The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31
Out of the
London Art Galleries.

LON DON, Enc, May 12.-London is the
city OF contrasts. Nowhere is the modern
ana the old, the somber and the brilliant,
the hldeous and the beautiful SO sharply
or so abruptly interehanged. To come
Irom one OF the outlying suburbs into the
neart or the town is to run up and down
the whole scale of human DEVELOPMENT
Gould anything be more dreary, more
sorold than the streets of so many of the
smaller districts, the tall, narrow. smoke
pegrlmed house fronts, only to be distin-
gulshed by the number and the variety of
the dressmaking and boarding-house ad-
Vertlsements. The streets are deserted as
those OF village and as silent-now and
then the ubiquitous organ-grinder reso-
lutely turns out his haunting memories
OF Italian opera or the music hall-a
sounding and grotesque echo of other joys
and other possibilities. And this within
half an hour of the Marble Arch
or Hyde Park corner. On one
side the imposing dignity and
reserve of Park Lane and Mayfair; the
windows at this season crowded with
blossoms; carriages with monumental
footmen waiting at the doors; the street
a living stream, the horses plunging
cabs and carts and drays; riders on horse
back, and the bicycle here and the bicycle
there and the bicycle everywhere. Where
the crowd parts the people pass into
Hyde Park, where the flower-beds glow
among the shadowy trees like the ward
robe of queen spread out for the world
to gaze upon-crocus beds, gold and red /;
hyacinths and tulips Of every size and
- Frt- ~
like the shop-windows in Bond or Regent
streets, where the bright. round guinea
rules and the shilling is forgot.
1t costs but 1 shilling, however, to enter
the galleries-galleries upon galleries,
which 1t is the solemn duty of every Eng
ishman or matron, youth or maiden to
visit. The academy, the new gallery, the
English Art Club, the Grafton, the Water
Colorists and dozen others. all within a
radius of a few miles, in Regent street or
Piecadilly or Pail Mall. Always new one
to be founded as a public educator, and
always more pictures to be painted and
lost sight OF. And every picture exhibit
ton is crowded with eager people, culti-
waiting arduously their interest in art.
In America the exhibition is a matter
Of moment on opening day, then nothing
could be more undisturbedly peaceful than
the big rooms full of paintings; the artist
himself is but a poor creature to be en-
couraged, to be patronized. to be protected.
In the popular mind he is a long haired
individual, with a velveteen coat, an ex-
preston of genius concealed about his
person, and eccentric ideas about the sup
port the world owes him.
Here in England-or in London rather
he Is an exotic, to be kept in a hothouse
atmosphere of respect and adulation; to
be assiduousIy cultivated and cared for
and exhibited like his own works, and his
correctness of shirt front and collar and
polished boot is a model for the vulgar and
ignorant.
In the new gallery we have the choice OF
schools. with again the same questions of
modern and old, hung apparently so as
to bring the contrast into the most vivid
relief. a very entertaining relief for the
humor-loving but keen anguish to the
soul of the dilettante with a respect for
his own sensations of delight.
The gallery in itself is a Joy. and should
touch to an ecstacy of emulation any