The San Francisco call., 1908-08-30
Art Lovers Have an Opportunity TO See
Collection of Original Drawings
San Francisco Teachers Develop Talents Of Children
by New Method Of instruction
By Lucy b. Jerome

York Times which lays much stress on
the methods employed in recent days
Of teaching the artistic idea to shoot in
the public schools Most of US re-
member the days when school instruc-
ton in drawing was confined TO the
difficulty in reproducing in exact copy,
vertical. horizontal or obliQue lines
with an accuracy almost painful and
which was the most prolific destroyer
Of originality or spontanefty ever in
vogue. THIS method remained in force
until the epoch making Centennial ex-
hibition, when the Industrial arts were
brought to the fore. with the result that
a different kind of drawing became a
necessity. But for long time the
instruction as given in the schools was
extremely crude, partaking of a GER
tain copy character which clung TO
its perpetrators like Iimpet and which
no amount of study served to dislodge.
1t was not until that important
branch OF the elementary curriculum
known as child study came into being
that art, as practiced in the schools,
became chiefly means OF self express
sion. and that the pupils ideas and
methods were given sway with the rec
ognition of the fact that art is, above
ALL individual, and that the highest
art is the expression of the artists
personality. no matter into what chan
nels it may lead him. Thus the New
York Times:
FORM AND COLOR LANGUAGE
Art in the elementary schools is
now regarded as form of speech. and
the children are taught il on the prin-
eipIe that another language is the
equivalent OF another life to it's pos
SCISSOR. The elementary teacher, then,
has this problem-to lead the children
in the lower grades to express their
ideas intelligibly in the language of
form and color, and in the higher
grades TO teach them to observe and
compare with precision in order that
their drawing shall partake not only
Of the character Of their mental con-
ceptioH- but OF the actual character
Of the object: and under this system
the results produced by the children OF
the different grades are really sur
prising, both in artistic perception and
iR the intrinsic character of the work
Performed
This is ideally true of the work done
in several Of the schools of this city.
Talent abounds among the pupils. es-
pecially among those Of Latin blood.
and a well known artist has not con-
sidered it q waste OF her time to spend
several hours each week in looking
over the drawings of the pupils. point
ing out merits or defects to the teachA
ers and encouraging the childish work.
ers with words of merited praise.
SOME SURPRISING RESULTS
Some OF the drawings of wild fow-
ers pictured directly from nature as
the model hangs before the student on
the blackboard or droeps over the
edge OF vase or jar are surprising in
the effects of elusive light and shade,
as beheld BY q year old student, in
the fairylike tracery of a network of
4 =
bud or twisted leaf. all of which is
delipeated with a freshness and insight
which produce a work at once pleas
ing TO the eye and satisfying to the
intelligence.
In the primary grades the beginner
is made TO picture some object with
which he is familiar-perhaps a boat,
a house, a wagon, a horse-anything
he has seen and which he must repre-
sent according to his own conception
of the object. In these instances the
work, though, of course, exceedingly
crude and blotched with color, still dis
PLAYS a freedom and vigor OF action
which shows that the attempt to en-
body the spirit of the object has been
unconsciously aimed at, and to watch
the work in its various stages of de-
an embryo artist being evolved in less
time than, from the earliest efforts.
one would imagine possible.
EXHIBITION IN OCTOBER
The fall exhibition of the institute Of
art will open October 22 and Will be
continued the usual two weeks It
win comprise water coIors, sketches
ana studies by many OF the well known
artists, with the addition of quite a
number of new ones A feature OF the
exhibit will be the drawings from life
recently sent 10 the Julian academy in
Paris by the members of the school of
design, which will have the criticism
of the French jury attached Co each, so
that every one may see how the work
of American students is regarded in the
French capital
A c. Woodwork. the curator of the
Del Monte art gallery, has resigned to
be replaced By Mrs. Henry C. LATER.