The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-27 00:00:00

THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND
ON ART SCHOOLS.

The distribution of prizes to the pupils of the Royal
Dublin Society's Art Schools, which took place in
Dublin on Saturday, was a most satisfactory demon-
stration of the excellence of the instruction imparted
in them, and the desire of the middle and artisan classes
in Ireland to avail themselves of every opportunity of
obtaining art education (remarks the correspondent
of the London Standard). The renort read at the
meetisg, from Mr. Lyne, the zealous and talented
head master of the schools, showed that the schools had
achieved eminent success in the national competition
of London, one sixteenth of the entire number of
national awards competed for by the 123 art schools of
the United Kingdom having been won by the society's
schools. The number of national awards made in 1874
was—Dublin, 12 ; Edinburgh, 11; Manchester, 10;
Birmingham, 9; Westminster, 8-, Belfast, 6; Shef-
field, 6; Glasgow, 4; Cork, 1. The names of those
students who have distinguished themselves by taking
national awards are as follows :—Miss E. Irwin (two
awards), Mr. E. Gibson, Miss A. Johnston, Miss E.
Wallace, Miss F. L. Jordan, Miss G. Bardon, Miss A.
Kellett two awards), Miss N. Lee, Miss L. M. M.
O'Clea.ry, Miss M. Manning.
Eight thousand persons receive instruction in the
drawing classes in external schools of Dublin, established
through the agency of this school of art, or instructed
by those who have been trained within its walls. The
number of drawings, paintings, and models, &c., for-
warded to London on the 9th day of April last, to enter
into the national and other competitions, were as fol-
lows :—Number in elementary stages, 45 works; num-
ber in advanced stages, 123 works; ordinary class
studies, 335 works. These works were executed by 239
students. After distributing the prizes, his Grace the
Lord Lieutenant made some important remarks on the
true spirit in which art study should be pursued.
Real artistic merit (said his grace) is certain to
assert itself ; and if it does not receive at once
the advantage of monetary profit, it leads to future
success and honour. Let me now explain my mean-
ing. I think that owing to the encouragement given
by an over-rich, and perhaps not over-skilled public, a
tendency has arisen in the popular school of English
art to run into a mannered realism of late years—
namely, an exact, accurate, and, perhaps, exaggerated
copy of nature, of the fibres of trees or shrubs, of the
lines and texture of bark, ot the tesselated foliage of
plants, of the gaudy colouring of flowers; or a cold
and literal transcript of natural landscape. This
species of high art carried into what I may call a
tableau de jardin has also been carried into sacred
subjects; and so we find literally figures of ordinary
and every-day men and women substituted for the
halo of poetic ideality with which such subjects
have formerly been treated by the great masters.
This may be profitable art, but it is not high art.
Therefore, I would say to you, student, persevere to
the utmost of your power in the study of nature, and
in the careful practice in the school of design of every
thing pertaining to nature as affecting art, for with-
out that your artistic genius will be of no avail. I ask
you to remember that is but a means to an end, and
that you should look upon it as a means which will
enable you to give thought and utterance to the higher
conceptions of art, which alone will make true artists.
Now, I wish to lustrate my meaning by reference to
a work which made a great sensation last . year,
and which, no doubt, has been viewed with extreme
admiration by the lady students—l mean Miss
Thompson's picture of "The Roll Call." In it you will
see a very great degree of realistic power carried out;
it presents a minute and accurate detail of a military
company. The study is not merely realistic—the
genius of the artist has invested the whole group with
a highly artistic conception of peculiar interest, every
soldier almost having his own individual history; and
a whole world of pathos and interest is opened out to
a remarkable degree. This is exactly the point to
which I wish to direct your attention—not to confine
yourself to the copying or imitation even of the best
examples, otherwise than as a means of enabling you
to carry out the higher conceptions of art. I think it
a proof of the highly-artistic character inherent in the
Irish nation that the ideal and imaginative is more
natural to them than mere realism, and, therefore, I
say that a judicious union of the two may be most
successfully cultivated. There is no doubt that Irish
students who have only an art training in Ireland have,
not altogether the advantage of the same modern ex-
emplars that others enjoy, who have opportunies which
are more easy of access; but taking those difficulties
into consideration, I think we have every reason to be
highly gratified with the great advance made by Irish
art which was observable in the Royal Hibernian
Academy, which I had the pleasure of visiting on Mon-
day last, as a proof of the success that art training has
had in Ireland (hear, hear). I will not detain you
further than to say that if any means can be found or
any way devised by which art culture can be extended
to Ireland, you will always find me most anxious
and most willing to give it all the assistance in my
power.