40 REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 



this or other departments. They were conscious that much pa- 

 tient labor had been expended in this lower grade of work. 

 Just here, your committee would offer a suggestion. In some of 

 these pencil drawing there was altogether too much work in com- 

 parison with the effect produced. No one cares to examine such 

 work with a microscope. The spread of art-information so won- 

 derful in modern times, — or, perhaps, a chanj;e of fashion among 

 artists — has relegated to the past such painstaking fine point 

 work in drawings designed for wall exhibitions. A much more 

 pleasing, more artistic effect can be produced in the same com- 

 position by the use of charcoal, and in far less time In fact, 

 the pencil is now employed mainly for mechanical work and for 

 purposes of instruction, and but little for the construction of fin- 

 ished works of art. The pencil-drawing belongs rather to the 

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

 tee look forward to the time when the premiums now given for 

 pencil drawings shall be given for charcoal drawings instead, 

 though our community may not at present be prepared for that 

 step. 



The collection of photographs, including photographs fin- 

 ished in crayon, was excellent. Unfortunately there was but one 

 exhibit. It is much to be desired that in future exhibitions 

 there should be a more general response in this department. 

 To that end, it would be well to add to the clause which limits 

 the space of such exhibits to four feet square, the qualifying 

 phrase, "unless there shall be ample space unoccupied." The 

 limitation above referred to is known to have kept away from 

 tills exhibition one collection of photographs for which there 

 was no lack of room. 



Very few mechanical drawings were presented, but those 

 few were of marked excellence. In Fitchburg, where so many 

 such drawings are daily used in the shops, there should be many 

 to compete for this premium. 



The school exhibit was this year better than ever Lefore. 

 The numerous designs, ranging through the various grades of 

 schools, were especially ingenious, and tiiose from the liigher 



