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    568 The Leader and Saturday Analyst: [Ju...

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    -Tin, 7 ' (-M WAT STEAT M LlXi:. TIIHE a...

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    Museums And Pictulle Galleries. ] T Does...

    education , they will be all but useless . It is not probable that the stuffed animals will retain possession of the Museum much longer ; they will be taken to the same place , and the Eastern and Central parts of the metropolis wilt Have as much share in or benefit from them as they have in the treasures of the Louvre , or those of the Jardin des Plantes : If our men of art and men of science could only be got to act harmoniously , we might yet have a plan devised winch should render available for their most important purposes the reaJJy magnificent collections which we possess . The first requisite is undoubtedlv that those of one kind should be kept together . We will begin with pictures . Foreigners are fond of comparing the great galleries on the Continent with the comparatively poor collection m FianceBel pain 1

    the National Gallery ; they say , look at , gium . S , useany , Rome , Dresden—all unquestionably have finer collections than our own ; but then these are made the most of , and ours is treated on the contrary principle . It is true that the national collection is enlarged and enlarging , and that it is not fairly estimated by those foreigners who sneer at it ; but granting all this , we do not ourselves do it justice . We have many separate collections , and we ou « rht to make them into one . If the Veexo-V collection , the Tvrxee o-nllery , the pictures given by Mr . Sheepshanks , the chief from Hampton Court , and others equally the property of the nation , were all gathered together at Charing Cross , our gallery would almost vie with that of France . And why should it not be so ? The great utility of a large gallery to the student is / that it enables him to compare a great number of schools and styles ; that look horn to

    he may , while the impression is fresh in his mind , one the other ; that he may be spared , not so much the trouble and time of running from one part of London to another , as the lading out of the impression made at once on the eye and on the mind . The nation would gain in credit , the student in facilities for perfecting himself in his art , and he who only desires help in a general , not , a special education , would be able to improve his taste and gratify his mind at the least possible expenditure of time and labour . Indeed , ' . much as we object to the removal of the pictures from Charing Cross , we would rather consent to this , if all our national pictorial treasures were gathered together , than see them permanently separated . Kensington is not an inaccessible place and though it woliki , be a hard thing for Hackney , Clapton , Stoke Newington , and places similarly . situated * to find themselves virtually further off from the centre of civilization and refinement , yet the gallery would be more efficient as a school of art , and artists

    must come and live near the pictures . ¦ "But the question may arise , What , is the province of Artr Is it to diffuse the light of taste , and genius , and refinement over - society ; or is it merely to perpetuate itself by raising up new artists ? There are some who maintain this latter theory . Weare not of the number ; and while we admit that , as a : school for painters , the pictures might do as well at Kensington as at Charing Cross , still , in all other respects , they would be infinitely less useful . We have lately heard a great deal about the effect of gas upon paintings , and the possibility of their being exhibited by artificial light , and thus made accessible in tbe evening ; and it appears tolerably clear that there is no difficulty in the matter at all—that the pictures suffer no injury , and that they can be profitablyseen and nppreciimrdr Now ' if an atmosphere lighted by gas does not injure them , surely

    . nothing more can be said about the air of Charing Cross being unwholesome for their complexions . Indeed , we imagine that notion to be now altogether exploded . We would gladly see artisans and their families enjoying the sight of those magnificent works of art / and profiting by the enjoyment . Wo would educate their eyes to the beauties of form and colour , and raise up men capable of designs as graceful as those which we now obtain from Trance . and Italy . For this purpose , our great collection should be as centrally situated as possible . It is a 'fatiguing thing- to examine a gallery , and a long , tedious walk is anything rather than a good preparation for it . The fact is , that the people have some right to bo considered in the matter , and as yet their convenience lias been altogether neglected . There is no sufficient reivson why all our pictures should nnfc he conoree-ated at Charing Cross ; tho building is capable of

    almost indefinite extension . The National . Portrait Gallery ought to b . e under the same roof with the Cartoons of IIapiiael and the legacy of Turner , and . all within reach of every part of the metro-Again , time as well as place should bo considered ; it is useless to crowd too many clasfies of objects together . The variety distracts tho mind , and prevents any one from being useful . Kensington is a very good place for objects of miscellaneous ait . Jewellery , furniture , china , mnjolica ware , carvings in ivory , shrines , —nil may bo studied here to advantage . Tho Architectural Museum in quito in its place , nor do we object to models of machinery and educational materials ; but tho painting nnd sculpture wo would most decidedly remove . We want a grout school for sculpture . Wo soo no roaiHon

    wliy-H ftliQuld . not . be . all . collected in tho IJiitish Musoujn ; or it , which would be better still , the National Gallery woro HUlnoiontly enlarged , it " might find « place tltoro . Uut when ivo apeak oi sculpture , we would not only exhibit the actual works of ancient genius which wo poBSCHS in that art , wo would secure sufficient works of our own eminent men to show what wo liavo dono oursolves , and whnt we can still do . It i * a disgrace to us as a nation that we Imve not a gallery of mortorn ( sculpture . 1 < i-axman , Noixekbns , Chantkby , among tho dupurtud ; Louuu ninomr tho living , not to mention Bailky , Pickkhscjill , Mahshall Wood , nnd many others , would surely afford materials for such a collection , of which the nation might justly bo proud , nnd for which it would

    be willing liberally to pay . Again , we should have specimens of French and Italian , of German and Swedish sculpture , and be able to compare the meretricious sclipol of Canova with the pure * . nd noble conceptions of some whom we have named . ^\ e ought to have the power of comparing Phidias-arid Praxiteles , with those who are following the same path to glory , and of estimating who has approached the nearest to the grand simplicity of t-lie . antique . Were such a gallery open to the public , the public would learn what it little suspects , and what some in high places do not wisli . it to know , viz ., that we are as far in advance of all other nations m this purest and noblest of the arts as we are in railways , steam engines ,

    and spinning-jemues . Once more , we want a gallery of comparative painting , the productions of the modem French , German , Italian , and Spanish schoolsfor there is a Spanish school—placed so that they can be compared one with another , mid all with our own . We should have the same cause for exultation here . England heads the world m painting , in sculpture , and in architecture , in engineering , and in all save the lower department of the arts of design . , What is now wanted is simply this—that those who are so well qualified to teach should be permitted to speak to the people ; for this reason we would make Charing Cross the school for painting and sculpture , ' and we would make it as complete ns possible . We want good casts of the great works of antiquity of which we do not possess the originals , and to these should be added some of the more remarkable of modern continental works .

    A few casts of some Assyrian slabs would find a place in such a gallery as bearing upon the history of art ; but the originals should be kept in the Museum , as , strictly speaking , antiquities . On the other hand , the Elgin marbles , as works of high art , should be removed bodily to the gallery . A few casts of Egyptian specimens might , for historical purposes , be placed in the gallery , while tJie originals should remain where they are ; and by this transfer the Museum would be riiade large enough to display many treasures which at present are not exhibited , simply for want of room . Another reform must come , and the sooner the better . The Museum ouo-ht to be open every day from ten o ' clock in the morning till ten o ' clock at night . If pictures can stand gas , surely there is

    nothing in . theMuseum which can behurt by it . jl ' o talk ^ of expense is more than absurd ; we squander away yearly twenty times a . ? much as would double the staff of officers at the Museum , and pay them well . At present they , are too few in-. number , and too poorly remunerated . That the national collection is open onlythree ' days in the week is a fact which few foreigners will believe ; it is a source of innumerable disappointnients , and ~ is nothing ; -short , of a blot upon our national escutcheon . It would be a university in itself , were it opened every day , and all day long ; and all that is wanted to secure this is merely the advocacy in Parliament of

    some true friend of the people . This would furnish a more powerful rival to the beer-shop and the gin-palace than any yet devised , and would do as much to spread among the people a love for history and science , as a gallery such as we con hi have would do to promote a love and knowledge of art .

    568 The Leader And Saturday Analyst: [Ju...

    568 The Leader and Saturday Analyst : [ June 10 , 1 SC 0 .

    -Tin, 7 ' (-M Wat Steat M Llxi:. Tiihe A...

    -Tin , ' ( -M WAT STEAT M LlXi :. TIIHE announcement which lately appeared to the effect that the ¦ ¦*¦ Government had appointed the 2 i > th of this month for the first new steamer of the Galway line to open the fortnightly service between Ireland and America , according to the terms of the contract for the subsidy , has been received in Ireland with the gratification due to such cheering intelligence . Not that any doubt has , for long past , existed in well-informed circles , that the contract would be carried out and the vessels run , but still the iullilinont of a great promise and the fruition . of-a great boon cannot and should not be realized without a due manifestation of satisfaction on tho part of those who are most directly concerned and benefited . Henceforth the Gahvay line ceases to be tho subject of doubts and innuendoes , of inquiries and committees ; it will no longer furnish a partisan rallying cry , or be the butt of jealous attack . It now forms an established part of the great postal scheme of the empire , and for at least seven years must bo acknowledged as such . The Atlantic Company's magnificent steamer , the Con naught , leads off first in the now great postal race , and now that the question is settled and all animosities laid aside , there is no one , wo nhould think , so unworthy us not to bid the noble ship " good speod' on her destined transa-Athmtic course . Now that tho niuch-looked-fov report of tho Committee on Contracts has come out , we are enabled to learn how contracts are obtained and how refused . We are let into the aecrcfc of a good deal of blundering and a gooil deal of by-play . Of comae wo arc : how could it bo otherwise ? If even so plain a matter as a contract for a gunboat canaot bo carried out without the moat llagrant jobbery and tho most direful results , what can we expect when two ur three departments , o : ; eh equal to any amount of incapacity and brunders , aro initddled iirconfueion to produce ono result ? Tho Treasury , tho Admiralty , and the Poat-ofiico huvo all n finger in the " contract pio . The wonder is not how anything should bo dono , but that ib ja done at all . Bo this as it may , not only has a lino of steamors been established from Gnlwny to America ; but Sir Samuel Cunard , pending the decision of tho contract , and in rivalry to tho Gulway lino as kept open by tho energy of ita promoters , started ' the Line . from Queonstown , Ireland , nnd oven the Canadian steamors are to make Londonderry their port of departure . The Committee on Contracts acknowledge that they doubt whether Cork would ever have becouio

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16061860/page/12/