307 



AMATEUB ABTISTS 



Amateurs — Want of occupation —Work amongst the poor— Music 

 and drawing — Buskin's teaching — Technical skill — Natural and 

 acquired talent —Leaving home — Water-colours versus oils. 



Deawing and gardening are so intimately connected, and 

 being able to draw is such a preparation to the study of 

 gardening, that I have thought it worth while to bring in 

 here part of an article I wrote last year (1896) in the 

 'National Eeview.' In it I tried to set down some 

 observations on the subject of amateur art, having myself 

 had a life-long experience of it, of its great joys and its 

 many heart-burning disappointments and difficulties. 

 The increased taste for art and many other causes have 

 tended during the last twenty years to diminish the 

 number of those who draw for pleasure alone ; whereas 

 public opinion and family pride, which once thought 

 starvation and beggary more honourable than work, now 

 no longer prevent our sons and daughters from earning 

 their bread as professional artists, musicians, or actors. 

 But it is not to these that I wish to allude. They have 

 found their vocation ; their course is clear. I am speaking 

 of the amateur proper, common enough a generation ago. 

 Nine-tenths of the amateurs are women, and it is upon 

 amateur art as an occupation for women that I wish to 

 insist. I am more and more convinced of the importance 

 to a girl of having an interest in life over and above her 

 affections and the trifling domesti duties that may come 



