treatment ; and lastly, but by no means least, comes the balcony of W. Kellock Brown, which effort has,
according to Mr. Walter Crane, discovered something
very like a genius. Less anatomy in the figures would
have kept them better within the framework of the
design, but the treatment of the thistle leaf in the side
panels is decidedly a revelation.
The work under the heading ' Stained Glass ' is seen
to better advantage in the cartoons for, than in the
actual productions of, that branch of art. Of course
there is always the difficulty of exhibiting this latter,
but sufficient is shown to enable the visitor to form
an idea of what is meant by the revival of glass-stain-
ing. Mr. Burne Jones is largely represented, and Mr.
Lewis F. Day, Mr. Hamilton Jackson ; and among firms
Messrs. Campbell, Smith, & Co. and Messrs. J. & W.
Guthrie, the latter with a most praiseworthy frame of
domestic glass, are among the chief exhibitors, but the
Arts and Crafts Society could have made the collec-
tion more educative by showing a piece of the painted
glass they condemn.
Though the paper on book-binding is the most
technical of the series, yet the specimens, both of that
art and of printing, are too limited in number to allow
an appraisement of their true value. Tradition weighs
heavily upon efforts in this branch, and a cheap press
means too hurried a production for the purposes of
art. The machine-printed book covers of Lewis F.
Day here exhibited are a proof of the acceptability of
such to the authorities, and regret may be expressed
that the firms of Field & Tuer and T. & A. Constable
are not exhibitors.
The strictly amateur element is confined to examples of needlework, though much of this rises into excel- lence ; and more than a passing notice might be given to the really beautiful specimens of illumination. Taken as a whole, the exhibition has signally succeeded in its objects : firstly, that of demonstrating the existence of the highest class of art work in our midst other than painting ; and secondly, of bringing before the public heart-whole efforts of craftsmen who are as truly sharers in the generic term ' artist ' as any follower of the purely pictorial side of art, but who, as employes, are compelled to use the medium of their employers' show-rooms to bring their unsigned productions before the public. F. Elliot.
GENERAL NOTES ON ART.
Royal Scottish Academy Life School.— Distribution of Prizes. — On the 19th of October, in the Library of the Academy, the annual distribution of prizes to Life School students took place. The attendance during the session, as shown by the Secretary's report, showed a distinct increase over that of the previous year. The prizes had been awarded as follows : — The Chalmers Bursary, W. Marshall Brown ; for the best drawing from the life, A. G. Sinclair ; for the second best, John Stewart ; Maclaine Watters' medal for colour, D. Noble ; extra prize, W. Milne ; the Keith prize for the best work by a student in the Exhibition, W. S. M'George. The Stuart prize will not be awarded till early next month, as the time for the designs being sent in has not yet expired. Decoration of Glasgow Municipal Buildings. — There has been a good deal of talk to and fro, and some notes and sug- gestions in the newspapers, about getting something done in this matter. Is nothing going to be done after all ? A lavish expendi- ture has been made on the Architecture. But Architecture is not the only art necessary to worthily complete these buildings. The interior walls should be decorated with frescoes ; and Glasgow would do a good service to art, and do honour to herself, by arranging that these frescoes should be carried out by some of the artists among her own citizens who have already demonstrated their capacity for such work. Mr. G. F. Watts, R,A. , has presented to the nation thirty- seven of his finest works, among them a number of his imagina- tive poems and allegories on canvas, besides many of his remark- able portraits of notable men These portraits will be a standing example of what can be achieved in portraiture by pure sincerity, when allied to insight into character. The collection at the Man- chester Exhibition demonstrated that in spite of a lack of manipu- lative power Mr. Watts had, by sheer insight and sincerity, pro- duced the finest portraits of our time. Portrait-Painting is a branch of art in which every one can at least have some interest. Intelligent understanding of what constitutes good portrait-painting is, however, a different matter. Public attention has been specially called to the subject by two recent lectures— one by Mr. Hubert Herkomer, R.A,, at Leeds, and another by Mr. Hany Furniss, at the Birkbeck Institute. Both lectures were pretty generally rej^orted in the daily papers. The Grosvenor Gallery Pastel Exhibition was opened on the 20th October. The exhibits number three hundred. They will be duly noticed. Meanwhile, could not the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts arrange to exhibit some of these pastels and others, to be contributed, in the forthcoming Spring Exhibition. Mr. Harry Furniss being himself a clever character-sketcher, with a turn for caricature, his lecture naturally dealt chiefly with the expression of character in portraiture. As a means of becom- ing thoroughly acquainted with the character of his sitter, he suggested that the artist should have long and intimate knowledge of him — to an extent which the exigencies of life would make quite impracticable. A man about to have his portrait painted might not find it convenient to be under continual artistic surveillance, and the painter might conceivably have other work to do than to haunt his intended victim for months beforehand.
' It is not too much to say that a fashionable portrait-painter often receives ;!f900 for his name, and ;^ioo for the value of a picture, as a portrait — it is the artist's autograph with a dashed-oft' something attached.' So said Mr. Harry Furniss.
Apropos, Professor Herkomer in the course of his lecture said, ’I want to impress on you the necessity of being painted not necessarily by a portrait-painter. I can get ten young men, any one of whom would do a portrait for ^50 as well as a better-known man will do it for ^500.' Indeed, portraits by young men are really, as a rule, better, for they are generally better studied and more carefully wrought out. Whatever they may lack in artistic resource, and facility of execution, they usually more than make up for in downright sincerity. After all, sincerity has the charm that endures the longest.
