Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1876 — Progress of Art in England. [ARTICLE]

Progress of Art in England.

The fortieth annual meeting of the Art Union of London was held recently in Willis’ Rooms, and from the report read on that occasion it appears that art, and especially industrial art, is making wonderftil progress in. England. The report says: ' Since the establishment of art schools in this country, under the control of the Science and Art Department of the Privy Council, the progress in the education of the neopie in this direction has been remarkable, and in the last report of the Council it is stated that in the night classes the number of students amounted to 21,851, and in the elementary schools 290,425 children were instructed. The total number of persons taught drawing, painting, or modeling amounted, in 1874, to 345,382. An evidence of the capacity of our English art student to launch into new modes of production may be cited in what has been called “ Lambeth Faience.” A most interesting collection of original works in pottery, designed by the Directors and students of the Lambeth School of Ait, has been for some time on view at Messrs. Howell & James’s Gallery, in Regent street. The idea of educating the students in designing pottery arose with Messrs. Doulton, of Lambeth, who, admiring the industry and talent of the pupils under the able tuition of Mr. Sparkcs, gave them free permission to visit their pottery and watch the work from the time it left the wheel till its final removal from the kilns. The pupils eagerly availed themselves of this permission, and they profited so thoroughly by the opportunity that they now in their own kilns bake the productions of their own hands as skillfully as practiced workmen, and have produced some vases, plaques, jugs and ornaments that would not have disgraced the best days of Derby or Chelsea. At this carefully managed school, in an obscure part of London, there has, indeed, suddenly sprung up a new and important branch of art that will soon enable us to claim a rank among the inventors of pottery and prevent the constant recurrence to the trite types of Henry 11. and, Palissy. The French, who look on the English workman as slow in receiving new ideas, would be astonished to sec how’ quickly young, inexperienced girls and rough workmen have learned the difficult and tedious processes of pottery. A symptom of the improved state of art in England may be discovered in the fact that last year for the first time the Royal Academy considered the works produced' by its students in competition for medals and other rewards to be of such degree of merit as to deserve public exhibition. These were, consequently, on view in the galleries of the academy, and many were of undoubted excellence. The Council, always anxious to give encouragement to rising talent, thought the statuette by Mr. W. 11. Thorncroft of “ A warrior beating from the battle-field a wounded youth,” to which the gold medal was awarded, so good that they have entered into a negotiation with the author for its purchase, and a reduced copy in bronze is being prepared, and will be included in the list of prizes of a future year.