303 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[August, 



Let any man look info tliesliadows of LaRoelie's, Stafford and Charles, 

 at the Diiki" of Sullierhinds, and (lien go to the Murillo, and tell me I 

 am iji error if lie dare. With these perfections of practice, what are 

 we now struggling for, not to transfer the beauties of oil into fresco, 

 of which it is perfectly capable, in its purity and light, but to transfer 

 the horrors of fresco into oil. 



With a militia officer for a keeper at the Academy, a president 

 who believes in his infallibility, a secretary at the Royal Commission, 

 friglitened at offending the Academy, frightened at offending the Court, 

 frightened for himself, and frightened for the Art, and a Royal Com- 

 mission, more enchanted at anticipating the eminence of immature 

 youth, than perfecting the excellence of established maturity, what 

 will be the result? 



I see the critic on the frescos in your last number, attacks the Aca- 

 demicians for not competing — surely those among them of eminent 

 talent are decidedly right. How can any man expect that men of 

 established repute, with fame, and profit, and honour to lose, will 

 enter the lists with boys they are qualified to teach, who have neitlier 

 fame, profit, or lionour. Three yeais have now passed and no posi- 

 tive commissions are yet given, no extensive plan evident, no cer- 

 tainty after all who will be employed, or who will not, or whether, as 

 Lord Brougham said, "the wisdom of Parliament may not stop the 

 whole, after ruining three parts of the artists. 



In my appreliensions for the future taste of the nation, even in this 

 hour of hope, I candidly confess I have my apprehension*, from the 

 tendencies, sympathies and timidities of our talented secretary East- 

 lake. It is delicate to allude to an artist of such refinement of mind, 

 tenderness of heart and inoffensive temper, with any thing like caution; 

 we are indebted to his reports, and the searching patience which has 

 inspired them, but 1 shall ever regret he left England, and did not stay 

 in it, as Etty, Hilton and Haydon did ; he arrived in Rome at the very 

 moment of the German delusion, and being of a nature of mind that 

 has a strong gusto to refine on what is obscure, prove what is impossi- 

 ble, and from modesty of character so equally balance probabilities as 

 to leave liis readers as tortured to decide which is truth, as himself; 

 it will be seen at once he was prepared to receive the Theories in 

 vogue, wliich were so angelic that Raphael was excluded from the 

 code as too corrupt, the extreme infantine simplicity of which were 

 sure to attract his nature, and though he pnblicly wishes it to be un- 

 derstood he is not mingled up with Cornelius and Overbeck, he has 

 made no hesitation whatever to burke all which has been done in 

 Britain for 40 years, to push them forward as the sole objects of imi- 

 tation for the 40 to come. 



If instead of petting Cornelius so offensively, he had remembered 

 those who had rescued the country from the stigma of incapacity, 

 whilst he was in Rome, it would not have been unjust. The Christ 

 rejected by Hilton, the Juditli and Holofornes of Etty, and the Solo- 

 mon, Xenophon, Jerusalem, and Lazarus, of Haydon, are works which 

 he need not have feared to have placed by the side of any of the lime 

 illuminations of Cornelius. Surely common justice demanded such a 

 feeling for his country, and for those men who kept alivH the art, when 

 there was no encouragement — they did not fly abroad in despair, and 

 return with enthusiasm only when the treasury appeared in sight. 



Throughout the reports British genius is sacrificed to a morbid 

 flattery of Cornelius. Why is this? Is it to please the court? If the 

 court desire it, the court should be told what is justice. Cornelius is 

 the ne plus iillra of art according to the Royal Commission, but what 

 was the opinion of his friend Rumohr ? — viz., that he has no power of 

 imitation or colour — that he is not deep in the naked figure — that he 

 is unnatural in expression, but has a monumental power, fit for a wall. 

 The worthy secretary, where justice might have been done to Hilton, 

 Etty and Haydon, lias been totally silent; not so, I regret to say, where 

 injury might accrue. When the cartoons were dispersed, in the circular 

 sent to the papers, he seemed to have recovered his recollection of 

 one of them at least. What did he mean by stating publicly, as from 

 the Royal Commission, " Haydon at the head of a section, goes to the 

 Pantheon." This was utterly untrue. Haydon went to the Pantheon 

 by himself, connected with no section — heading no section — and there- 

 fore I hope it was not put in in this malicious way, to lower Haydon 

 in public estimation, by informing them liis cartoons had not been re- 

 warded,* and that whatever were his theories of art, he mas but the 

 head of a section! If it were it was vv'ortliy of the heart and under- 

 standing which never remembered the battle he had fought, the suf- 

 ferings he had undergone, or the pictures he had painted, till a fa- 

 vourable moment occurred of inflicting another pang. 



To conclude, the attempt to change the whole system of British 

 Art, now making for the Royal Commission, ought to be opposed, if 

 not guided by a steady hand. If it be not, it will ruin all for which 



* The uke of Sutherland bss since purchased Edward.and John. 



tlie school has been celebrated, and leave the youth in the country, 

 and the Art in such a state of inextricable confusion as a century 

 will never replace or regain. 



It is sophistry to talk about the Art undergoing a change, it is un- 

 dergoing a curse, and without'gaining the drawing they want, they will 

 lose the colour, and light, and shadow, and surface they have, and end 

 in being the ridicule of Europe. The existence of the present 

 Keeper of the Academy in his present position, which but for his cor- 

 rupt election never could have taken place, is a living, existing refu- 

 tation of Sir Robert Peel's protection of the Institute, and an argu- 

 ment for ever of the necessity of Reform. Sir Robert says now, or 

 infers, the House has no right to interfere; and yet, in l839, he said, 

 " Holding rooms as the Academy did of the public, it had uiiquestion- 

 ably that right."-!' Lord John too, (et tu quoque Brute,) stands up for the 

 Academy, yet in tlie same debate, 183'J, lie disdained to argue for the 

 right of the Ffouse — saying with defiance,+ " I waive all question about 

 right." How can Lord John glory in the cause for which Russell bled 

 on the scaffold and Sidney in the field, and oppose the independence 

 of British artists. Are they to be the only serfs left ? Is this doctrine 

 worthy of his descent ? Oh, Lord John. And will Lord Palmerston 

 sacrifice the liberty of British Art for a miniature by Ross ? Oh, Lord 

 Palmerston. 



Such is the influence in a civilized country of property, authority, 

 and rank; and such are the blessings resulting from their security, that 

 it is always considered in a period of refinement or corruption better 

 to put up with any abuse of their exercise, than endanger their dignity 

 by admitting the possibility of wrong, though the sanction of injustice 

 has always in time sapped the greatest powers in t!ie world. 



One would have thought Sir Robert Peel had had some experience 

 of the consequences of resistnig common sense in 1S32. So far from 

 the British people having seen their best days, they have not yet 

 reached one-tenth part of that glory or power to which their capital 

 and their energy will ultimately bring them. But they are weighed 

 down by prejudices, the excess of judicious submission to order, till 

 they are brought to the very verge of abject servility. 



The abstract principle of independance of mind exists only in the 

 theory of their constitution, as a fiction, for it has long since ceased to 

 be practised or acted on, or approved of as a reality by any who have 

 their fortune to make, or any who have made their fortune. 



I admire the caution with which all reforms take place in Britain 

 so necessary to regulate and bridle excess, imprudent zeal, or injudi- 

 cious enthusiasm. But let us take care in our reverence for the out- 

 works of authority, a mine is not sprung in the centre of the citadel, 

 because from pompous desire to keep up appearances, we fear a 

 little wholesome chloride to cleanse the walls. The principle in Bri- 

 tain, that authority must be upheld, let what may be the injustice it 

 has practised, will ultimately in the long run of human suffering, de- 

 stroy all authority whatever. 



I therefore heartily wish success to any movement which will force 

 the Academy to reform, though I fear Sir Robert's talent and affection, 

 the cowardice of the artists, and the coiled-snakism of the Academy 

 itself. 



TiMON. 

 t See Debate, July II, 1839. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR A NATIONAL COLLECTION OF 

 STUDIES OF OUR NATIONAL ARCHITECTURE. 



(a letter to the editor.) 

 Sir — Some little stir has recently been made in the House of Com- 

 mons relative to British Antiquities and the British IVIuseum, and as I 

 have always felt tliat Gothic architecture has not had its due share of 

 accommodation in the National Museum, I inclose you a copy of a 

 letter which I some time back ventured to address to the Trustees of 

 that institution, relative to a classification of Gothic Architecture, al- 

 though perhaps I ought to have known that any suggestions from so 

 humble an individual as myself could have no weight in that quarter, 

 not because any communication of the kind would be at once rejpcted 

 as informal, but that emanating from so obscure a source the subject 

 was not made of sufficient importance. I had previously waited upon 

 Sir Henry Ellis in company with my friend Mr. Inman, to whom I 

 entered into a full explanation of my" views, and who seemed to think 

 with me that a scheme of the kind would be highly beneficial in itself, 

 and if taken up as it ought to be, might be carried into effect with com- 

 parative ease after a commencement had once been made. Encouraged 

 by this, and being of opinion that unless a separate gallery were esta- 



