The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-10 00:00:00

CHECKS ON "STATUES."

(From our Fine-Art Commissioner, Manchester.)

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES,

SIR,—We had a conversation the other evening
with Mr. Checks, on statues. We think it our
duty; and in accordance.with the tenor of our in-
structions, to report thereon.

It is well kno-wn, or ought to be, that our friend
prides himself on what he calls " a feeling for art."
"A feeling for art," he is accustomed to observe,
"is the privilege of our day." Every well-educated
fellow must have it. The prince has it. All our
rich spinners have it. He has it. He could not
" get on" in society without it. Mr. Checks, when
pressed, acknowledges, "he certainly does not
hang;" but that has nothing to do with the ques-
tion. As a dignitary of the church, or " say a
statesman," with a national grant or public sub-
scription to dispose of, " his feeling" would, of
course, relieve itself in statues, or " something in
the fresco way." If in the " wealthy manufactui-inrr
line," he would naturally cultivate " bits of color,"
or proofs (15.15) of sheep, dead poultry, and the
canine species generally. Even if a householder, as
a " matter of furnishing"—but it is useless to put
that case—he is not and " does not know when he
may be." Therefore Mr. Checks, by his own account,
is content to open, his eyes instead of his pocket,
and enjoy " other people's" works of art, having
none of his own. Of course Mr. Checks' is a critic.
" Who isn't ?" he abruptly asks ; and though we
do not remember to have heard him use the words
" handling" or " middle distance" as often as we
could wish, still we are inclined to believe in his
own words, that he "knows a good thing when he
sees it."

In the performance of our duty, sir, we had that
morning inspected, at the Royal Institution of this
city, the " models" for the Wellington statue intended
to be erected here. Musing at intervals on the de-
cision of the judicial committee, it struck us that
we would take Mr. Checks' opinion about it. We
sought him at hie club. Our friend was there.
During an interval at billiards, he received us with
his usual expressions of pleasure. Seeing, however,
that he was intent and fidgetty, " chalking" fre-
quently, and following his ball about in a partially
abstracted manner, we waited until he had finished
the game, which he proacilar did, by—amongst
other things "running a cue, missing a simple
and, through the medium of what his
adversary called " a fluke," winning it.
Cutting short Mr. Checks' complacent admission,
that "it was a fluke," and his smiling qualification
of it as "an infernal one," we led him to the com-
fortable corner, called in the assistance of our
steward, and, over a friendly glass, told him what
we had been doing in the morning, and in general
terms and at some length " opened our mind" to
him.

Mir. Checks surprises us by promptly declaring he
sees nothing in it. He asks your "commissioner,"
with some apparent irritation, what we would
have ? He declares, if we are not satisfied we
ought to be ; and settles himself, avowedly, to "cut
us up in detail," which he proceeds to effect in his
usual sententious manner.

How stands the case? 'thus: says Mr. Checks,
Manchester wants, that is, several of her " leading
men" to subscribe for a statue to F.M. the Duke.
Competition is invited. Judges are appointed.
Artists compete. A statue is selected. The
grumblers—Mr. Checks looks significantly at us—
begin to grumble. So !
At what do we grumble ? At competition?
Absurd. (Mr. C. never pretends to modesty in
his expression of opinion.) Everything now-a-days
is a result of competition. Our gigantic trade,
our voluntary education; with the trifling excep-
tion of an established portion of it—our religion.
Why not our art ? See how Lord John caught it
for giving Gibson a commission, instead of asking
for a " model." A job, they called it. Without
competition statesman can not be kept honest.
Think of that !

.tvo • f ar called into exis-
tence by competition," he will not go from his own
town to " demolish" that idea. " There's Peel"
in the infirmary pond, or rather were the pond
was. He knows it has been considered a matter
of congratulation, that the deceased did- not wear
his hair " en queue," or the resemblance in profile
would have been complete not heard of it—
not of a " pump without a handle ?" No, we sur-
prised him. Granting it were so, people had no
business to "put it in that light." Look the thing
full in the face, and what could be better? It is
" all very well" to say statues should be pleasing or
dignified in every aspect. It cannot be. .If
artists contrived it, the elements would not allow
it. Take one of our soaking wet days; would
there be a whit more " dignity, in soot and water
dripping from the nose of Peel without a hat as
a statesman, than in soot and water trickling
from the spout of Peel without handle as a pump ?
We are hypercritical, Mr. Checks tells us. If
living heroes will not bear looking at from every
" standpoint" why should their statues ? Deal
with the latter as with the former: if they present
a decent " front" to society, " let them be." Only
uncomfortable people think .of prying round
corners and assailing them in the rear. Justify
such conduct, and presently we should require the
sides of our public buildings as well as their
fronts to be made of stone, when " everyone
knows" brick is as useful, and much more cheap.
Finding that Mr. Checks is likely to continue
in the same strain longer than is necessary for the
" entire satisfaction" of your " commissioner,"
we divert his attention by directing it to the large
proportion of inferior " models" sent in for exami-
nation. He " pooh poohs" our objections to them
as caricatures calculated to associate the illustrious
dead, and more especially his nose, with the
ridiculous. He declares with some vivacity, if
Frenchmen would feel avenged to look at them,
they were " welcome and no mistake :" and as for
any waste of labor they might represent Mr.
Checks reminds us, a clever artist's time is " not
worth much he believes," whilst for the " young
ones" it is " exciting practice."
Mr. Checks rings for a " sandwich and bitter
ale," and defends the appointment of the judicial
committee.

One of its noble members, he observes, is as
well known for a refined taste in selecting, as he is
admired for a kindly liberality in exposing to
view the master-pieces which fill his galleries.
His noble coadjutor, though not as well " up" in
/I ,or
a horse. It was reasonable presumption that
F. M. the Duke's statue would need "mounting,"
and what satisfaction for every subscriber to
reflect in the interval of suspense, that if he had
to pay for "a charger," it could be "warranted
sound." Of his lordship, our excellent bishop
the third member of the &mmittee, it is only
necessary to remark that being " ex officio" a
judge of most things, he is amongst other things,
a judge of art. Add the general consideration 6,
that these gentlemen having presumedly been
" brought up" in " ancestral halls," had an early
acquaintance with the " statues," which no doubt
" gleamed" there, and like that "interesting young
female" in " some novel" or other, (German, Mr. C.
believes,) must naturally ever afterwards have a
longing appreciation for statues in general.
What nonsense to speak of ' not representing' the
people of Manchester, their wishes, feelings, modes
of thought, and what not " Bosh !" says Mr.
Checks, " they do represent them, more than they,
the people, imagine ; and if they represent the sub-
scribers that's enough !" "No
.pay, no say," is M.
Checks's motto, and the British constitution's also.
Five or seven thousand pounds have a right, in a
free country, to select who, mid " put up" what they
like—yes, and " if it comes to that," to put Clown
what they don't like.
_ _

Mr. Checks is evidently excited. He orders a
cigar. He would not, if he was not. Between in-
tervals of smoking and re-lighting (Mr. Checks'
cigars are always " going Out"), he rebuts our stric-
tures on the selection made by the noble and right
reverend committee.

What are statues? he asks. Our embodied idea-
lisations of great or beautiful realities ? Certainly
not—nothing of the sort. But meeting us on our
own ground, he is " prepared to show" the coin
mittee have not failed.
The genius of a youth working in battle and other
anti-peace doctrine practises; the convictions of a
maturity passed in resisting democracy, barricading
Apsley House, and protecting native industry, iti.o
not the Manchester " ideal of Wellington." Neither
as the " hero of Assaye," or any of the 99 other
fights in which he was engaged ; nor as the impds-
sable conservative statesman, was he much valued
here. Manchester " honors pluck" (so does Mr
Checks) ; but it must be pluck on the right side