SCULPTURE 245 



has marked the early years of this century. With the loosening of authority and 

 discipline has grown the desire for individual expression; and, except in a few instances 

 of men of strong character and genuine ability, the movement has fostered a disregard 

 of technique and often of those fundamental principles which cannot be dissociated 

 from the making of good sculpture. Roughly the position of sculpture may be re- 

 garded as of three factions: the steady and often uninspired though financially suc- 

 cessful academic; the revolutionary and frequently chaotic, making appeal to journal- 

 istic exploitation; and those few artists of intelligence who have in their strong indi- 

 vidualism been misunderstood by the lesser intelligences. 



In a letter to the Times April 5, 1910, Professor Waldstein replied to those few 

 utilitarians who would devote subscribed funds to the building of refuges and to the 

 assistance of hospitals in preference to the embellishment of cities with 

 ait!" * sculptural monuments. .This letter would appear to typify the general 

 feeling for public statuary and the appreciation, both public and private, 

 of good modern sculpture. In England the last two years have seen great advance 

 in general demand. As a case in point it is worth noting that no fewer than four 

 memorials were proposed in connection with the loss of the " Titanic," and subscrip- 

 tion lists opened within three months after the disaster. 



Foremost amongst recent European monuments are the important memorial to 

 Victor Emanuel in Rome (inaugurated in 1911), that of Queen Victoria by Sir Thomas 

 Brock in front of Buckingham Palace, and the Quadriga by Captain Adrian Jones 

 placed in 1912 on Burton's arch on Constitution Hill, London. While these three works 

 must be identified with the academic school, the Memorial at Buckingham Palace 

 reveals the influence of that unhealthy searching for swirling lines that made its ap- 

 pearance in the schools a decade ago. These works are in no way calculated to have 

 influence upon modern sculpture. 



The original design by Bertram Mackennal for the King Edward Memorial, 

 which was adopted March 1911 (but subsequently abandoned), and the model for 

 which was exhibited in the Royal Academy 1912, revealed little that is personal in 

 conception, and though Mr. Mackennal is one of the least academic amongst eminent 

 British sculptors, his work must find its place between that which bears the influence 

 of Alfred Stevens and that which bears the impress of the so-called " art nouveau." 

 More than a touch of this " art nouveau " feeling is to be found in Sir George Framp- 

 ton's recently erected " Peter Pan " monument in Kensington Gardens. 



The sculpture at the National Gallery of British Art received a valuable addition 

 through the presentation by Mr. and Mrs. E, Sadler of Havard Thomas' statue " Lyci- 

 das," whilst the same artist's " Thyrsis," which was the most remarkable 

 art. ery statue of the Royal Academy of 1912, was acquired by the Felton Bequest 

 Committee for the National Gallery of Melbourne, Australia, a rare in- 

 stance of sound judgment on the part of a collective body. Havard Thomas belongs 

 neither to the Academic school nor to any strictly modern movement. His art is 

 based on a sound understanding of the best Greek tradition and distinguished by the 

 greatest perfection of tooling. 



Great bodies are ever slow of movement. This borne in mind, no surprise can be 

 evoked by the predilection shown for the academic work -by those elected to represent 

 the public taste. Academism will never die. It may be modified and altogether 

 changed, but it will always represent the art of the preceding generation. Having 

 the public to serve, and the public having learnt to admire the work of their previous 

 generation, the representative of public taste finds no security except in buying that 

 which has been improved upon. The outcome of this public buying purchasing 

 by committee is the prolongation as far as possible of the life of a decrepit art, and 

 consequently almost every public monument represents the art of the age preceding 

 that of its erection. 



France, the traditional pioneer of all things new and revolutionary, countenanced 

 Auguste Rodin, and Rodin being a Frenchman, the British official mind has accepted 



