Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-01

tioH. and t is well that it is easily broken.
and il is right TO knock it to pieces. Com.
pairing, he cited the poorest italian cities.
with their ornaments Ct telten iron. ss
beautiful and stroag now as when wrought
out 500 or 400 years 60 b. tie artistic tandi
Craftsman.
This means Of civilization must not be mis-
taken for civilization. The telephone is q
wonderful and good thing, but It's good de-
ponds on what men spesk to each other
through it. We must search out the handi-
craftsman and give him more of beautiful
Surroundings in workshop, street and home.
to bring him to his highest development. He
urged the establishment in every city Of a
school OF design, ia museum OF srt 10 carving.
furniture, etc, where only the models OF the
best are to be seen, and where the artisan
may look on the works Of the past and set
himself to surpsss them. He described
the South Kensipston Museum as
place where the artisans of London resort
to study designs, and out of which they evolve
new ones, and better themselves and their
country. ard thus elevate labor to a higher
dignity and make it pleasure as well as n
recompense. The haudicraftsnen must have
beautiful colors about them, and be taught
that color without tone is Ike music without
harmony, and that ali color depends for true
effect upon exquisite gradations He pointed
out the distinction between designing and
elaborate painting, and expressed his utter
adherence for moonlights on soup.tureeps
and sunrise eff cts GA soup dishes. OEe does
not want to take his duck off of landscaps
plate, or his terrapin from sunlight dish,
or degrade either by sending it to the hand
maid Of the kitchen TO be scrubbed. Land
scspe painters take fat surfaces and give the
idea of distance, but the decorator must
strive to enhance tie beauty of what he
works on. 1.-The less noble the Object, the
more conventional should be the design, will
be found an admirable rule. Every great
school of art has beeu o local school. All
great cities in Europe have these
schools, aud all are different. There
Is. in truth, no national art school.
The conditions for the artistic movement are
simple, to wit A pure. clear atmosphere,
strong and healthy physique. and individu-
alism-the desire to express the nob'est in ones
nature. This necessary quality of individual
ism accounts for all great schools Of art being
found under Republics. Look at the decora-
tive art of France and see what the folly Of
kings marked upon it at one period. The
rich must not have all the beautiful things.
The poor produce, and the poor ought to en-
joy them. The motives for art work are
about W, the men tt work tt the wharves
the boys at play at school, the
oarsman at his boat, the women at the well.
He never cav man doing any useful thing
but that at some time he was graceful in its
doing. We don't care for the old e DIS and
godesses, and srs right; nor for the kings
and queens, and are right; but we should
care for our fields and tire and flowers, and
all about us Wh1tever is about Us in daily
life, aud dearest and closest to us, and that
we love best-let them be our motives in art.
No country can compete with America in
the enormous amount Of artistic material
nature has given this people. Our marble is
inexhsustible and beautiful, hut we should
not build huge block-houses of it. Carve it,
let sculpture be seen upon it, err, il not that,
inlay it, ss did the Nenetians. Building in
wood has high ind lofty art possibilities, and
be pointed to the woodwork aud carvings of
Europe, and at this point urged that our
youths be taught the simple art Of wood
carving, as is done in Switzerland. He again
passed over the ground at first traversed,
urg:rg that artisans be placed in the midst of
beautiful surroundir "a, and that work.
rooms should not be 6iugy and
ugly resorts. He said that what his
school in Englard YVES trying to do is
to elevate the handicyafts. He paid glow.
ing tribute to the scenery and skies of Cali
fornis urged that boys be taught to use both
hands and heads be not foroed with abstract
truths declared the best school of morals to
be true art. which never lies, never misleads,
never corrupts; and after recitipg how John
Ruskin taught the Oxford students the value
of useful labor, he closed with peroration
that was at once poetic, and that arose to the
plane of the eloquent.