Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-07
POSING AS ARTISTS.
How Good People Make Fools
of Themselves at tho
Royal Academy.
IT'S VERY PROPER TO GO
And More Proper TO Appear to
Know All About the Pictures.
GREAT NAMES on TIE CANVAS.
An American Woman Tells Just What
There Was to Please Her
IT'S VERY PROPER TO GO
GREAT NAMES on THE CANVAS.
An American Woman Tells Just What
There Was to Please Her
TEE WORK THAT MAKES An IMPRESSION

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE prsfAroH.l
LONDON, July 30.-No one who makes
even the slightest pretentions to culture
(when one makes pretentions to culture one
always spells it with big "C'') would even
think of leaving London without paying q
visit to the Royal Academy, or at any rate
reading up on the exhibition and stoutly
maintaining he had paid it a visit The
Royal Academy of Arts has its home in
Burlington House, where the very essence
of learning, as represented by the Royal
Astronomical Society, the Society of An.
tiquaries, the Geological, the Chemical, and
and the Linnaan societies, is sheltered by
one roof
Now and then one or another of these So
cieties holds reception to which learned
folk come and wonder why they give recep-
tiohs anyhow, and frivolous folk come and
wonder what the society is about when it
isn't holding a reception, and great many
folk who don't wonder or think at all come
because Git looks well to be seen there"
Burlington House, "a fine, imposing
name that looks well on an invitation
card, as a socially ambitious little friend
musingly remarked on receiving her "bid"
TO one OF these dry-as-dust receptions, is a
really handsome building surrounding a
courtyard One steps from the life and
gaiety and, it must be admitted, the WICK
edness of Piccadilly, through great gate
ways which are barred after hours by beau
tiful gates like iron lace work, across the
cobblestones of the courtyard into the quiet
and the high-pressure atmosphere of art of
the Royal Academy.
The Private Views at the Academy.
This exhibition is part of the Seasons"
life. 1t lasts from MAY until August, and
with the weather and ones health forms
one of the stock subjects of polite CONVEX
sation. The private views at the academy
are very swell affairs, indeed, calling ont
the smart set, the aesthetic set. the moneyed
Iet Gas possible buyers) and the Bohemian
yet, that brilliant set which is ust wicked
enough to be fascinating and clever, and
tasteful enough to retain its "good FORM"
A private view is q really important
social event. Fashionable women have
special gowns for it, just as they have for
Ascot and Goodwood and Henley, and royal
garden parties, when royalty gives garden
parties The actresses who have a leaning
toward art, and the artists who have lean
Ing toward the drama, are present The
critics, literary, dramatic and artistic are
there, the authors and newspaper folk, the
famous people and the "faddy" people all
come under the private view net As the
gowns tor Ascot must be yery smart
and those for Henley chic, the gowns Tor
the Academy must be aesthetic and artistic
rs to color and cut, and the "picture gowns"
on the floor outvie the picture gowns in the
frames. The private views are for the
artists, the academicians, and their friends,
and it is really very pretty scene when
these well-dressed folk with an intelligent
appreciation of art, or clever assumption of
Ii, go about looking for their dear friends
pictures, and pause before one to say,
hReally, now, that's not half bad" or
Every much better than last year." or
g. must be losing form. This doesn't
come up to the picture be sent last year."
It's BAD Form Not to Understand
And then when a really-truly artist takes
them in tow it's beautiful to see the sob
dear, yes; understand perfectly" express
sion they hang ont, while he goes into tech
nIcal detail. But everyone who wants to
zee the pictures doesn't go to a private
view, and consequently the eleven rooms
where the oil paintings are, being the
rooms where the water-colors are displayed,
the black and white room, the architectural
room and the statuary rooms are every day,
during exhibiting hours, thronged with peo-
pie shuffling and buzzing about. There are
1000 odd works of art in the catalogue, and
the average number of visitors each day is
one 20 each art work.
They are people who come again and
again, artists who bring their friends, art
lists friends who bring their friends, tour
lists from everywhere, townspeople and
country people. They go about, some with
opera glasses (although the special use of
opera glasses in the small rooms, /, with |
my crude practicality, couldn't divine) |
some with lorgnettes, some with single |
glasses, and some with no glasses at all |
Some of them look laughably sentimental
before the pictures that tell story" some |
look still more laughably wise before the |
pictures that look as if they should be re-
markable for the Technique" or the |
'chiarO-oscura" or the atmosphere" or
some equally intangible reason that thew
can prattle about, for they are remarkable
for nothing else. There's deal of num-
mery and fiummery in 1t all, and even If
one has no appreciation of art as something
to paw up after" as jolly cowboy put it,
there's plenty of human nature to be had
for the shilling admission.
FIirtations Before the Paintings,
There's plenty of filtration going on,
with an utter disregard to the Improvement
of the mind. There are appointments made
and some clever bits of acting done by the
people who keep them, deceiving mascu-
lines worrying around to find the dear girl.
aud when they see her sauntering about
looking at the pictures and processing the
most lively surprise when they do come
plump before her. There's the opposite of
this in the man who doesn't care a-well, I
won't mention what-''for a ten-acre lot
full of your old daubs, who says he Il meet
his wife, who does care, at a certain hour,
and who always finds her in the last room
after he has jostled and trodden on the toes
of everyone in every other room, and the |
bristly way in which he approaches her
quenches the soft light of romantic pleas |
ure in her eyes, and makes one wonder
what there is in the marriage ceremony
anyhow that so surely murders sympathy. |
But, to get back to the two-thousand-odd |
works Of art, and looking at them through
the average visitors ewes (ninety five out
OF every hundred are average and come to
zee the interesting pictures), 1t is astonish-
ing to nnd so many artists devoting the
years they must to the study of art, and
afterward so much actual labor, thought,
hope and artistic skill to the production of
the commonplace.
Definition of n Great Picture.
1 made a quick trip through the gal |
leries-a comparatively quick trip, giving |
three hours to the oil peintings-as an ex- |
pertinent. An artist, an academician, said |
to me not long ago: ''There is something
more in art than producing a technically |
perfect bit of work on canvas. would as
roon male a nerfect and ,o;naa of