referring to a meeting of the Academy held in January 1880, says:— "It is understood that the recommendations of the Council of the Royal Academy, in respect to the admission of lady members, propose that female artists shall, with Her Majesty's sanction, become R.A.s and A.R.A.s in exactly the same manner as male artists, but that the former shall not be eligible as teachers and visitors in the schools or as partakers of the annual dinner, to which no ladies have as yet been invited. It is intended, therefore, to extend to the ladies all the privileges of membership as to the exhibition of works of art, voting at elections, and receipt of pensions. The relicts of female R.A.s and A.R.A.s will receive pensions, if they require them, in the same way as widows of deceased members have done." We are all painters and sculptors; our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. APPENDIX. THE subjoined list of past Royal Academicians, from the foundation of the Academy in 1768, may be found useful for the purpose of reference. The dates differ, in several instances, from those given in most Biographical Dictionaries. Thus, it is generally stated that Sir Edwin Landseer was born in 1803, and elected R.A. in 1830, whereas the dates on Sir Edwin's diploma picture are 1802 and 1831. Similar discrepancies occur in regard to Baron Marochetti, William Dyce, E. H. Baily the sculptor, Bartolozzi the engraver, and others. If we are to believe her diploma picture, Angelica Kauffman died not in 1807, but in 1806. The former date, however,' is generally accepted as correct. But a large number of the earlier Academicians are not represented in the Diploma Gallery, and the names of a good many of them are not to be found in the usual Dictionaries of "Universal Information." Indeed, as regards several, even the Royal Academy is without information of the year of their birth. This list is arranged, not in the alphabetical order of names, but according to the date of the artist's death. |