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SOME RECENT EFFORTS IN MURAL DECORATION.

THERE ave signs of a desire on the part of members of the artistic community of Scot- land to include the neglected art of mural decora- tion within the practical range of the painter's activity. It remains to be seen whether or not this will result in the growth of a school of decorative figure painters who may adorn our public buildings with pictures expressive of national or civic life. For the formation of such a school common effort will be required both on the part of artists and of the public, and in any case the beginnings of the work will necessarily be of a somewhat experimental kind. The art of Mural Decoration is one that demands for its successful practice something more than the individual talent and study which suffice for the cabinet picture. It demands a consideration of the proper limits of effect in decorative work, an expeditious and secure technical procedure, and, moreover, when it is on a large scale, the co-operation of several artists and craftsmen in a sinsie undertaking. Hence, mural painting is not a matter that can be achieved successfully all in a moment, and any practical essays that may be made have a value and interest independent of their intrinsic merit, through their suggestion of future possibilities. Some efforts that have recently been made in this direction in Edinburgh are illustrated in the present article. It is no secret that the first incentive has been due to Mr. Patrick Geddes, who set himself the task of securing some form of interesting and instructive pictorial decoration for the interiors of certain halls and mission rooms in the crowded parts of the town, as well as in the wards of the Royal Infirmary. Through the assistance liberally offered by professional artists and amateurs, several schemes of the kind have been carried to completion, while others are still in hand. Excellent opportunities for practice in mural work are afforded in this way to those artists who are prepared to accept the conditions under which alone these modest undertakings are possible. Materials and, in one recent case also, ' workman's wages ' are provided through the agency of a society called the Edin- burgh Social Union, and the artists supply the rest from general interest in such philanthropic work, and from love of art. The first attempts were made by amateurs and art students, and consisted in the execution in red chalk, on the walls of a Mission Hall in the Grassmarket, of a series of large drawings of Sir John Millais' illustrations of the ' Parables.' A series of movable panels in oil, enlarged from photographs of figures by Mr. Burne-Jones, have been placed in a ward of the Infirmary. Professional artists have lent their aid, and for other wards there are being exe- cuted two series of oil panels. One will consist of landscape scenes, while the other, from the brush of Mr. C. H. Mackie, will illustrate the history of corn in six panels, representing ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing,

and grinding.