Year: 1869

International Rivalry In the Arts.


A letter which we publish to-day concern
ing 'Art and Artists in London" contains the
following phrase, which we recommend to the
serious consideration of the changing Com
mttee" of the National Academy Of Design
''Better bare walls than bad pictures is an ex-
cellent rule" Notwithstanding the enlarged
space at the exhibition of the Royal Academy
the rule has, it appears, been rigidly observed.
Unhappily, this has not been the case at the
present annual exhibition In the Venetian
building at the corner of Fourth avenue and
Twenty-third street. in New York. We have
already been reluctantly constrained to say
that the forty-fourth annual exhibition Of
the Academy indicates persistent indulgence
towards mediocrity. 1t is always more agree
able to praise than to censure but this year,
as well as for more than one year past we
have been panied to see that American art
seems to manifest decline rather than progress,
so far as we can judge by the Academy ex-
hibitions. With the exception of few land
scapes and one or two portraits there 10
scarcely anything in the present exhibition
worthy of q second glance. Such Is tho
unanimous verdict Of the public and the press.
One fatal consequence Of the extreme lenienoy
of this Hanging Committee" at our Acads-
my-a committee which, we are glad to learn,
has been lately reduced in number from thir-
teen to three-is that artists of inferior rank
have been tempted, by the implied endorse
ment of the admission of their works to the
Academy, to venture, in some instances, to
send them abroad, and to expose them to
decidedly odious comparisons. By their
works the condition of American art has been
subjected to a very difficult test. Had they
been previously more severely judged at home
as represented, or misrepresented, by them
would have escaped European condemnation.
Surely some of our landscapists and sculptors
have already manifested genius to a degree
that should command admiration on both sides
of the Atlantic. But neither they nor our few
figure painters should suffer any but excellent
works to be exhibited abroad. At the Worlds
Fair in London and at the two great Expositions
in Paris American inventive genius has been
worthily displayed and cordially recognized.
But the prestige which it has deservedly won
would soon be lost if inferior locomotives and
reapers, and mowers and sewing machines, and
printing machines and safes were to be sent
abroad for exhibition. No longer ago than
last year yacht which was sent to England
on private speculation, for which the club to
which its owner belonged was wholly irrespon-
sible, suffered, or was alleged to have suffered,
defeat which was unreasonablY made to pass
for an affair of international importance. What
ever may have been the causes of this defeat il
really was entitled to no such international
importance. The Harvard oarsmen, who have
accepted challenges to measure their qualities
of strength and dexterity against the oarsmen
Of the English universities this summer, should
profit by the lesson. Let them test thoroughly
beforehand their qualifications for engaging in
a contest that must assume an international
character. IF any boats crew prove unequal to
such contest let it gracefully retire in advance.
We must give the same counsel to those Of our
gallant yachtmen who are strongly tempted to
visit English waters and to engage in interna-
tional contests during the ensuing sea-
son. There are old yachtmen, we are
sure, who will sustain US in giving
this counsel. Without previous thorough
trial no experiment of the kind should
be undertaken save under protest In marine
architecture, at least, if not in ell other 6ns
and useful arts, Americsps ought now to have
attained so high degree of excellence as to
be unwilling to submit to international eompe-
tition anything but the very best and most
convincing proofs Of what we can accomplish.