REPORT ON FINE ARTS. 39 



varjdng degrees of excellence. In some, the conception 

 and execution were very good : where the success was less 

 marked, as in some executed by quite young exhibiters, 

 there was an indication of finer work to come. An effort 

 after truth and honesty, a carefulness to observe fruits and 

 flowers and other objects exactly as they are, and so to rep- 

 resent them, were very evident. The teachers of both oil 

 and water-color painting in our community have reason to be 

 gratified with the success of their pupils. Our young people 

 are getting a facility with the brush, and an interest in art, 

 which would have been a cause for amazement two genera- 

 tions ago. 



In crayon-drawing, with the exception of a single piece, 

 the exhibits could not be called satisfactory. Another 3^ear 

 it is to be hoped there will be an improvement. Most of the 

 draAvings were " copies," and therefore less praiseworthy. 



The exhibits in pencil-drawing were all copies. No pre- 

 mium could therefore be given, in view of the principle rec- 

 ommended in the report of the Fine Art Committee of 1879. 

 The present Committee did not, however, follow the sug- 

 gestion of that report so far as to refuse gratuities to merito- 

 rious copies in this or other departments. They were con- 

 scious that much patient labor had been expended in this 

 lower grade of work. Just here your Committee would offer 

 a suggestion. In some of these pencil-drawings there was 

 altogether too much work in comparison with the effect pro- 

 duced. No one cares to examine such work with a micro- 

 scope. The spread of art information so wonderful in modern 

 times — or, perhaps, a change of fashion among artists — has 

 relegated to the past such painstaking fine-point work in 

 drawings designed for wall-exhibitions. A much more pleas- 

 ing, more artistic effect can be produced in the same compo- 

 sition by the use of charcoal, and in far less time. Li fact, 

 the pencil is now employed mainly for mechanical work, and 

 for purposes of instruction, and but little for the construction 

 of finished works of art. The pencil-drawing belongs rather 

 to the school department than to the art-room proper. Your 

 Committee look forward to the time when the premiums now 

 given for pencil-drawings shall be given for charcoal-draw- 

 ings instead, though our community may not at present be 

 prepared for that step. 



