what ways artists of approved ability, for historical pictures (on it may be afforded. subjects either religious or relating to British history, to be placed in our public buildings or galleries), or for works of sculpture (being either public monuments to our illustrious men, or works of adornment for national edifices);

First

State en

couragement-na

tional commis

sions for

pictures

Secondly, by judicious purchases from our public exhibitions, whenever such contain works calculated to do honour to the nation; and

Thirdly, by prizes offered for public and unlimited competition, for pictures and works of sculpture (of the same class as those mentioned under the first head).

The first of these modes is not only that which is the mode of most dignified and which best befits a great and opulent nation, but it is by far the most effective, as respects the encouragement of the highest order of art. It is to this means, employed with liberality and with judgment, that the cities of Athens, Rome, Florence, Venice, owe their and sta- great and deathless renown. But of this species of encouragement there has been scarcely any instance in not hither England, almost from the first introduction of the plastic arts up to the present time. The sister art of archi England, tecture, or rather some of its more favored professors, has been more fortunate; but even here, in recent times, architecture has been encouraged rather as a trade than as an art. And the natural result has followed.

tues.

This mode

to prac

tised in

even

our recent

If, indeed, the sums which, during the last quarter of in connex- a century, have been appropriated to public buildings, ion with had been expended with even a moderate degree of dispublic cretion, it is certain that we might not only have had a buildings. public or palatial edifice or two, which an artist could look upon without feeling ashamed of his country, but the interiors of those edifices might also have been adorned with the works of a Northcote, a Hilton, and a Wilkie of a Flaxman, a Baily, and a Westmacott.

But, alas! our public edifices have usually been so managed, as to transform the architect into a tradesman, and the sculptor (when by any extraordinary liberality he has found admission at all) into a mere mechanic. While the painter has only been employed in the capacity of a house-decorator.

See post.

Chap. IX.

The causes to which this remarkable absence of all public employment for the painter and the sculptor, even upon occasions which would seem so naturally to give rise to it, appear fairly ascribable, will be suggested in treating of competitions for public edifices, and of control over their execution. At present it is sufficient to notice the fact, and to express an earnest hope that its reproach will henceforth be removed from us. A change so desirable may well be hoped for at the commencement of a new reign, under auspices so happy for the arts, and marked by the erection of a senate-house, under circumstances so much more satisfactory than those which have usually attended the beginnings of our public buildings. Nowhere could the best energies of the erecour painters and our sculptors be employed with more houses of propriety and advantage than in the adornment of the parlianew houses of parliament.

The commission of pictures and of monumental statues for our churches will be treated of separately. It is the only mode of public encouragement which has ever been practised in England to any noticeable extent, and even this has been usually confined to Sculpture. To what degree it may have tended to advance that art, and to what peculiar circumstances its limited success may be ascribable, if it should be found to have partially failed, are questions eminently deserving of solution.

Opportunities af

forded by

tion of the

ment.

See post. Ch. VIII.

of pictures

and monu

ments in churches.

National

The commission of pictures and of works of sculpture expressly for a National Gallery of British Art, will not, it is earnestly hoped, be much longer delayed. The nucleus of such a collection (a very small one it is true, Art.

Gallery of

British

1

Second

mode of State en

couragement

from the

and yet requiring to be weeded,) will be found in the present national collection of pictures; but the most competent judges are agreed in strongly recommending that the ancient and modern works be kept distinct, although they may be contained within the same building.

The second mode of State encouragement is the purchase of eminent (but unsold) works from our Public Exhibitions, when they happen to contain any such purchases worthy of the nation. This, however, though it ought not to be neglected upon fit occasion, is far from being the mode mainly to be relied upon by the State for the advancement of the highest class of Art. It is in this respect too uncertain in its operation, and therefore too little economical, to be considered as more than a secondary and supplementary means.

exhibitions.

Third modepublic

rewards of honour.

The institution of prizes free to the competition of all, having expressly in view the production of works of the prizes and highest class, but at the same time so graduated as to recognize and reward different degrees of excellence in that class, though placed last in order of consideration, is, at least, but second in the scale of importance. And perhaps no means which it is in the power of the State to employ is more certain, sooner or later, to attain its object.

These prizes, as they are to be the rewards of mind and of genius, must be attended with the marks of public distinction and honour; as they are to be the rewards of severe and long-continued labour, in a country where the ordinary cares of daily life are often overwhelming, and where poverty is but another term for contempt, they must involve at least such an amount of pecuniary remuneration as shall secure from the pains of indigence, the artist who shall have preferred the uncertain chance

of a reward for an immortal work, to the splendid gains which had been surely his, had he devoted half the time to the better rewarded but far less honorable exertions of his art.

A very able and well-digested plan for accomplishing this desirable object, with a very small expenditure of public money, was framed nearly thirty years ago, by the now president of the Royal Academy, Sir Martin Archer Shee.* Though I shall have occasion to express my dissent from one or two of the minor and less important features of this plan, yet I can in no respect endeavour to advance the object here contended for, with better chance of success, than by borrowing its general outline.

Sir Martin for the enShee's plan

ment of

Sir Martin Shee proposed, that the sum of five thousand pounds should be annually appropriated by government to the encouragement of the higher depart- couragement of painting, and the cultivation of a more elevated historical taste in the arts; that this sum should be annually painting, (1809.) funded, and, with the interest, be applied at the end of every third year to the institution of prizes, divided into three classes, and decreed with public solemnity. In each of these three classes three prizes were to be given:

I. The first class was to be appropriated to those who, by the noblest of all applications of their powers, should most successfully promote the cause of religion and morality, stimulate the growth of public virtue, and commemorate the glories of our country. The subjects were to be chosen by the artists themselves from sacred

This plan was submitted in 1809 to the directors of the British Institution, and led to their Representation, addressed, in 1810, to the British government, but with the same ill success which had attended the previous efforts of Opie, Flaxman, and West, and which has since attended the exertions of Mr. Haydon and others.

or British history, each picture consisting of at least thirteen figures of the size of life. The first prize of this class was to be a gold medal and £3,000; the second, a like medal and £2,000; and the third, the like and £1,000.

II. The second class of prizes was to be devoted to subjects drawn from ancient history, poetry, or romance, less extensive, or on a smaller scale; each picture consisting of seven figures at the least of the size of life. The prizes in this class also, were to be medals, and, in addition, the sums of £1,500, £1,000, and £750, respectively.

III. The third class of prizes was to be of a more miscellaneous character than the foregoing, but still to be limited to such subjects as usually come under the description of historical or poetical art, and without restriction as to the number of figures. In addition to the medals, these prizes were to consist of the respective sums of £750, £500, and £300.

It was further proposed to grant smaller but proportionate remunerations, to each of the three candidates in each class, who should be judged to be the most deserving of those not successful in obtaining prizes.

All the pictures presented in competition, and judged worthy of admission by the directing committee, (the composition of which will be spoken of hereafter,) were to be publicly exhibited for one month before, and one month after, the adjudication of the prizes. This adjudication was to be attended with all the circumstances of a public solemnity, and the pictures which should obtain prizes were to become the property of the nation, and be appropriated to the decoration of some of our churches, palaces, or public halls. The residue of the fund it was proposed to devote to the general purposes of the British Institution, after defraying all contingent expenses.