The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-07 00:00:00

THE ROYAL ACADEMY BANQUET.

The Royal Academy Banquet on Saturday was
attended by the Prince of Wales, the 'Drake of Con-
naught, Prince Leopold, the Duke of Cambridge, the
Prime Minister, Sir S. Northcote, and other in-
vited guests. In responding to the toast of his
health, the Prince of Wales alluded sympathetically
to the death of Lord Beaconsfield. Mr. Gladstone,
in his speech, dwelt on the intense earnestness of
purpose which our artists exhibit. The health of Sir F.
Roberts was enthusiastically drank, and in respond-
ingpthe General paid a high tribute to the devotion,
courage, and gallantry of the Army. Sir F. Leighton
responding to the toast of the President, proposed by
the Lord Chancellor, gave a summary of the revision
and extension of the scheme of education of the
Royal Academy, which includes the institution of
new prizes for the encouragement cf the study of
special branches of art.

The Prince of Wales, in responding for the Royal
family, said :—lt is a matter of great interest not only
to be surrounded by all thatAis finest in modern art but
also to meet so distinguished an assembly, although we
who come year by year find that gaps are made which
most of us must deeply.regret. One of the most recent
of these gaps has been-made by the death of the great
statesman who has just been taken from us, and who
but two years ago made in this room one of his most
eloquent speeches, which must be in the memory of all
those who were present on that occasion, many of
wkom are here to-night. I will not allude to him
further than to say how gratifying it is to see that fine
portrait of him in the next room, executed by one of
our first artists, Mr. Millais.
Mr. Gladstone in replying to the toast of Her
Majesty's Ministers said :—I am desirous to express
my sense of obligation to the artists of the day for the
help they give us, for the chance they confer upon us,
of attaining a duration of renown, which our own acts
might fail to secure for us. There are many men, I
am afraid, who will be remembered by the admirable
likenesses painted of them after they have been
forgotten by their own worth and deeds. That, lam
sure is my own case, and I rejoice to render this
tribute publicly, though not exclusively, in tke presence
of my friend Mr. Millais, whom I see before me,
and to whom I give emphatically my thanks for
having thus enormously improved my chances of im-
mortality. With your well-weighed and well-chosen
words still ringing in my ears, I cannot but rejoioe
that the extraordinary man—distinguished even among
distinguished men—to whom you have gracefully re-
ferred, lived long enough to have the last phase of his
existence commemorated by that great artist. It is,
indeed, an unfinished work. In this sense it was a
premature decease, ",abstulit atra dies ac funure
mersit acerbo." But the genius of the artist, as rapid
in its execution as it is sure in its aim, has recorded
that last phase of an extraordinary life in a form in
which it will, I believe, be precieus to poaterity.

The Times, in a leader noticing the banquet, remarks :

A persuasion is gaining ground, and we hope with
good reason, that art is beginning a new life in Great
Britain. We see all around us the erewhile dull mass
quivering and quickering ; new forms, new develop-
ments of art, are sprouting upohlike tender vegetation.
It is natural that this impulse should be reflected in
the discourses of the Academicians, our representatives
in all that concerns the brush, the pencil, and the
chisel. That the speech of Sir Frederick Leighton
contained much that is of good augury for the
future is undeniable. He tells us of additional
encouragement to the old traditional lines of art,
to the study of the human figure, to sculpture, to
landscape painting. He tells us how the Academy
is evoking new artistic tastes, and commending to
the notice of artists what lately was relegated to the
hands of the mechanic. The departments of art in
whia Michael Angelo and Ghiberti found scope for
their genius have received the sanction of the Academy
in the form of prizes and studentships. It might,
indeed, be called a tardy justice to recognise archi-
tectural decoration and mural wall-painting as rank-
ing among the most dignified branches of the artist's
profession, were not we outsiders still more to blame.
As long as the beautiful ingrafted upon what is useful
met with no appreciation at our hands, the supply of
it could not be expected to be great.