Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

found study than on prompt execution, and prefer the mature results of patient application to the flimsy products of superior facility; we shall in vain aspire to rival those ancient miracles of taste, which we know to have been the joint result of the most extraordinary stimuli, acting upon the most exalted powers and the most unwearied industry.

The national prizes, therefore, are here made triennial, that they may be the more important; that the interval may occasion them to be looked to with more interest; and that the ceremonial attending their adjudication, by being less frequent, may be made more dignified, and more likely to produce a powerful impression on the public, the artist, and the Art. In this interval, also, the artist, without entirely laying aside his ordinary and more certain resources, will have ample time to put forth all his powers, and in a deliberate, well-studied composition, to do honour to himself and his country.

The subjects for which the prizes should be granted, are divided into three classes; of which those from Bible and British history constitute the first. This arrangement has been adopted, because the interests of religion, morality, and patriotism, should be the primary objects in all national institutions of this kind: and the patronage of the Arts is a duty of government, principally as they tend to promote these great ends.

The choice of his subject, under the regulations attached to the class in which he desires to distinguish himself, is left to the painter; because he is the best judge of that which is adapted to his particular powers; because he will always labour with more ardour on a subject which he has himself selected; and because there is often as much merit in the choice of a subject as in its execution.

The pictures of the first class are required to be large, and

to contain at least a given number of figures; because the grand style of art demands space and magnitude; and because this style of art, which is by far the most worthy of attention, is but little cultivated amongst us, and ought therefore to be the more especially encouraged. The size of the Cartoons. has been stated as the largest limit; because it is fully adequate to the display of every exertion of ambition or ability which can be required on such an occasion; and also, because it may prevent any attempt to attract by extraordinary magnitude that attention which could not be hoped for from pre-eminent merit.

The regulations respecting the pictures of the second class are intended to include those works, which, though not equal in grandeur of subject, character, or size, to those of the first class, are yet highly worthy of reward, adapted to produce great moral effects, and capable of great excellence.

The third class is proposed as an incentive to early ability as a first flight for youthful genius, before it has become sufficiently confident in the vigour of its wing to venture into those elevated regions of exertion to which it is our object to allure him.

The amount of the prizes has been dictated by a principle before discussed; a principle which teaches that, to be effectual, a prize must be important, and sufficient to arouse the best exertions of those upon whom it is intended to operate.

With regard to the adjudication of the prizes, I would suggest that, previously to the final decree, the judgments of the three following parties be, if possible, obtained, and delivered in writing, with the reasons upon which they may have been founded: first, the judgment of a committee of the Royal Academy, consisting of all the members of that body who may not be candidates: secondly, the judgment of a committee of amateurs; and lastly, the judgment of the

candidates themselves; a mode of decision resorted to by the ancients on some very important occasions, and which might be very easily methodised. By publishing, on the day of the final adjudication, the several decisions here proposed to be obtained, the public would be enabled to form an opinion of the justice or injustice of the result. By the reasons assigned in those decisions, the public taste could not fail to be directed and enlightened; and the candidates themselves would be improved, by observing for which qualities their more successful rivals were preferred. By these means, a judgment might be produced, as nearly perfect as, perhaps, the prejudices and passions of human nature can authorise us to expect. A judgment that would satisfy the public as to its purity, and the profession as to its taste; in which the fortunate would feel a double victory, and even the unsuccessful could find no room for discontent.

How far the stimulants here proposed would operate to revive the ancient vigour of art amongst us, it is, perhaps, difficult to anticipate. If, however, there should be found a painter of any repute so lost in mercenary occupation as to decline a contest so honourable, his defection could only proceed from the want of ambition, or the consciousness of inability.

Such are the leading features of Sir Martin Archer Shee's plan; and, although upwards of twenty years have elapsed since it first suggested itself to him, it is as applicable to the state of the art at the present moment as it was then. A large sum of money is, it is true, expended annually in England, in furniture-paintings and water-colour drawings, but the sale of an historical picture of any importance in a public exhibition is of such rare occurrence, as to form almost an epoch in the

history of modern patronage. The completion of our New National Gallery, will, it is hoped, lead to some act of liberality on the part of the legislature in favour of British Art. The twenty thousand pounds recently voted for the Euphrates Expedition, from which no practically useful results can ever be expected, would have more than sufficed to try the efficacy of the plan now proposed.

FOREBODINGS CHECKED.

BY MISS E. L. MONTAGU.

AND can it be?-must it at length depart,
The wond'rous life that dwelt with me so long?
And shall the dust reclaim this breathing heart
With all its burthen of unuttered song? –

[ocr errors]

'Tis well! that kindred life with me had grown
Like some poor house-mate, unbeloved of all;
One at whose coming, welcome never shone-
One at whose parting, tear did never fall!
But ah! ungrateful, whither do I stray,
Forgetting thus the gentle hearts around me?
Behold! I smile my peaceful days away

As though the touch of grief had never found me;
And, like a storm-hushed eve's divine repose,

My calmed days are loveliest at their close.

September 16. 1834.

THE DESERTED.

BY MISS E. L. MONTAGU.

I.

Он, never weep when I am gane, nor sigh to hear my name, But fauld my hands upo' my breast, an' bear me to my hame; An' yonder by the wide, wide sea, oh, lay me cauld an' low, That saftly ower my gowden hair the bonnie waves may flow.

II.

I wouldna like to lay my head aneath the kirk-yard wa',
Sae sadly there, frae darksome yews, the lang, drear shadows

fa':

I couldna sleep in storied tomb, nor 'neath the chancel floor, Nor rest below the grass-green sod I aft hae wandered o'er.

III.

But mony a day I've langed to lie alane beside the sea,
For weel I luve the booming tide, sae bounding an' sae free;
There ever ower my head shall sweep the storm-bird's snowy
wing,

An' voices o' the rushing winds my ceaseless dirge shall sing.

« PředchozíPokračovat »