uses utside

shops within. We do not opinion of our elders. The the pre-artistic period, and with unappreciative eyes u majolica, made at Naples, Chinese celadon vases, ma an eminent Paris house; th the beauty of sea-green dir coffee-coloured drawing-roo at our wives and daughte themselves artistically-as and "rag-dolls "--but of wh opinion of Philistines, in v divine harmonies of art aw sive echo?

To a generation thoroug with art, the great event the Exhibition of the Ro

in May. Every fragment art-gossip 19 eagerly devoured; for by an extraordinary metamorphosis, brought about within the last quarter of a century, we have become an art-loving as well as a science-dabbling people. We not only read about science and art, but try our own hand at practical work. Having burnt holes in carpets and clothes, and completely destroyed the appearance of our hands, by early experiments in chemistry, we begin to study art in earnest. Every schoolgirl is now taught to draw from the object, instead of feebly copying the eternal cottages and trees depicted in the drawing-books of a past generation. Not satisfied with drawing from the antique, and eke from the nude, we model in clay on our own account, achieve extraordinary busts of long-suffering I am aware that with friends, and test the obedience of our pet world exists a little band dogs by making those unfortunate animals who think and speak foul sit up in an erect position at all times and lington House, and would seasons, to the end that our terra-cotta of submitting their produ statuettes of Fido and Pincher may judgment of the "Forty acquire vitality and vigour. We disdain mittee of Red Indians. to confine our drawings to water-colours, opinions these gentlemen ma and smear away furiously in oils; nay, own merits, the great pul ofttimes go a step farther and devote regard the annual Exhibitio ourselves to Keramic art-with the effect Academy as the true express of making good useful plates and dishes art, and look forward anxi horrific with our conceptions of "decora- the day when they shall be a tive art," agreeably distorted by the action the work of the past twelve of the furnace. Our intense artistic feel- before the opening of the E ing converts our houses into abodes of plots are laid to obtain, on gloom. The light and cheerful effect once admission on "varnishing-d prized is now accounted garish and vulgar, all, on the day of the "pri so we have our artistic being in apart- carefully guarded from the ments properly toned down with dingy profane. The critics have brown and dull green, until they become selves on the Wednesday bilious-looking dens. It is true that we "private" Friday, when relieve them with a little gilding, if we possible to see the pictur are able to afford it, and enliven them no means easy of achievem with a multitude of more or less generally quent occasions. Not more t less-authentic specimens of Gubbio and and thirty or forty persons other majolica ware; with grinning kylins to enter on the pre-priva and other sacred animals of the East, much actual hard work is hideous to look upon; with old blue and pleasant snatches of art-goss white plates and punch-bowls, not un- are cool and free from dus suggestive of the traditional willow pat- of the critic is not distrac tern; with sham Sèvres carefully doctored study of the portraits on th for us by astute dealers; with "bogus" presence of the fair original Lowestoft ware, manufactured at the Armed with his broad-margi Staffordshire potteries; with reproductions he can work his way leis of Palissy ware, with gruesome reptiles knowing that he has two crawling over it; with sky-blue dogs, write his first notice in-as it

admittance, that no articles shall appear | Imperialty, to Royal and Imperial Altitu til after the grand private view on to Serene Transparencies. On that iday. The first impression produced by afternoon the profane are excluded, → Wednesday view is that the Beautiful illustrious personages deign to inspect mainly represented by the pictures, for pictures which a word of theirs, given e critics themselves are hardly a "repose haps inadvertently, but with genial the eyes of beholders." Most of these nature, may endow with the renown w eat men are old, grey of beard, and brings fortune to the feet of a hit ider of toe. Worse than this, they are obscure painter. Imperial Altitudes , and rejoice in raiment which conveys Serene Transparencies "partake" of e impression that it was made for some- in the galleries, and, loving art sinc dy else. But, unabashed by their own enough, doubtless enjoy themselves n graceful and inartistic exterior, they as much as the critics. On the fo aw their pencils, and go to work with ing day the "public-private view' es sharpened by long practice. The art- place, and great is the scurrying to an tic is rarely an accomplished draughts- to obtain admission. There are ladies in, or a cunning colourist; for no man gentlemen rich in the world's goods a ould be such a fool as to write articles if society of the first water-people acqua could paint pictures-the rates of re- with others who are supposed to ineration for the two classes of work" influence" with the Press-friend ing too utterly disproportionate to admit comparison. He is more frequently one 10 has commenced life with art as other urnalists have with law, and has drifted degrees into the Fourth Estate; but he ssesses certain advantages over genuine perts, in his freedom from the cliqueism artist life, and a long experience and udy of English and foreign art. He has errible memory, and has, stored away in e pigeon-holes of his brain, accurate pressions of the great works of the enaissance and of modern times. Let a nuine academic painter of the first rank l into what is euphuistically called clecticism," i.e., the mistaking of memory r inspiration, and your art-critic will ck the offending figure out of a crowd, d refer it at once to its proper place in e Sistine Chapel, or in the Loggie of the atican. The drapery may be differently sposed and differently coloured, but he cognises his old friend in an instant, and shes at him with zest. But he is of a ndly nature in the main, and while unaring in his condemnation of acadeicians' "pot-boilers," is on the alert to scover merit in a comparatively obscure tist, and never rejoices more heartily an when he has found a 'new man." The eventful Wednesday over, the Royal cademy is swept and garnished, crimson oth is spread over the staircases, and a cond private view is not vouchsafed, but vited, on the Thursday. Not that the blic-critical, appreciative, or acquisitive -is invited; for, far from this, neither the se of a possible buyer, nor the " acumen' a critic is permitted to enter the ExhibiFor the day is sacred to Royalty, to

on.

artists who infest the studios of patient, mild, and inoffensive men who striven year after year to get that "pr view," but in vain. The power of sul Royal Academicians is limited; artists v works are "hung" are still weaker ve the newspaper people want to go t selves; and thus it is a much simpler m to be presented at the Court of St. Ja than to secure one of those tinted which admit the bearer to the privile the "first bite" at the pictures. true that money, if not worth, wil in this case as in all others. That day-to-be-a-rising artist, Jack Ochr mote cousin, humble admirer and im of the great Mr. Mediocre, R.A., mus till Monday if he have not succeed slinking in on "varnishing-day;" bu Wallsend, the successful coalowner Doublewarp, of Leeds, whose trade-m known wherever shoddy finds a ma Mr. Rottenhull, the great shipowner, collection of sea- -pieces will sell one of days for a huge sum of money; an Mount, the wealthy tailor, who u stands pictures, at least as well as he coats, find their way in. Of course, a Academy exhibition without these exc people would be like a market wi buyers, and it might be long before tl stars which mark a picture as "sold"appear on the margin. Art patronag

luckily for artists-passed in our ration almost entirely away from the the very great people who once exe it in a high and mighty style, carrying little money with it. While the priv classes alone encouraged art the p was a poor man. As a rising art

a new portrait painter arise,
painter forsake his own w
portraiture, and Huckabac
upon him. His own pictur
course. Elias Huckaback,
Clinkers, Cokeborough, by
or an incipient A.R.A., s
walls of the Academy, the
in despair of making Huck
of beauty, painted him in h
ness. The same treatment wi
the lady whom he designate
she is handed over to another
infinite dexterity, dissimula
nose and enormous mouth,
appear a comely English
Huckaback is not quite happy
trait. She thinks, good soul, in
that the satin for which she
a yard (cash) is hardly don
the great man, who care
general accessories; but is
soled by the "real" appe
peacock fan.
Her daugh

give him a hundred or two, and remove the hated object. Turner, when painting in his best and most characteristic manner, sent pictures to the Royal Academy, and asked for them barely as many hundreds as they would have fetched thousands after his death; but at that time the period of the noble patron had hardly died out, and that of the iron and cotton men was but just coming in. Since the days of Etty and Turner, iron, cotton, and woollens have absorbed a vast majority of the best pictures, for it has reached the brain of their hard-headed rulers that there is no better investment than new pictures. These clever investors care nothing for the old masters, and gaze with half-closed, contemptuous eyes on Madonnas and Holy Families, and turn up their noses at the grilling of St. Lawrence, the flaying of St. Marsyas, the stoning of St. Stephen, and other cheerful subjects of a devotional or mythological type. They prefer living art, knowing that it is a growing, vigorous thing, likely to realise ultimately a handsome profit. And it is hardly too much to say, that so far as material benefit is concerned, they have done collectively far more for art than all the Medicis that ever lived. I like to see Mr. Huckaback at the private view. He cares not a whit for the pretty faces come to look at their counterfeit presentments on the walls. He recks little of the sumptuous trains, the rich furs, and the Gainsborough hats, which contest his claim to a position before the picture of an artist whom he cherishes. He plunges his hands far into those well-lined pockets of his, and gazes intently on a "nice bit of colour." Huckaback's version of the English language is not remarkable for purity; he laughs with a sharp metallic laugh, like the chink of sovereigns, at the Pall-Mall drawl which filters into his enormous ears. He knows as little of drawing as of grammar, but he is sound on arithmetic. He has watched the career of the man who produces "nice bits of colour," and can assess the present value of those gems to a five-pound note. He has a certain line -cut to its proper length and thoroughly dried-and never soars beyond it, into classic and academic art. A good land-looking for the man, who scape, or a little bit of home-life, are the reasons, keeps aloof.

are specially treated. Minn hair and green eyes, is depi basket of flowers, under the Violets;" and Alice, who stubby locks have driven her spair, appears in a charming from the best side, as "Wai While Huckaback enjoys t what he has bought, and inte critical but money less ine round him, and utter with un dour their opinions on the va Lady Aloys Fitzbenzoin, nothing but high art, sneer geois subjects. Everyday lif on canvas-no charms for he lovingly over Leighton, and glasses which her violet need, to scan the proportio cent Atalanta. Hector Sc Foreign Office, bewails the devotional feeling in art. good word, because it involve of technicalities, and you sticks to it manfully. He see our Royal Academicians on triptychs and angular default of these, rejoices w picture of a superlatively

Th