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Leader (1850-1860), 4th December 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1319, -, , fttHf ^ JT UU. Mlia. ¦ ^~ akb thb

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      Untitled Article

      mental one , too ^ -is of opinion that to have brought him home from Australia , with a rapidly-gotten fortune in gold-dust , would have been " too commonplace . " Why , the whole piece is common ^ p lace ! Every other line of it might be , in vulgar mouths , a vulgar clap-trap . Every character and every incident is of the most every-day sort . Its naturalness as its beauty ; and to have added one more natural , . common-place , everyday pceurrenee to the heap , would nowise have deformed it . As it is , the pathetic -climax is jarred and dislocated by the inopportune rush upon the group of a low-comed y messenger ¦ with a violently-improbable mission . We would give a trifle for a private view of The Porters Knot with such an amended climax as we suggest .

      scribed . The invention is said to ba applicable whether the device to be pi'inted from be produced by Land engraving , or engraving by machinery , or by chemical means , and whether the surface printed from be the original or an electrotypect copy . Therefore steel plates engraved in intaglio would yield about 3000 impressions without retouching , copper about 800 , electro casts of copper only about 200 ; whereas , by the present process , a -very large number of impressions could be printed Without any sign of wear on the plate , which could moreover be again coated and th « printing renewed .

      The process is also said to be valuable for electrotype plates and for photo-galvanic plates , since they can be so protected" as to acquire more than , the durability of steel . By these means one electro copper-plate , having yielded more than 12 , 000 impressions , was found , when examined minutel y , to be quite unimpaired . At the close of the readiug , Mr . Jaubert exhibited some experiments illustrating his process . He first coated , in a few minutes only , a copper-plate with iron , and then , in a few seconds , removed the coating from half the surface of the plate , showing the result of the second experiment by contrast . He was miich applauded .

      Ckystal Palace . —Mr . Pepper , formerly the able lecturer and scientific experimentalist at the Polytechnic Institution , has commenced lecturing at the Crystal Palace on the various fine art courts and their contents . These lectures are illustrated by dissolving views taken from the original objects by photographic agency . The Egyptian court is the subject at present under illustration , and the comparison of the actual state of the colossal architectural remains of ancient Egypt with the specimens and imitations , in the Egyptian courts at the Crystal Palace , forms a highly interesting aud profitable stui . lv . .

      SIr . WirxrAM Cooke , Just . —An accident occurred to this gentleman at the rehearsal of a new drama , on Tuesday morning . The horse called Tempest fell upon Mr . Cooke ' s leg and most severely injured it' —so much so that it is feared it will be many months before he will be sufficiently recovered to resume his professional duties . Her Majesty and the Prince Consort , in the kindest manner , sent a special messenger on Thursday from Windsor expressly to inquire after the health of Mr . Cooke .

      ADELPHI THEATRE . The new Adelphi is very rapidly approaching completion , and will be opened at Christmas , under the iesseeship and direction of Mr . Benjamin Webster and Madame Celeste , witli a new drama by Messrs . Yates arid Harrington , an act of the Green Bushes , and a pantomimic burlesque . THE LONDON CRYSTAL PALACE . On Wednesday tliis picturesque arcade , or bazaar , was opened to the public , and attracted numbers of sight-seers . The edifice itself is a highly interesting specimen of Mr . Owen Jones ' s talent . It is in shape a letter r-connecting Oxford-street and

      , John-street , and is constructed of iron col a inns and girders , supporting a ribbefc roof , which c arri e s an inner ceiling . This ceiling is a hemisp herical vault —to borrow the technical language of a contemporary—covered with a network of ribs arranged in triangles filled in with star-shaped panels or lights . It has been necessary to design the ceiling for distinct effects to be produced by external daylight and internal artificial light . In the former case the painted enrichment and gold are scarcely perceived , whilst the white and stained glass tell ; and in the latter case the glass is darkened in appearance , and the network of colour , and gold are intended to be me iieswvnt oi cuiuuv , i » uu gum > Mv i »* w ^ . »^ . » . — . »»» — ~

      prominent . , The building is delicately coloured throughout . The columns up to the first gallery are painted of a 4 eep maroon , with blue and white capitals . The lines of the galleries and the capitals of the pillars display bands of blue , white , red , yellow , and gold ; and the gallery railings are also gilt . 1 he stellar openings in the ceiling , which recal the lighting of the Alhambra Court at Sydenhain , are g la z ed , some with white , some with yellow , and some with blue . glass ; and the tracery between them is painted and r ichl y gilt . The effect is delicate without approach to gaudiness , and we a r e r e liabl y informed that the ; goods exhibited will not suffer , as the uninitiated p u blic m i ght apprehend , from the presence of either the stained glass or decorative colour .

      The ground floor is divided into many compartments , which have been let at high rents for the exhibition by various tradesmen of very high-class goods . A spacious photographic room is over the John-street entrance , and the arrangements comprise . excellent refreshnjent and retiring-rooms for ladies . We observed tables loaded with most costly specimens of gunsmiths ' , ironmongers' and lampmakers ' ware , while others displayed the treasures of laeemnking , millinery , and bijouterie . The ensemble has an extremely elegant appearance , and the new thoroughfare will , no doubt , bo a highly popular one , with the fair eex especially . DISCOVERY IN COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVING .

      At the meeting of the Society of Arts last week , G . T . Doo , Esq ., F . K . S . and K . A ., presiding , nn interesting paper was road by P . Jaubert , the eminent lino engraver , " On a method of rendering engraved copper plates ca-. pable of producing a greatly increased number of impressions . " The last century , ho said , produced maijy engravers of great merit , and , in this country , foremost ¦ am ongst them were Hogarth , Sir Robert Strange , and James Heath . The excellence of thciv works gave rise to such a demand for print impressions of engravings , that some forty years ago , whou it was found that a copper plate could not yield a sufficient number of imjpreasioas for the demand , stoel plates were introduced , *' or small plates only at first , and , several editions of books were published containing plates most elaborately engraved on steel . Historical or lino engraving ,

      howovw , for important subjects was still practised entirely on copper , till 1888 , when the discovery of the art of « loctrotyping was made . Sororal lino engravings on copper were thon multiplied by this process . Tno result , however , was Attended with only partial success , in consequence of tlio coppor so deposited , from its softness , yielding only a very limited nun \ bor of good impressions . This caused tho process to bo almost abandoned for artistic engraving 1 , oxcopting where a . large number of , impressions is not required . It became , thoroforo , a desideratum to harden tho surface of the oopper-plato , and protect it from wear while printing . The present invention consists of . covering tho printing / surface , whether in intaglio or relief , and whether of copper or other soft metal , -with a very thin and uniform coating , or film of iron , by moans of a aeries of somewhat complicated olectro-metullurgical processes , which wore da-

      Untitled Article

      involve many points deeply affecting the interests of the arts of the country and the status of their profe s sors . Meantime , Mr . J . P . Davis , one of the earliest champions of the reform movement , produces a pamphlet entitled , " The Royal Academy and the National Gallery . What is the state of these Institutions ? What are the Reforms contemplated by Ministers ? " in which all the sins of the past are raked up and marshalled in uncompromising array , and a scheme of actionsuggestedf or the future . Mr . Davis is earnest in his denunciation of the whole system of the . Royal Academy as derogatory to art and unjust to artists . He condemns the exhibition monopoly , having especial regard to the misdeeds of the

      hanging committee , by which the ju 3 t apirations of many an outrof-door-man" are ruthlessly crushed , lib is all very well for the partisans of the Academy to say , as Sir Robert Peel— -we are sorry to find it recorded—said in 1836 , " Artists who are dissatisfied with the Academy may go elsewhere ; " but where are they to go P and why should they go elsewhere than to an institution supported at the public expense ? But the influence of the Royal Academy upon art—to the prejudice of art—is not restricted in its operation within their own walls . It is unfortunately the fashion to consult that self-elected and

      irresponsible body upon many matters which concern the interests of aTt generally . " Even in forei gn countries , " says Mr . Davis , " our artists are not free from its grasp . I know that in the French Exhibition of 1855 an attempt was made by an academic commissioner to expel the works of an English painter for no other intelligible reason than that of his having distinguished himself as a zealous promoter of art reform . And this injustice would cer t ainl y have been perpetrated but for the determined interference of the representatives of another body . " Mr . Davis is bitter in his exposure of the

      unworthy and humiliating attitude and practices incumbent upon those who would crawl up to academic honours . " "There is not , " he says , "in the whole round of servility and dependence , so miserable a thing as he who is soliciting what are called the ho 7 ioicrs of the Royal Academy . His time must be devoted to dancing attendance on academicians ; he must learn to propitiate them , with adulation , wholesale and retail ; whenever he chances in general societ y to fall in with any of those superb p ers o na g es , he must take care to address them , should he venture on so great a liberty , ' with bated breath and whispering humblenncc einri * ilfnrwiflioi * 4-s \ i * a »^ ai « + l ° i £ krvi flio rliafon'f :

      T H E HOYA L ACA D EMY , AND THE NATIOXAL GALLEB-Y The ques t io n s regar d ing the Royal Academy and the National Gallery are not to be allowed to sleepand naturall y so , au d v e ry properl y so—for as yet the battles which have been fought over them have only led to negative results , and all the positive arrangements for the future remain to be decided upon and accomplished . The case as to the National Gallery may be considered as settled : it is not to be removed from its present site—so at least it is

      officially guaranteed ; but we all know the fragile and sli ppery nature of official promises ,, and as we are perfectly aware that the arrangement in tin ' s matter , so reluctantly assented to , is most unpalatable in very high quar te rs , it will behove the public to be on the alert till their tenure of Trafalgar-square is secured by actual possession . We say actual possession of the premises , which they have not at present , nor can have so long as the Royal Academy , as tenants on sufferance , occupy half the house , with a President who is also director of the National

      GalleiT . As it is , therefore , and until something is settled and done in tho matter , we shall retain uncomfortable misgivings as to tho ultimate result . TUe lioyal Academy do not like to turn out . The Brompton site , which they recommended ns so charmingly adapted for the national collection , they do not seem disposed to accept for their own use j and the probability is , that they will continue to stick to our backs in Trafalgar-squaro to the end of tho chapter—liko Sinbad the Sailor ' s old manunless vigorously aud resolutely shaken off . It seems at last to be conceded that the national collection wants more space for its display ; the obvious course would be to claim the apartments at the east end of the building , now occupied by tho Royal Academy ; but Sir Charles Eostlako , who is tho guardian tvt onco of the interests of tho

      miblic aud of tho royal monopolists , will not public aud of tho royal monopolists , will not hear of tin ' s . It was modestlv suggested towards tho close of tho last session of Parliament that a temporary wooden shod should bo put up to tho north of tho building , onoroaohing upon the barraoka-yavd , for the accommodation of the national oollecjLion : but the idea was too absurd and humiliating to bo insistod upon , and ifc was very properly abandoned , tho whole question being put aside with it till tho " next session . " A , im in the next session the whole question must bo settled one way or tho other , and its aottlomoufc will unavoidably

      ' AfcVVO ) C * AAV 4 . fefcJLUWg . VsVUV * bw J > WJ-AtAVA- I'UUUA l / UW ViAkJVUuAW homage due to beings of a superior nature . * ' And even when he attains the first envied distinction of " Associate , " is he at all certain of succeeding to the higher rank of Academician ? And in the long interval what are his fate and his functions ? Those of an expectant , humble dependant still . Mr . Cunt endured the purgatorial honours of Associateship for some time , ana then " Hung back , his diploma in the face of his tormentors , " and this gentleman , when asked by a Parliamentary committee what was the difference between Academicians and Associates , replied , " The difference between tyrants and slaves . "

      Making all due allowance for excited feeling , the case is undoubtedly a strong one . The " Plan for a National Institution of Art , " which Mr . Davis proposes as a substitute for the Royal Academy , consists chiefly of a self-supporting annual exhibition , the proceeds being applied in the purchase of the best works therein exhibited , as tho staple of a permanent collection of British art after the fashion of that at the Luxembourg . We cannot say that wo entirely approve of the scheme , considering , in fact , at tho very outset , that a public exhibition of native art , being established at tho public cost , should be open free . Till this is done there will be no general and ripe appreciation of the claims of our art amonsrst the communitv : and i / MU i ^ iuiiiifi ui vui mil i / uiuun ^ ai i > iiu uuiiiiiiu . ui . iijr uuu

      , without that feeling as au incentive there can be no grout National School . With respect to his remarks on tho National Gallery , we are sorry to say that we find many grounds for difference of opinion with Mr . Davis . All that can be said against tho p icture-scouring and the picture-jobbing of whioh two National Collection has unfortunately been tho victim lias boon said , and there is little to add on that aooro . Peaco to the memory of Hcrr Mundlcr ! — lie shall" never more bo officer of ours ; '' and with that assurance lot us bo satisfied . Ls to future jobs in buying and soUiug--for tho dirootora are empowered to aot as general dealers —we have no dpubt they will offer abundant opportunities for grumbling , which will not be lost . But ifc oertoinly diminishes our coufldouoe in those who

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      ffo . 464 , Becembe-r 4 , 1858 . ] THE LEA : DEB , 1319

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1858, page 1319, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2271/page/15/