181.9.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND AUCHITECrs JOURNAL. 



S9 



in a ninnnor pre-dnomerl. To say that it is all tlie more merito- 

 rious on the part of the " Association," to have entered upon it 

 unencouraged as well as unaided, avails noufrht as to actual suc- 

 cess. In this country, people are apt to look as much to the 

 movers of anv scheme as to the merits of the scheme itself, 

 unless indeed it happens to he one that holds out to them strong 

 pecuniary advantages. The Association — he it said without the 

 slightest disres])ect towards them — are assuredly not in a position 

 to command public attention. AV'ith the Institute the case had 

 been widely different: they would have been considered authorised 

 to make an attempt like the present one; whereas, originating 

 where it does, it is likely to he set down by many as mere pre- 

 sumption. The Institute possess ampler means and resources, but 

 unfortunately they totally lack the requisite spirit; wbile the As- 

 sociation show that they possess the spirit, or pluck, as a contem- 

 porary calls it, but lack the requisite resources, stutiis in public 

 opinion or pul)lic prejudice, included. There are, besides, some 

 extraneous circumstances that are anything hut propitious. One 

 of them is, that the Exhibition is ill-timed — that is, it is too early 

 in the year, and will be closed before the general season for exhi- 

 bitions, and when the town is at the fullest, begins. So far, the 

 Association have launched out at ebb-tide. Besides this, liberal 

 and spirited as it is on their part, the making their exhibition a 

 perfectly free one for five days in the week, is exceedingly ques- 

 tionable policy. As it is the first instance of the kind on the part 

 of any society of artists, it looks very much like a confession that 

 an architectural exhil)ition is not worth paying for, and is likely to 

 be so interpreted by people in general. Undoubtedly, such an 

 exhibition has no attraction for the many. M'herefore we think 

 they will not have a single visitor the more in consequence of there 

 being no charge for admission, — that is, not a single visitor the 

 more who might not just as well have stayed away. A few idlers 

 may perhaps be induced just to "look in," since there is nothing 

 to pay; but that class who have any taste for, or intelligence of 

 architecture, and to whom it must look for patronage, would have 

 gone just tlie same, or perhaps even more readily, had there been 

 the usual charge of a shilling. It is true, they may pay their 

 shillings now, on Saturdays, if so disposed; but then, people don't 

 care to pay for seeing what others are admitted to behold gratui- 

 tously. With the Westminster Hall exhibitions, the ease was 

 altogether different; for there was on the free days such a squeeze 

 of the "unwashed," that their absence was cheaply purcliased by a 

 Saturday shilling. In Pall-Mali, on the contrary, the pay-day 

 brings with it no greater convenience than the free ones. So far 

 then, it appears to us, a serious error in judgment has been com- 

 mitted. In other respects, too, sufficient consideration does not 

 seem to have been given to an undertaking whose issue may nega- 

 tive, for a very long while to come, any similar experiment. The 

 Association should have announced their intention very much 

 earlier than they did; and they should have carefully mustered 

 their own forces before going into the field. Of their having 

 done so, however, there is no sign. In fact, one of their leaders — 

 the very individual whom we expected to put himself foremost, has 

 left them in the lurch. Not so much as a single contribution to 

 the exhibition — neither drawing nor sketch of any kind, is there 

 by the Association's late President, Mr. " Fine-Art-Arcliitecture" 

 Kerr; although others as well as ourselves would, no doubt, like 

 to behold a specimen of that gentleman's talent in design. AMie- 

 ther he at all promoted the Exhibition project by his eloquence 

 we are unable to say; but that he should have sliruuk from par- 

 ticipating in it actively, is passing strange. Still, whatever the 

 exhibition may have lost by his absence, his example might with 

 great propriety have been followed by several of the others. 

 When people cannot show any furte, the next best thing they can 

 do is not to display their want of it. Coming forward as they 

 have done, and challenging public notice, we certainly looked for 

 greater evidence of talent on the part of the Association. Youth- 

 ful extravagances and e.xcesses of v/anton fancy we could gladly 

 have made allowance for, and excused; but the dreary duluess — 

 tlie utter want of either spirit or taste, and of anything like fer- 

 mentation of ideas, which marks so many of the things here hung 

 up, is the reverse of promising. There are several tilings whicli, 

 as designs, do not rise at all above those usually exhibited at the 

 windows of estate-agents and auctioneers. It is true, we are not 

 compolled to look at them — but where is the use of showing them? 

 or rather, how contrary to all sound policy, or even ordinai-y dis- 

 cretion, it is to do so; more particularly in what is a first and 

 specimen exliibition, and likely therefore to affect the credit of the 

 whole scheme. 



As regards the^resent exhibition itself, one of the most favour- 

 able and satisfactory circumstances is, thai the room is an excellent 



one for the purpose, and all the drawings so hung as to he well 

 seen, they being confined to two rows nearly upon "the line," — 

 none of tliem below the eye, nor any too much above it, except 

 perhaps in one or two instances, where a drawing in the second 

 row would have been better placed in the first one. As to number, 

 too, there are quite enow, — as many subjects as can be inspected 

 without fatigue; and provided they all contained something to 

 detain attention, one hundred and seventy architectural drawings 

 are more than can be examined in one or even two visits. First 

 appearances on entering the room are certainly prepossessing, and 

 contrast most agreeably with the squeeze and helter-skelter array 

 of drawings and oil-pictures in the Architectural Room at the 

 Academy. There is another judicious departure from Academical 

 and the usual exhibition regulations, frames not being made a 

 ihie-r/ua-non for admission. Vet, although the exhibiting rames 

 as well as drawings was properly enough left optional, theie is a 

 sine-(jiia-ium, or what should have been considered such, that sliould 

 have been pretty strictly enforced — namely, jiositive interest or 

 merit of desiyn itself. There are, unfortunately, too many things 

 which are not at all up to exhibition-mark as arcliitectural produc- 

 tions, although some of them may be unexceptionable fur their 

 manual execution as mere drawings. Proofs of poverty of ideas 

 and vacuity of mind are by far too frequent; therefore, it is in 

 one respect a disadvantage liere that there are no obscure holes and 

 corners into which things tliat will not bear inspection and consi- 

 deration miglit have been thrust. 



Although the Association have been aided by very few contribu- 

 tors in the ranks of the profession, their exhibition is greatly in- 

 debted to those few; since, were it not for the able productions of 

 Allom, Collmann, Lamb, and one or two others, the show would have 

 been very much ])Oorer than it is. The members themselves, there- 

 fore, play only secondary parts; and there is, m.oreover, one draw- 

 back attending a large proportion of the drawings and subjects 

 sent in by others — namely, their having been before exhibited, and 

 some of them very recently. We admit that thei'e are among them 

 several (especially those by the parties above-named) with which we 

 are not displeased to have the opportunity of renewing acquaint- 

 ance; still, as far as the undertaking generally is concerned, it is a 

 disadvantage that some of the most brilliant and redeeming points 

 in this exhibition have previously shone upon us elsewhere. Be 

 such the case or not, at all events our labour is abridged, since we 

 need not here specify and repeat our praises of drawings and 

 designs which we have spoken of at the time with deserved com- 

 mendation in our notices of "Architecture at the Royal Academy." 

 We may remark, that Mr. Collmann's "Hall and Staircase at the 

 British Museum" (No, 2-1) operates as an extinguisher upon all 

 the other interiors. Of that class of subjects there are several, 

 but all of them decidedly poor, and one or two in the most flagi- 

 tiously vulgar and tawdry taste. Attending one of them (No, 7+) 

 there is a curious and even comical circumstance, for it was in the 

 Academy last year, and then described as "An Entrance Saloon 

 adapted to the English climate," but is now called ".\ Design for a 

 Library"\ — adapted also, we presume, to the English climate, by 

 its being without book-shelves or book-cases. Mr. Collmann's 

 "Design for a Sideboard" (No. 137) causes us to marvel much how 

 the i-ival subject by Mr. T. Seddon, jun. (No. 91) could jjossibly 

 have obtained "the First Prize of 20/. and Silver Medal" from the 

 Society of Arts, it being not only greatly inferior, but positively 

 bad, — a coarse assemblage of the arrant frippery dignified l)y the 

 name of the Louis Quatorze style. If such be the taste of the 

 Society of Arts, let them stick to the useful and mechanical arts, 

 for the less they interfere with Fine Art the better. Among the 

 more remarkable designs, and a truly remarkable one it is, is 

 No. 56 : "Entrance front of a Villa designed for Mr. Alderman 

 Moon," by Owen Jones, Its pretensions to design and style con- 

 sist only in flowering over the surface of the walls with a sort of 

 Alhambra pattern^a species of decoration more akin to paper- 

 hanging tlian architecture: however, we do not suppose that it 

 will ever be realised. Mr, Leeds has supplied five subjects, which, 

 although they do not leconimend themselves by conieliness of ap- 

 pearance or any chai-m of execution— three of them, in fact, are 

 little more than sketches, or else only in a state of progress, as 

 their being sent in upon drawing-panels seems to indicate — will, 

 on being looked into, be found to contain some good and fresh 

 artistic stuff. The least novel of them is No. 109, which being au 

 "Idea for Improving the Farade of the National Gallery," is of 

 course only a rifuccinmvnto of Wilkins's building, and therefore 

 ohlkjato in style and composition. Although the idea of attempt- 

 ing to correct or improve tliat facade has been scouted by many, 

 this "Idea" shows that even partial alteration might do very much 

 for it. At present, the whole is too much broken up into separate 



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