On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (3)
-
B A is said to be licable whetherinvolve...
-
_ . ¦ $\\lt WtlO, <y ?•?*-*• avVW* *
-
THE ROYAL ACADEMY, AND THE NATIONAL GALL...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Drtmt Ianb Tbt5atre. On Saturday The Boh...
mental one , too—is of opinion that ; to have brought him home from Australia , with a rapidly-gotten fortune in gold-dust , would liave been " too commonplace " Why , the whole piece is common-place ! Every other line of it might be , in vulgar mouths , a vulear clap-trap . Every character and every incident is of the . roojst every-day sort . Its naturalness is its beauty ; and to have added one more natural , . common-place , every-day occurrence to the heap , vould nowiee have deformed it . As it is , the pathetic . climax is jarred and dislocated by the inopportune rash upon the group of a low ^ comedy messenger ¦ with a violently-improbable mission . We would give a trifle for a private view of The Porter ' s Knot with such an amended climax as we suggest .
APELPUI THEATRE . The new Adelphi is very rap idly approaching completion , and will be opened at Christmas , under the Jesseeship and direction of Mr . Benjamin Webster and Madame Celeste , with a new drama by Messrs . Yates au , d Harrington , an act of the Green Bushes , jind a pantomimic burlesque .
THE LONDON CRYSTAL PALACE . On Wednesday this picturesque arcade , or bazaar , was opened to the public , and attracted numbers of sight-seers . The edifice itself is a highly interesting specimen of Mr . Owen Jones ' s talent . It is in shape a letter f , connecting Oxford-street and John-street , and is constructed of iron columns and girders , supporting a ribbed roof , which carries an inner ceiling . This ceiling is a hemispherical vault of
—to borrow the technical language a contemporary—covered with a network of ribs arranged in triangles filled in with star-shaped panels or lights . It has been necessary to design the ceiling for distinct effects to be produced by external daylight and internal artificial light . In the former case the painted enrichment and gold are scarcely perceived , whilst the white and stained glass tell ; and in the latter case the glass is darkened in appearance , and the network of colour , and gold are intended to be
prominent . The building is delicately coloured throughout . The columns up to the first gallery are painted of a « 3 eep maroon , with blue and white capitals . The lines of the galleries and the capitals of the pillars display bands of blue , white , red , yellow , and gold ; and the gallery railings are also gilt . The stellar openings in the ceiling , which recal the lighting of the Albambra Court at Sydenham , are glazed , some with white , some with yellow , and some with blue ^ lass ; and the tracery between them is painted and richly gilt . The effect is delicate without approach 4 o gaudiness , and we are reliably informed that the . goods exhibited will not suffer , as the uninitiated public might apprehend , from the presence of either the stained glass or decorative colour ,
The ground floor is divided into many compartments , which have been let at high rents for the exhibition by various tradesmen of very high-class goods . A spacious photographic room ia over the . John-street entrance , and the arrangements comprise excellent refreshment and retiring-rooms for ladies . We observed tables loaded with most costly specimens of gunsmiths ' , ironmongers' and lampmakers ' ware , while others displayed the treasures of lacemaking , millinery , and bijouterie . The ensemble has an extremely elegant appearance , and the new thoroughfare will , no doubt , be a highly popular one , with the fair sex especially .
DISCOVERY IN COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVING . At the meeting of the Society of Arts last week , G . T , Doo , Esq ., F . B . S . and U . A ., presiding , an interesting paper vras road by F . Jaubert , the eminent line engraver , «• On a method of rendering engraved copper plates capable of producing a greatly increased number of impressions . " The lost century , he said , produced ronny engravers of great merit , and , in this country , foremost Amongst thorn were llogarth , Sir Robert Strange , and James Heath . The excellence of their works gavo riso to such a demand for print impressions of engravings , that some forty years ago , when it was found that o copper plate could not yield a sufficient number of impresaiona for the demand , stool plates were introduced , for small plates only at ilrst , and several editions of booka wore published containing platea moat elaborately engraved on steel . HiBtorical or line engraving ,
however , for importunt subjects was still practised entirely on copper , till 1888 , when the discovery of the art of ¦ oleotrotyping was made . Sovoral line engravings on ooppor were then multiplied by th | s process . Tho result , however , was attended with only partial success , in consequonce of the copper so deposited , from its eoi'tno . sa , yielding only a vory limited number of good impressions . This caused tho process to be almost abandoned for Artistic engraving , excepting whore a large number of impressions is not required . It became , therefore , a desideratum to harden the surfaco of tho uoppor-plato , and protect it from wear while printing . Tho present invention consists of covering tho printing ourfuoo , whether in intaglio or relief , and whether of copper or other soft motal , with a vory thin and uniform coating , or film of iron , by . moans of a aeries of somewhat complicated oleotro-motnUurgioal proeossos . which wore
doscribed . The invention is said to be applicable whether the device to be printed from be produced by hand engraving , or engraving by -machinery ,. or . ' . 'by chemical means , and whether the " surface printed from be thfe original or an electrotyped copy . Therefore steel plates engraved in intaglio would yield about 3000 impressions without retouching , copper about 800 , electro cast 3 of copper only about 200 ; whereas , by the present process , a very large number of impressions could be printed without any sign of wear on the plate , -which could moreover be again coafed and the printing renewed . electr
The process is also said to tjg valuable for otype plates and for photo-galvanic plates , since they ean be so protected aa to acquire more than the durability of steel . By these means one electro copper-plate , having yielded more than 12 , 000 impressions , was found , when examined minutely , to be quite unimpaired . At the close of the reading , Mr . Jaubert exhibited some experiments illustrating his process . He first coated , in a few minutes only , a copper-plate with iron , and then , in a few seconds , ' removed the coating from half the surface of the plate , showing the result of the second experiment by contrast . He was much applauded .
CuYSTAt Palace . —Mr , Pepper , formerly -the able lecturer and scientific experimentalist at the Polytechnic Institution , has commenced lecturing at the Crystal Palace on the various fine art courts and their contents . These lectures are illustrated by dissolving views taken , from the original objects by photographic agency . The Egyptian court is the subject at present under illustration , and the comparison of the actual state of the colossal architectural remains of ancient Egypt with the specimens and imitations in the Egyptian courts at the Crystal Palace , forms a highly interesting and profitable studv .
Mb . "William Cooke , Jun . —An accident occurred to this gentleman at the rehearsal of a new drama , on Tuesday morning . The horse called Tempest fell upba Mr . Cooke ' s leg and moat severely injured it—so much so that it is feared it will be many months before he will be sufficiently recovered to resume his professional duties , jler Majesty and the Prince Consort , in the kindest manner , sent a special messenger on Thursday from Windsor expressly to inquire after the health of Mr . Cooke .
B A Is Said To Be Licable Whetherinvolve...
B A involve l the interest No . 454 , Pecember 4 , 1858 , 1 THE la g g _ g ^___ 1319
_ . ¦ $\\Lt Wtlo, ≪Y ?•?*-*• Avvw* *
fmtUvts .
The Royal Academy, And The National Gall...
THE ROYAL ACADEMY , AND THE NATIONAL GALLERY . The questions regarding the Royal Academy and the National Gallery are not to be allowed to sleepand naturally so , and very properly so—for as yet the battles which have been fought over them have only led to negative results , and all the positive arrangements for the future remain , to be decided upon and accomplished . The case as to the National Gallery may be considered as settled : it is not to be removed from its present site—so at least it is officially guaranteed ; but we all know the fragile and
slippery nature of official promises , and as we are perfectly aware that the arrangement in . this matter , so reluctantly assented to , is most unpalatable in very high quarters , it will behove the public to be on the alert till taeir tenure of Trafalgar-square is secured by actual possession . We say actual possession of the premises , which they have not at present , nor can have so long as the Hoyal Academy , as tenants on sufferance , occupy half the house , with a President who is also director of the National Qallery . As it is , therefore , aud until something is settled ami done in the matter , we shall retain
uucomfortablc misgivings as to the ultimate result . The Hoyal Academy do not like to turn out . The Brompton site , whicli they recommended as so charmingly adapted for the national collection , they do ' not seem disposed to accept for their own use ; and the probability is , that they will continue to stick to our backs in Trafalgar-square t , o the end of the chapter—like Siubad the Sailor ' s old manunless vigorously and resolutely shaken off . It seems at last to bo conceded that the national
collection wants mOro space for its display ; the obvious course would uo to claim tho apartments at the cast end of the building , now occupied by tho Royal Academy ; but Sir Charles Eastlako , who is tho guardian at ouco of tho interests of tho public and of tho royal monopolists , will not hoar of tikis . It was modestly suggested towards the close of tho last session of Parliament that a temporary wooden shod should be put up to tho north of the building , enoroaching upon tho barracks-yard , for tho accommodation of the national collection ; but ; the idea was too absurd and humiliating to bo insisted upon , and it was vory proporly abandoned , tho wholo question being put aside with it till tho " next session . " And in tho next session tho whole question must bo settled one way or the other , und its settlement will unavoidably
many points deepy affecting of the arts of the country-, and the status of thei professors . Meantime , Mr . J . P . Davis , one of the earlies champions of the reform movement , produces i pamphlet entitled , " The Royal Academy and the National Gallery . What is the state of these Institutions ? What are the Reforms contemplated bj Ministers ? " in which all the sins of the past are raked up and marshalled in uncompromising array , and a scheme of actionsuggestedfor the future . Mr ; Davis ia earnest in his denunciation of the whole system of the Royal Academy as derogatory to art and unjust to artists . He condemns the exhibition , monopoly , having especial regard to the misdeeds of the
hanging committee , by which the just apirations of many an out-of-door-man" are ruthlessly crushed , lfc is all very well for the partisans of uie Academy to say , as Sir Robert Peel— -we are sorry to find it recorded- —said in 1836 , " Artists who are dissatisfied with the Academy may go elsewhere ; " but where are they to go ? and why should they go elsewhere than to an institution supported at the public expense ? But the influence of the Royal Academy upon art—to the prejudice of art—is not restricted in its operation within their own walls . It is unfortunately the fashion to consult that selfTelected and
irresponsible body upon mauy matters which concern the interests of art generally . " Even in foreign countries , " says Mr . Davis , " our artists are not free from its grasp . I know that in the French Exhibition of 1855 an attempt was ma . de by an academic commissioner to expel the works of aa English painter for no other intelligible reason than that of his having distinguished himself as a zealous promoter of art reform . And this injustice would certainly have been perpetrated but for the determined interference of the representatives of another body . " Mr . Davis is bitter in his exposure of the unworthy and humiliating attitude and practices
incumbent Upon those who would crawl up to academic honours . " " There is not , " lie says , " in the whole round of servility and dependence , so miserable a tiling as he who is soliciting what are called the honours of the Royal Academy . His tirne must be devoted to dancing attendance on academicians ; he must learn to propitiate them witli adulation , wholesale and retail ; whenever he chances in general society to fall in with any of those superb personages , lxe must take care to address them , should he venture on so great a liberty , ' with bated breath and wlrispering humbleness , ' and altogether to render them the distant homage due to beings of a superior nature . " And even wheii he attains the first envied distinction of
" Associate , " is he at all certain of succeeding to the higher rank of Academician ? And in the long interval what are his fate and his functions ? Those of an expectant , humble dependant still . Mr . Glint endured the purgatorial honours of Associateshi p for some time , and then " flung back hi 6 diploma m the . face of his tormentors , " aud this gentleman , when asked by a Parliamentary committee what was the difference between Academicians and Associates , replied , " The difference between tyrants and slaves . " Making all due allowance for excited feeling , the case is undoubtedly a strong one .
The " Plan for a National Institution of Art , " which Mr . Davis proposes as a substitute for the Royal Academy , consists chiefly of a self-supporting annual exhibition , the proceeds being applied in the purchase of the best works therein exhibited , as the staple of a permanent collection of British art after tho ( ashion of that at the Luxembourg . "Wo cannot say that we entirely approve of the scheme , considering , in fact , at the very outset , that a public exhibition of native art , being established at the public cost , should be open free . Till this is done there will be no general and ripe appreciation of the claims of our art amongst tho community ; and
without that feeling as an incentive thcro can bo uo great National School . With respect to his remarks on tho National Gallery , wo are sorry to say that we find many grounds for diiFerence of opmiou with Mr . Davis . All that caii be said against the nicture-soouring and the pipturo-jobbmg of which the National Collection has unfortunately boon the victim has boen said , and there is little to add on that sooro . Poneo to the memory of Hcrr Mundlcr!— ho shall " nevermore bo officer of ours ; " and with that nasurauoo . lct us bo satisfied . * As to future job * iu buying and sollmg--fttf tho directors aro empowered to act as general dealors —we have no doubt they will offer Abundant ; opportunities for grumbling , which will not be lost . . But Lt certainly diminishes our oouudeuco in those who
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04121858/page/15/
-