STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 381 



STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 



XIV. THE CHILD AS ARTIST. 



By JAMES SULLY, M. A., LL. D., 



GEOTE PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 



LONDON. 



ONE of the most interesting, perhaps also one of the most 

 instructive, phases of child-life is the beginnings of art 

 activity. This has been recognized by one of the best-known 

 workers in the field of child-psychology, M. Bernard Perez, who 

 has treated the subject in an interesting monograph.* This de- 

 partment of our subject will, like that of language, be found to 

 have interesting points of contact with the phenomena of primi- 

 tive race culture. 



The art impulse of children lends itself particularly well to 

 observation. No doubt, as we shall see, there are difficulties for 

 the observer here. It may sometimes be a fine point to determine 

 whether a childish action properly falls under the head of genu- 

 ine art production, though I do not think that this is a serious 

 difficulty. On the other hand, the art impulse, where it exists, 

 manifests itself directly and for the most part in so characteristic 

 an objective form that we are able to study its features with 

 special facility. 



In its narrow sense as a specialized instinct prompting its pos- 

 sessor to follow a definite line of production, as drawing of the 

 artistic sort, or simple musical composition, the art impulse is a 

 particularly variable phenomenon of childhood. Some children 

 who afterward take seriously to a branch of art culture, manifest 

 an innate bent by a precocious devotion to this line of activity. 

 Many others, I have reason to believe, have a passing fondness 

 for a particular form of art activity. On the other hand, there 

 are many children who display almost a complete lack, not only 

 of the productive impulse, but of the sesthetic sense of the artist. 

 So uncertain, so sporadic, are these appearances of a rudimentary 

 art among children, that one might be easily led to think that 

 art activity ought not to be reckoned among their common char- 

 acteristics. 



To judge so, however, would be to judge erroneously, by ap- 

 plying grown-up standards. It is commonly recognized that art 

 and play are closely connected. It is probable that the first crude 

 art of the race, or at least certain directions of it, sprang out of 

 playlike activities, and, however this be, the likenesses of the 

 two are indisputable. I shall hope to bring these out in the'pres- 



* L'Art et la Poesie cbez TEnfant, 1888. 



