The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-09-22
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES.
An Address That Was Delivered to
Workmen by the Grand
Old Man.
He Makes Plain the Distinction
Between the Fine Arts and
Utility.
Every lad strial Art, However,. May Par
take Also Of the Character ofa
Elm Art.


Fine Art.
Mr.. Gladstone was preventative Agricul-
tural hall in I%slington to distribute the
prizeS gained at the national workrnen's ex-
hibition and delivered u long speech on art
and industry, in the course of which he
said:
When we speak of fine art, we speak
principally of what is dissociated from di-
rect and immediate utility. do not mean
that painting, sculpture, music, for exam
pie, have not utility belonging to them.
But it is utility standing in n different re-
lation to the work of art from that utility
which characterizes the objects which are
exhibited in this building. But let me i'm
press this. l think it isa p~rincipleof broad
application aud great Importance. Every
industrial art, almost without exception, II
not altogether, can be brought to partake
Of the character Of n fine art. Now, this is
a principle of vast consequence n one
which requires to be inculcated, because
when you labor upon objects which awe a
palpable, direct and obvious utility the ele-
ment of beauty which ought to attach to
all productions in general is apt to be I'M
dervalued and placed altogether out Of
view.
1 should not like to mention any country
in the world which has been distinguished
by ugliness in its industrial productions. 1t
would be q very inyidious office to under
take. But undoubtedly there are countries
which are less distinguished for uniting
beauty with convenience than other coun-
tries, both present and in former times.
But who are the great teachers in this re-
spects If you want to define them, you
must 60 back a long way. You may learn
much from modern countries; you may
learn much from the countries in the west
ern Mediterranean of the period of thelater
middle age
If you want to so to the fountain head,
you must go to that small peninsula which
was inhabited by the Greeks. You must
go to a small part of that p~eninsuh-to the
small city of Athens 1t Is from her artists
that in the year 1899 and in the coming
years you will have to learn all the most
profound, all the most important lessons
which are to be learned by those who de-
sire to elevate industry into the regions of
art by uniting together beauty and conven-
fence. 1t may seem to be a strange thing,
an obsolete idea. Buff you choose to leave
it obsolete and forgotten, l see nothing else
for it.
But what | mean is that for those who
desire to see useful things made beautiful
the means of reviving that old discipline
are still at hand, and If you want to see
what 1t did in former times you ave moth
ing to do but to 20 into institutions or ex-
hibitions containing utensils which have
been recovered perhaps from the bowels of
the earth. Then, not accidentally, not in
particular cases, but as a general rule, in
order to make q thing useful the Greeks
never found it necessary to make it ugly.
To a great extent in modern times we sup
pose ourselves to be very free from super
stition, and often on occasions when we are
not a bit more free from superstition than
those who have gone before us we should
find that we have only changed the form
OF it..
But there are many who believe that in
the case of Industrial productions it Is a loss
Of time and plans to think about giving to
them a character OF beauty. 1t is this false
hood which we ought if we can to tear up
by the roots. Let us reply to those whotell
us SO that, on the contrary, the whole his
tory of Greek art is a demonstration of the
truth of that important and essential prin-
oiple. Now what is very curious is this
that in Greece the effect or at ell events a
contemporary phenomenon of that sacred
Wedding-if may so call it-between in
dustry and beauty is that the idea is more
fruitful and more abundant than in any
other country in the world.
A most remarkable instance of this has
occurred quite recently. In the streets of
Athens there were sold by some casnal
street boys figures about 10 inches or q foot
in height of the human frame made of
burned clay, which attracted the attention
of some men Of practiced eve, who recog-
ni2ed that they were of exquisite beauty. !
They began TO purchase them, More fir-
u1es appeared, more buyers appeared, and
at last the collectors in France, in England
and in other places began to be anxious to
range these figures among their nrt objects.
The figures were found in tho tombs Of
Tanagra, a second rate city in u second rate
province of Greece. III Boeotia, which was
known rs the most stupid, ! would rather
say the least clever and distinguished, Of
all the provinces of Greece. Think what
must have been the abundance of the serse
OF beauty and the power Of producing
beauty in visible form among a peo9le
which could afford to throw into the tomhs
OF a second rate people Of u second rate city
III a second rate state those objects which
People are now glad to abstract from them
and exhibit in the choice cases of the Lou,
vre or the British museum!
There is one wonderful art, gentleman,
which | will mention-the beautiful art of
bookbinding. 1t is one which has been
scarcely noticed. Books are wonderful
things, wonderful above all with RESPECT
to what may call the soul of the book, the
words that it contains and the ideas which
the words convey. But there is also. sup
posing there were no soul, the manufacture