The ideal railway director will have
begun at fourteen as a railway porter. He need not be a porter for
more than a week or ten days, any more than he need have been a
tadpole more than a short time; but he should take a turn in
practice, though briefly, at each of the lower branches in the
profession. The painter should do just the same. He should begin
by setting his employer's palette and cleaning his brushes. As for
the good side of universities, the proper preservative of this is
to be found in the club.
If, then, we are to have a renaissance of art, there must be a
complete standing aloof from the academic system. That system has
had time enough. Where and who are its men? Can it point to one
painter who can hold his own with the men of, say, from 1450 to
1550? Academies will bring out men who can paint hair very like
hair, and eyes very like eyes, but this is not enough. This is
grammar and deportment; we want it and a kindly nature, and these
cannot be got from academies. As far as mere TECHNIQUE is
concerned, almost every one now can paint as well as is in the
least desirable. The same mutatis mutandis holds good with writing
as with painting. We want less word-painting and fine phrases, and
more observation at first-hand. Let us have a periodical
illustrated by people who cannot draw, and written by people who
cannot write (perhaps, however, after all, we have some), but who
look and think for themselves, and express themselves just as they
please,--and this we certainly have not.
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