total want of patronage for Historical Painting in this country has been long a source of regret to those who are capable of appreciating its value, and who admire the perseverance of the devoted few who still continue, in spite of every discouragement, to labour in its production. This singular insensibility on the part of the British public has been variously, but by no means satisfactorily, accounted for. By some it has been ascribed to the limited size of English houses, and the consequent difficulty of finding space on their walls for historical pictures, executed on the scale best calculated to develope the powers of the painter; by others, to the want of taste for this branch of art in modern picture-buyers. The chief cause of the neglect of historical painting in England may be, we think, referred to the fact that it has not as yet been rendered fashionable by the patronage of either the Court or the Government. And yet, how trifling a sum of money, compared with what is annually voted away by a reformed House of Commons, on every imaginable pretence, would afford the means of preserving this most exalted branch of art from the decay to which it is now rapidly hastening! After much discussion, a paltry grant has been awarded by Parliament for the erection of a National Gallery, which, if the country be but moderately fortunate in the acquisition

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of pictorial treasures, will in a very few years be inadequate to contain one half the paintings that will be placed at its disposal. As for modern Art, it is merely to be received there as a tenant at will, to be dislodged whenever an eligible lessee shall present itself. They manage these things better in France. There the monarch, parsimonious as his habits are known to be, is compelled to purchase popularity by encouraging the historical Art of his country; and if the walls of his metropolitan palaces are occupied, he is obliged to sustain his reputation for patriotism and good taste, by placing his summer residences in the same predicament. Nor is the example lost upon those who live upon his smiles. The minister, stimulated by the same desire to conciliate public opinion, commissions Horace Vernet, or some other artist of kindred genius, to paint him an historical picture; and all the minor members of the government follow his example: thus affording profitable and honourable employment to such painters as are really worthy of encouragement.

For the last five years, the élite of the French artists have been employed by their government in painting the plafonds of the recently completed additions to the Louvre; and a spirit of emulation has been thus generated among them which has led to the production of some of the finest historical pictures of the age. Where, for example, can we look for a nobler instance of what public patronage may effect, than in the magnificent design of Leo X. receiving from Raffaelle the first sketch of his Transfiguration, and from Palladio his plans for the improvement of the eternal city; by Horace Vernet; which forms the plafond of one of the divisions of the new gallery of Henry IV.? Is it to be supposed that such men as Howard, Hilton, Etty, Leslie, and others whose names will readily suggest themselves, are not capable of efforts equally honourable to themselves and their country,

if the proper incentive were held out to them? Yet, if we except the splendid allegory painted on the staircase of Burleigh by our own Stothard, we are hardly acquainted with a single residence of the nobility, admirably adapted as many of them are to receive such adornments, which has afforded occupation to an English painter of the least eminence. In the whole range of the pictorial decoration of public edifices on the Continent by modern hands, we have seen no design that would bear a moment's comparison with Howard's "Solar System;" perhaps of all modern pictures the best adapted for the embellishment of the ceiling of some splendid national edifice; it remains, nevertheless, still unexecuted, at least on the scale best calculated to develope the full powers of the painter, and the surpassing beauty and classical propriety of the conception. Yet the chief attraction of Burleigh to the connoisseur and man of taste is now the staircase which the late Mr. Stothard devoted upwards of two years to adorn, and for the decoration of which he received only a few hundred pounds. We must not be understood as desiring to under-rate the liberality of the Marquis of Exeter, who dealt kindly by the artist, in paying him the full market price for his commodity. Our sole motive in referring to its cost is to show at how easy a rate a nobleman may purchase the éclat which invariably results from the unprompted encouragement of true genius.

Upwards of twenty years ago, Sir Martin Archer Shee prepared, at the request of the directors of the British Institution (then newly established), a plan for the encouragement of Historical Painting, so excellent in all its details, that we marvel much it was not at once adopted and acted upon. One half the money which has been expended by the British Institution in such pictures as that of Parmegiano, for which the Directors gave three thousand guineas; or the allegory

of the Battle of Waterloo by Ward, which they purchased at the price of a thousand guineas, and have allowed to remain rolled up in a lumber room ever since, would have gone some considerable way in assisting to realise Sir Martin Archer Shee's suggestions; and would have saved the nation from the well merited reproach which now attaches to it for its impolitic neglect of the noblest and most important branch of the Fine Arts.

The various modes of encouragement which in different countries have been exercised towards the Arts, may be considered under the following heads:

I. The foundation of establishments for their regular cultivation.

II. The application of a certain sum annually for the purpose of purchasing and placing in public galleries the best productions of the day.

III. The employment of selected individuals for the execution of great works of public ornament and patriotic celebration.

IV. The institution of prizes and public honours for the purpose of exciting competition, and rewarding excellence.

The first mode is, perhaps, the most expensive, and has always proved the least effectual. The second must necessarily be precarious; is particularly subject to abuse; and would be likewise expensive, if exercised to any liberal extent. The third is the most splendid as well as the most extensive; but unfortunately, at present, the most unattainable. The fourth is not the most certain mode of enriching the artist, but it appears to be the most efficient mode of advancing the Art.