New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-24
ART IN ENGLAND.

ART IN ENGLAND.
MIR. DIsRAELPs SPEECH AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY
DINNER - BRANCHES IN WHICH THE ENGLISH
SCHOOL OF ART WAS SAID TO BE UNRIvALED-
SALE OF THE BREDEL COLLECTION OF PAINT
INGs.
FROM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.
LONDON, May mfr. Disraeli missed his true v0-
cation when he took TO governing a great empire.
He ought TO be editor of comic paper. AS Prime
Minister he has made rather poor figure of it lately.
But he gave a speech Saturday night at the
Royal Academy dinner which was worthy of Douglas
Jerrold. It's humor, moreover was of the kind which
it is the fashion to call peculiarly American, and
which depends for its ludcrous effect the force of
sheer exaggeration and disregard of fact. 1t was
speech about art, OF course. Equally of course II
was in praise of English art, for he who ac-
cepts an invitation to speak at the Academy
Banquet, undertakes by implication to say some
thing agreeable to his hosts. and his hosts the
President and Council of Association which is
supposed to include the most eminent living British
artists. But when man goes so far as Mr.. Dlsrael
did, lie Oversteps the necessary limits of compliment
He can only be thought 10 be INDUCING his taste for
jokes. 1t is possible indeed TO be serious IN talking
about the European fame of Reynolds and Gains
borough aud the respect of the Continent for the
British School of portraiture. Nor in An age that
has produced Turner and Constable can eulogy on
English landscape be thought misplaced. Here, too,
however, Mr.. Disraeli generalzes in what would be
a dangerous way, if it not playful. He seems
TO be speaking much of the present as the
past when he tells US that the English
School is unrivaled in landscape. and
that this is generally acknowledged. Or
is il perhaps meant hint TO the Academy not
TO push its contempt and encouragement of land
scape quite so far as it doesl out of the Forty
r~.1.a
name three whose fame depends landscape OF has
been won in it The third branch OF art in which the
English school is. according 10 Mr.. Dsraeli, unr-
vailed is that in which the incidents of life
are depicted whether with pleasantly or with
pathos These three classes in which the English
are not merely superior to every other nation, but
without a rival are only steps which lead up to the
door of the true Temple of Fame, where Mr.. Dis
rae discovers the Art of his adopted country sulta
bly enshrined These three, he tells al admire
and all acknowledge. but what most distinguishes OF
late wears the English School is the faculty of
imagination, and upon this point the great Jester
must be allowed to speak for himself:
Mr. President you know Well that the Englsh artlst
has developed that faculty under very great dsadyan-
tages He not favored by climate OF inspiration
Cheers and laugh He Is not surrounded by SUD
lime nature. He does lot dwell in cities gltterng with
symmetry under pr h Ss ipes whose aashng
forms and picturesque gestures stimulate III ~
often afford happy ht or expression ana ol gidct'
parSdng the squares and Of fair cities animate
sacred bels Cheers No, Sir, he lives a studio in
vaded too often by the London fog IA Laugh II nc
Gdeous monotony Cheers and a Taught His living
studies are the constable and the cabman instead OF
aug and instead of bursts OF harmony he Is greeted
by the scr am Of the saOerIans1n sd gry I
Much laughterl And yet this man, by his Inflammation
by that divine gift alone can give us canvas breathing
hum
and with every accessory OF splendor ana OF grace
Loud cheers.
There YOU have il, bursts of cheers and laughter
and all And the future il TO be greater yet. This
prodgious genius is assume larger proportions
every wear and ultimately produce works that shall
be worthy of the countrynen of Shakespeare and
Bvron. A sad let down, this ultimately" Why
should Mr. Disraeli qualify his praise by fntimating
that ANYTHING better could comet The retired soap
boiler, who is the best customer OF the Academy
desires to be told that the works In which ne Is IN
vesting his thousands are at least as GOOD as any
that are TO come hereafter The droest part OF the
whole is the assumption that all the artists OF
England live in London, and that all the pictures
they paint are painted in London. But MT DlsraeI
is himself far too great an artist to allow mere 1act
tn stand in the way of fine passage. He is like the
painter-a man of high and deserved position-to
whom pointed out what a scientific friend had
nicture now on the walls of the Academy is rising
dine south "Well" retorted my friend, rather
Indignantly, what of it He wanted bus moon LII,
and he had to put it somewhere"
The sale of the Bredel collection at Christles, on
Saturday was in some points even more remarkable
than that of the Manley Hall gallery the week be-
fore The total sum obtained was less, but the aver
age price was greater. The question whether the
astonishing adj ance in the price of modern pictures
shoyn bv the Mende sale would be felt by ola PIC
tnres has been answered in very striking way-at
least. for two or three classes of old pictures In
the Mepdel sale calculated the average-h re-
mark riQhtly-at about f7OO Ii was within $500
or goo The Bredel pictures striking out elght OF
ten that could not properly be SAID to MAKE part Oh
the collection, brought just about El,OOO apiece
They were all cabinet pictures of the Dutch ana
Flemish schools. II measured by square ieet OF
canvas and compared the prices OF the two coiec-
tious in that way, the disparity would seem nuch
greater The paintings which fetched snch
enorrnons sums on Saturday were OF very small
size. All those in the Mendc gallery which went AT
similar rates were very large-some OF them ten
times AS big as their Dutch rivals.
Perhaps Mr.. Disrae viii explain why II 49, II Eng
Hsh art il 20 confesscdy superior IN every depart
mcnt 10 every other That there was 40 foreign com
uetiton for the English pictures, ard very Keen
fhe Dutch and FLEMISH PIC