Mexico weekly ledger., 1879-06-19
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
PROF. JOHN p. GAss, EpIroH
School Of Art and Design
Washington University.
From the St. Louis Republican


The school of Art and Design is
intended to combine the useful with
the ornamental, and the preliminary
steps taken differ in no respect from
those taken to gain excellence in
pure art. The course of study is the
result of personal examinations in
the various schools of art, schools of
design and industrial art schools of
England and France, as well as those
of America. A person pursuing such
a course will be well fitted for an
architect, u teacher, Or be enabled to
enter upon a thorough course of art
study as a profession. There is work
enough laid out in the course to keep
a student seven years working from
one to two hours a day, but it is
hardly expected that any one student
will undertake all this. 1t only
shows the completeness and thor
oughness of the department.
There are now on exhibition over
500 exercises, all the work of stu
dents who have come into the school
at various times during the last eigh-
teen months, and who began with
the rudiments. When the short Pc
riod of instruction and training are
taken into the account, many o fthese
exercises are really wonderful. There
are numerous samples from every
stage, from the simplest linear draw
ing by the aid of instruments to paint
ing and 1ree-handed technical and
miscellaneous studies. 1t may not
be as imposing a gallery as some,
but it is exceedingly interesting and
full OF surprises to those who know
that the teaching of art in st. Louis
is but in it's early infancy. Here at
a glance you see the broad and solid
foundation for a glorious future, not
only for st. Louis, but for the whole
continent and the whole world. 1t
is but the budding promise of what
the older countries have long exclu'
sively enjoyed, to the envy of the
more vigorous people of the United
States. OF course the efforts made
by the students at painting and draw.
ing directly from lite and still sub.
jects excite the most interest, fol
here there is expected to be found
the revelation of genius in its highest
and noblest development, as we'll as
the practical result of the teacher
work. In making sketches from ma
tural scenery, the pupils are allo wee
to go out, and make their W selec'
ton of subjects and do their work
without the aid of a teacher. Wher
they have got a piece ready they
bring 1t into the school and there
have it criticised.
Some of these bits of painting are
really excellent and betray at once
more than ordinary ability. Among
these may be mentioned a deck-hand
or steamboat roustabout, painted
from life by j. H. Fry. The color
ing is good, the figure is well drawn.
and the general expression admira'
BILE. This was done by a youth who
has been studying only eighteen
months. Jas. Barnsby has a picture
of a German housemsid that is very
strong, and Chas. I'll. Hallowell has s
similar piece Of unquestioned excel
lence. The head of a Turk, q char
coal drawing, by Miss Lizzie Sylves'
ter, is remarkably well done, as is
also a head eff Ajax by the same tai,
ented young lady. An autumn
sketch by young Hallowell would dc
credit to an artist of much greater
pretensions, and MI. Tom Young has
a still life study which is quite IL
prislng for its freshness. Miss Lucy
Spillman has a piece, in oil, repre-
senting an owl, some old books ane
a bunch of flowers, taken from thu
things as they were and done mos
admirably for a beginner.
Many of the charcoal sketches o
classic forms and heads As well a
those from living models we're mad'
in an hours time and show wonder
tul aptness. 1t would be impossible
in the space of a short account sue
as this must be to give a fair concep
ton of the progress made by the pu
pills. There are hundreds of fin
specimens of wood carving, archi
tentural drawings, original design
and mechanical drawings. Tn
Washington University School G
Art and Design is = great institutio
and marks the progress being mad
in the work of educating the young
Prof. Halsey c. Ives, who hs
charge of the School of Art and De
sign, is doing a work that will live