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SCHOOL OF ART FOR ARTIST-WORKMEN.

THE following paper has reached us. Precluded as we are by imperfect information from recommending on our own responsibility this particular scheme, we must say that it is certainly in the right direction. Although Mr. Bruce Allen is unknown to us, we have no reason to doubt that the proposal is other than a bond fide attempt to supply an acknowledged want. The principles announced are those which every true artist has long recognised. Indeed, what we want is artists instead of workmen. To teach men to love their work, to throw their soul into it, in a word, to make makers, or poets, is the hardest achievement of the intellect; so hard, that it is often thought to be a matter rather of gift than acquirement. But we must not sit down under the lazy satisfaction that endowment can supersede discipline. Much which is said to come by nature in fact comes through patience and reverence. So far as Mr. Bruce Allen's proposal recognises this great truth we wish him success. Other encouraging symptoms of the drift of public thought in this direction may be gathered from the results of the Great Exhibition; the lesson which it is on all sides acknowledged that we may learn from that wonderful spectacle, is our deficiency in art and poetry as applied to manufacture. The more barbarous nations beat us hollow in invention, and in loving faithful devotion to their work. To meet this evil as well as kindred deficiencies, it is that the schemes of Industrial Education are proposed, chiefly at present with reference to the mechanical and scientific appliances. But in a large scheme, such as is proposed, art schools will find their place. Mr. Bruce Allen might do well to connect his suggestions with the educational plans of the Commissioners. Anyhow, there are good auguries for educating craftsmen, and making them something better than practised machines.

"Proposal for establishing in the Metropolis a School of Art for ArtistWorkmen, together with a Museum of Mediaval Sculpture, under the patronage of gentlemen eminent in the Fine Arts.

"The necessity that exists for such a school, and the advantages likely to follow its establishment, will appear from the following considerations:

"The Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations has placed before the eyes of the public the combined productions of the artist and the workman, and it will be found to have shown that not only is the art of design in a most unsettled and crude state, but that the POWER TO

CARRY OUT THE IDEAS OF THE ARTIST BY THE WORKMAN IS ALMOST

WHOLLY WANTING. A careful study of many of the objects exhibited will have rendered this apparent, by simply considering the INTENTION (that is, not the mere idea of a building, or other work of art, as it exists in the mind of the artist, but what it would be if faithfully executed according to any given representation) of the artist, and then to

examine how that intention has been carried out by the workman. A careful and judicious observer cannot but have seen the shortcoming.

"Every day's observation and experience confirms what has been thus so forcibly placed before us, as when we see the intention of the architect in a building, and the mode in which that building is executed; or, we may compare the workmanship of the present day with that of the times of the three Edwards, or of Inigo Jones, or Christopher Wren. The masterly idea of the Palace of Westminster is without doubt equal to the Chapel of Henry the Seventh, but a careful comparison of the workmanship in stone and wood and metal in them will be found to confirm the statement, THAT THE WORKMAN OF THE

PRESENT DAY IS WHOLLY UNABLE TO APPRECIATE AND CARRY OUT THE IDEA OF THE ARTIST.

"The object now proposed, with a view to remedying this shortcoming, is to commence a model establishment, to be called A SCHOOL of art for artIST-WORKMEN, having for its purpose the instruction and guidance of the mind of the workman through his hand.

"The mode of accomplishing this is proposed to be by the daily attendance of the artist-workman, at convenient and stated hours, at the school, where he will be required to make copies in stone or other material, according to his trade, of some well known and approved model. He will commence with some very simple object, and one comprehending but few parts, as (supposing him to be a carver in stone) a leaf or flower, or other simple ornament from one of our cathedrals or churches, where it is found as the artist of old left it. He will repeat this again and again till his carving evinces that he begins to see with intelligence and to appreciate the work before him. To aid him in this, the most striking merits of the model will be pointed out to him by the teacher, and when finished, his shortcoming or his success fully explained. He will be required to proceed in this way from the most simple to the more difficult, and till he is found to have so far educated his eye as to be able to see for himself how near he is to his model. When thus far advanced, the teacher will point out to him, step by step, the principles which guided the artist in the production of the original work (for the true artist will always be found to have obeyed the laws which govern his art, although he may not have known them, just in the same way as a correct speaker is found to follow the rules of grammar, although ignorant of them), for his mind will be then, but not till then, in a fit state to receive such information. By this means the mind of the workman will be roused to a consciousness of its uses and powers, and he will in no long time discover that however ably and readily his hand moves, the constant and intelligent workings of his mind will assist it, and convert what is now but too often a toil-a going on in dull mechanism; and ending in dead matter -into pleasure and delight.

"To render such tasks as little wearisome as possible, and to encourage the student to do his best, it is proposed in all cases where practicable to so apportion the work, and to provide such models to be copied, as shall when completed be capable of being put together, and so to form a complete thing in itself. Thus, a number of Wood-carvers would

be set to make up between them any certain object, as a church chest, each one having a panel or other portion to complete: one or more smiths at the same time making the hinges and locks. It would also be a part of the plan, as in the schools of design, to have a yearly exhibition of the works completed; and at the end of such exhibition, these works to be disposed of and the money equally divided among the students, according to each one's share in the labour. A great advantage would obviously arise from such an arrangement, as the artist-workman would never feel as if spending his time in mere learning, each step taken being not only a step forward in knowledge, but like his necessary daily labour, profitable.

"It is also contemplated, as a part of the proposed plan, to commence the formation of a collection of casts, from the finest examples of decorative sculpture remaining to us-untouched by the destroying hand of Restoration-and thus to have always at hand, the means of testing the worth of the work done, both in the school and out of it, as well as in addition the obvious advantage of having such a collection as subjects for study. For this purpose, the school would be open free to all students when the collection became sufficiently large-they would probably find such study more profitable than turning over the leaves of the many volumes professing to illustrate the remains of the middle ages.

"As one means of raising the character of art in this country, a school for artist-workmen would seem to be singularly well fitted, as nothing can have a more direct tendency to refine the taste of the public, as fine and artistic workmanship, always the most attractive parts, to them, of all works of art; and common attention being thus powerfully called to the decorative merits of any work, the mind would be imperceptibly led to the other portions in search of equal refinement.

"An obvious advantage would follow to the architect from the establishment of such a school, as being a place from which intelligent and skilled artist-workmen could always be got when required. It would be equally advantageous to the workman himself, he being at all times sure of hearing of employment whenever it offered itself. It will moreover tend perhaps in a greater degree than any other plan yet devised to raise the character of labour; for while the workman continues unable to accomplish higher work than the steam-engine or the horse, he cannot expect to be otherwise than on their level. But, if he acquire skill and taste to produce finer results than they, his labour will then be worthy of, and will obtain a higher remuneration.

"By joining such a school as the one now proposed to him, the intelligent workman would have an opportunity of improving his mind, and raising himself in a way not hitherto offered to him. To the young workman, and the sons of workmen especially, it presents the means of mental culture in the most direct and easiest way; every step forward being one of certainty, and having a definite and useful object, viz. that of improving the quality of his labour, and thus driving him, as it were, to increased exertion and thought. He would be quite sure, that every fresh accession of knowledge and skill he acquired would tell and must benefit him; thus contrasting favourably with the instruc

tions given by Schools of Design, where, supposing he becomes a proficient, the knowledge he acquires (of skill in his daily calling he of course acquires in addition nothing) may not, and in the majority of cases does not, and cannot, be of any practical use to him. If he be a young man and learning his trade (and for such the school is especially suited) all he does while at the school would be so much in addition to his daily work, with the further and very important advantage, besides helping him in that work, of teaching him to work according to fixed principles.

'Although, as has been said, this school is intended more particularly for the instruction and improvement of those who are apprenticed, or are about to be apprenticed, to any trade in which Art enters, as to a stone mason or wood carver, (indeed, it may be regarded as a sort of test by which it may be proved to what degree the working classes of this country, would be likely to respond to any system of instruction held out to them by the Government or otherwise,) it is obviously as well suited to those who are more or less in doubt as to the precise trade they are to follow, and who feel compelled to pause before adding another name to the long and unemployed list of clerks, draughtsmen, and designers, for whom there is not and cannot be steady employment, or even to those who more ambitiously inclined, are yearly apprenticed to architects, sculptors, and painters, and for whom also there is not, and cannot be. sufficient employment, (the number of professors decreasing as Art rises.) To many such a school of Art, established as this is proposed to be for purposes to which Ghiberti, or Gibbons were proud to put forth all their strength, would appear to present a fair opportunity for learning what must eventually procure for the man honourable means of living. Indeed, there cannot be a doubt that students thus educated to carry out designs in an artistic manner, would rapidly find full and lucrative employment in all those trades and professions where Art enters, as the professors in all such departments, and the public who support them, would soon discover the difference between the workmanship of the mere workman -and the workmanship of the artist-workman, they would soon discover, that to raise the character of Art, the WORKMAN must be made, not a designer, or a draughtsman, or a modeller, all either impossible or useless, but an artist-workman.

"It is proposed to have both morning and evening classes: the latter from seven to ten o'clock every day in the week.

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A uniform rate, as low as will cover the expenses, has been fixed on, and will be found to be within the means of all steady and industrious workmen.

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'One evening in every month will be set apart for a lecture, having for its object the exemplification of some subject connected with the Fine Arts, or with the well being of the workman.

The school will open as soon as fifty students shall have entered their names as intending to join.

"C. BRUCE ALLEN, Architect Director.

"PLAN OF THE SCHOOL.

"Architecture is, as has been well observed, if not the first, the foundation of all the other Arts. Painting to be delightful necessitates that some fitting place be provided for its reception, and for its highest efforts it must form part of the place where it is; and so of sculpture even in a greater degree. Architecture being thus as it were the beginning of the Fine Arts, it has been thought advisable at first to restrict the operations of the school to those trades which have especial reference to it.

"The course of instruction therefore, will at first be confined to the following trades :"Stone Masons. Under this head is included all workmen who carve in marble and stone, and of whatever description that carving may be, whether the figure, animals, foliage, architectural details, or otherwise. Modellers do not come under this head, except in those cases where the drawing given by the artist is of so simple a character, as a dog's-tooth, or the drawing so complete, as to leave nothing whatever for the workman to do by himself, for this would necessitate his being a designer-an artist; he would then be beyond and would leave the workman's school for the artist's academy. The modelling of the figure, all animals, and foliage, would appear to be the work of the artist, and by not recognising it as within the reach of a workman, much good is likely to accrue to the artist by a thus formal and public admission of it.

"Wood Carvers. Including as in the case of stone masons, all those who carve the figure, animals, foliage, or architectural detail, always supposing them to be provided with models.

"Metal Workers. Including blacksmiths, or those who work in wrought iron, a beautiful art almost lost. The iron work in S. Paul's is a model in this respect, and evidences what the workman may do. Gold and silver smiths' work, offering a wide field for improvement as may be seen by comparing the race cups, &c. of to-day with the sacramental cups of the dark ages, when universal ignorance is supposed to have prevailed. Under this head is also included metal moulders.

"Decorative Painters. An obvious want, now that decoration has become an Art, and in such universal request. Tribes of foreigners have made a living here, working on the very narrowest precedent. It would be the object of this school to teach the intelligent English workman to do the same, and a great deal more, by placing before him the best examples, not from Rome only, but from other countries.”