8 Mr. Ernest Normand on a Plea jor Art. 



with works of most eminent artists, and which would be capable 

 of affording pleasure to the citizens in general. 



Professor Sinclair, in seconding the motion, said he supposed 

 as a Belfastman he should plead guilty to the charge that Mr. 

 Norman had levelled against them as a city that their artistic 

 instinct had either been latent or was non-existent. They looked 

 forward with the greatest possible confidence to a renaissance or 

 revival of art in Belfast. 



The Chairman, in putting the motion (which was carried by 

 acclamation), said it had been suggested that art was either latent 

 or non-existent in Belfast, but he would be disposed to take another 

 view, and to say that it had been undeveloped. In the past the 

 city had produced artists who had won fame in a much wider field 

 connected with it, although perhaps they had not all received 

 their training here. There were men like M'Dowell, the Royal 

 Academician, and Atkins, an artist who died too early to allow of 

 full expression being given to the powers he possessed, while a 

 short distance from the building in which they were now met John 

 Lavery, perhaps the greatest portrait painter of the present day, 

 was born. 



Mr. Norman, in reply, said his principal object in delivering 

 the lecture was to provoke discussion, and he thought he had 

 succeeded in doing that. It was very evident that in art matters 

 Belfast had made great progress in recent years. 



