1844. 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



301 



ROYAL ACADEMY. No. I. 



Sir, — T!ie two best friends tlie Royal Academy liave are Joseph 

 Hume and the Riglit Hon. Sir R. Peel; the one is always on the qui 

 vive to defend it where it is not attacked, and the other to attack it 

 where it can bo defended, and by this most ingenious system at the 

 end of each session, the President and Members perch on the top of 

 their dome, clap their wings and crow their glory, as if victory was 

 assured and inevitable. 



Sir Robert Peel takes his stand on the diaritable distribution of their 

 fundi, \t\\\r\\ every body acknowledges; whilst Hume insists upon 

 seeing their accounts, which they have never refused ; for surely 

 nolhiiig could be more frank, more straightforward, or more re;[sonabIe 

 than the accounts they have already furnished (o the House at the 

 lime of the Committee. But all this childish attack and defence are 

 entirely beside the rsal question, viz. — Whatlias bteu their infutnce 

 on the art, what is their injluence, and rvhal mill it be in future ? 



As far as the student goes it has so far been a most valuable school, 

 but it does not keep pace with the demands of the country, and it re- 

 quires and is capable of immense improvement and amelioration, and 

 it may be made, and it must be made, more available and more in 

 unison with the wants of the nation. Sir Robert Peel says, the mem- 

 bers are men of honour in private life, but is this proof they conduct 

 the Institution as it is their duty to do, where the art is concerned? — 

 surely not, and it may be fairly inferred, that when any man defends 

 u friend's ^jwdiic conduct by dwelling on his yjriun/e virtues, there is 

 something in the public conduct not altogether defensible. There can 

 be no question, that for years, the paternal care of the Academy for the 

 student of genius in high art, ceased with his education, and that the 

 moment he gave evidence of being the genius they affected to wish, 

 they assailed him by persecution and neglect to prevent his develop- 

 ment, and force liim to get his living, as they did, by the ordinary 

 drudgery of the profession. 



Sir David WilUie contested the assertion that there existed a pre- 

 judice against High Art in the Academy for years, and was always in 

 a passion when it was mentioned — but in lSl3 he was on his first 

 Hanging Committee, and then it was so palpable that he acknowledged 

 it could be no longer denied — he called on me on his way home, and 

 said "there certainly i>xists a prejudice against High Art." I asked 

 why — he replied Northcote had sent a picture with a request if it 

 could not have a centre to send it back. The Committee were de- 

 lighted at such an excuse, and were for sending it back at once, and it 

 was by Wilkie's repeated persuasion and convincing them of the im- 

 portance of High Art to the Academy, that he induced them to hang 

 it up. Wilkie never altered his opinion after so gross an instance as 

 this. 



There can be no question at all that the good or evil of the Academy 

 in eflect on the Art, is very much influenced by the election of officers 

 and members. If an incompetent member be elected, though great 

 injury is done, yet an incompetent officer is much more injurious ; it 

 may be replied, no incompetent officer could have been so elected if 

 he had not been member first, and, therefore, the one is as injurious as 

 the otiier in the Art — and the great security then is in tjie proper 

 election of proper members, and to this end, all the energy and power 

 of the Institution should be warily kept in train. If any accusation is 

 made of incompetent elections the reply is, — that is very true, but 

 that was 20 years ago ; very true also — but when was John Chalon 

 made member? was that 20 years ago? Thirty-five years ago, two 

 distinguished young artists were at a ball at Ridgway, Devonshire, at 

 Mrs. Pym's the lady of the present admiral. During the evening, a 

 militia officer found of sketching was introduced to them. Two years 

 after, a noble lord asked them if they had heard of an extraordinary 

 militia officer, who had taken to the art, self-taught, because he was 

 an extr.iordinary genius, and would be a great man. Is this our militia 

 officer? said one of these young men to the other. Indeed it is, was 

 the answer. In a short time, the gallant Ensign became Associate, 

 and in a shorter time Academician! and soon got two public orders 

 for 500 gs. each, and other orders for Greenwich Hospital 1 whilst 

 Haydon was in prison and Hilton without a single commission! The 

 Keeper dies, and the gallant Ensign is enshrined in his place, without 

 knowing one single marking of the human body, and thus by one con- 

 tinued line of corrupt iufluence, this incompetent, gentlemanly weak 

 man is placed over the next generation of British students, at a time 

 when the government has been roused into action, when public money 

 is voting, when a grand opportunity has burst on the country, and 

 when draughtsmen will he wanted, and must be had, to carry out the 

 plans in contemplation. 



Now see the fatal effect of incompetent and unjust elections, and 

 reply if the Academy which obliged Reynolds to resign, expelled 

 Barry, insulted Wilkie, disdained Hayter, scorned Martin, rejected Sir 



Charles Bell, and persecuted Haydon is not, in 1844, the same Aca- 

 demy it was at the beginning 1768, in the middle 1790, and will be at 

 ihe end, without doubt, question or refutation. 



The moment after election, Wilkie, astonished, went up to Sir 

 ******* ********** ,,„j1 g,,|j|_ "I don't approve this." "Nor I nei- 

 ther," was the reply, "but it was to please Lord Farnborongh," said 

 gjf ******* ***^-*,i,*,;:^*. ^njj ]jg gi^ ******* ********** will remem- 

 ber it well. The fatal effects on the Art of the country by this most 

 honourable of all honourable elections will be shocking. 



The very first exercise of his power, which this amiable man was 

 guilty of, was changing the whole system of drawing in the Academy, 

 established so beautifully by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and which must be 

 considered as the very basis on which the' school had obtained its 

 celebrity for imitation. When a student draws on tinted paper, and 

 touches in the lights and touches in the darks, and leaves the paper 

 for the half tint, he acquires a power of using the brush whilst he is 

 handling the port-crayon only in his early days. Sir Joshua felt this, and 

 made it the law of practice ; whereas on the Continent they draw on 

 white paper, leave it for the lights, stipple all over like an engraving, 

 and in power of touch and execution, bear no comparison to the British 

 painter. Will it be believed, this man obliged the whole body of 

 students to leave off the admirable system of Reynolds, to substitute 

 white paper, to banish all backgrounds, saying "show us an outline, 

 never mind hom hard! 



The worthy President (arcades a7nbo) held forth at the distribution 

 of prizes on the infallibility of the new system, and there sat the keeper 

 the tears filling his eyes, to find his immortality secured, in the sub- 

 lime language of Sir Martin! What an Exhibition; of the 74 which 

 had taken place in the Academy, this was without question the most 

 touching of all. 



But •' let the Academy go on," says Sir Robert, " in its even and 

 honourable course." Ay, in Heaven's name let the Academy go on! 

 Let it go on ; let the great Keeper and the greater President go on 

 till the manly touch, geminy and rich, is superseded by the icy and 

 hot stipple, flat and tasteless. Let them go on, till the hideous and 

 hot half tint brick and mud has triumphed over the pearly grey and 

 peachy rosiness. Let them go on, till the vanishing rotundity of 

 nature, without edge and yet defined, succumb to the glorious and 

 cutting outline, copper or brass. Let the illustrious and immortal 

 couple go on, till the delicious background, glittering with azure sky 

 and creamy cloud, be vanquished by the gilt flatness of the brutal By- 

 zantines and bewitched Germans. 



If this be the detestable art which this illustrious pair wish to intro- 

 duce, at the expense of the masculine vigour of Michael Angelo's or 

 Velasquez's touch, God help the Art of Britain for the next 50 years, 

 may the promoters of such Bedlam filthiness perish in their own 

 abominations. Luckily for the Art of Britain, the next Council or- 

 dered the restoration of back grounds and tinted paper, and the illus- 

 trious Ensign was obliged to reconcile his former detestable theory 

 with his present orders from his superiors, with what degree of grace 

 and consistency it is not for me to detail, to the students. 



Fi.u.^If you can 7noci a leek, you can eat a leek. 



Pistol. — Must I bite ? 



Flu. — 1 say, — Pite I pray you ; it is good for your green wound ! 



Pistol. — Thou dost see I eat. 



Flu. — I have another leek in my pocket. 



I warn the rising youth that it is the Italian frescos and cartoons, 

 and not the German, which must be their guide, but my warning will 

 be in vain. With the only perfect examples in the world, viz. the 

 Cartoons of Ratfaelle and Elgin Marbles, the youth of the country are 

 running wild after the temporary insanities of the Germans. Good 

 God! what would Sir George Beaumont and Sir Joshua have said 

 could they have walked into Westminster Hall this season ? Fancy 

 their ghosts floating arm-in-arm down the frescos : they would have 

 gone through the great window screeching with fright ! 



By the gift of God, the British have been the only inheritors living 

 of the power of imitation by touch, which is the great code of Titian, 

 Velasquez, Rubens, Raffaell'e in his cartoons, and Michael Angelo in 

 his Prophets — they are the only nation now alive who see the true 

 optical delusion of objects, and feel the comprehension of touching 

 their leading points, leaving atmosphere to unite the abstraction. They 

 only want (which in Edwin Landseer, Charles Landseer, Lance and 

 EaslUike was added) a knowledge of construction to guide their hand, 

 as a component part, not a substitution fur what they are justly cele- 

 brated for, for what can be a greati'r folly, than to lose what is truly 

 beautiful in getting vvh.it we are without? It is hardly to be believed, 

 that there does not exist a nation, which can paint a clear shadow, but 

 the British. The power dues nut exist in France, Spain, Italy, or 

 Germany : test their Works, by Rembr.uidt, Rubens, Titian, Tinto- 

 retto, Velasquez, Ostade, Teniers, or Sir Joshua. 



26 



