ROYAL GALLERIES AT WINDSOR AND HAMPTON COURT.

THE ROYAL GALLERIES of Windsor Castle and Hampton Court contain valuable pictures, and have helped to encourage artists and form a taste for art in England. Henry VIII was the first to form a gallery. He invited Raphael to England, who did not accept, but painted a small picture, which is now in the gallery at St. Petersburg. He did succeed in attracting Hans Holbein, a native of Basle, and many portraits of his painting are still at Windsor and Hampton Court. Philip II, during the few years he bore the title of king of England, secured the services of Titian in painting for Queen Mary. Queen Elizabeth did nothing for art, except to procure twenty-two portraits of herself from as many different artists. James II secured several valuable portraits from Netherland painters. During his reign, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel in 1606, and Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, commenced the formation of galleries of antiques and paintings, the latter purchasing several of Rubens' productions at an outlay of 10,000 Charles I secured valuable pictures by Titian, Raphael, Correggio, Gulio Romano, in the Mantuan Gallery, and at other times, from Rubens, Van Dyck, and all the eminent artists of his day-an aggregate of 1,387 pictures, and 399 pieces of sculpture, besides medals, engraved gems, and other objects of art, including 54 volumes of drawings and prints, and among them a volume of drawings by Michael Angelo. This collection, immediately after his execution in 1649, under a resolution of the House of Commons, was sold, and thus, in the course of two years, "this noblest collection of pictures, antiques, statues, and busts, procured at infinite expense and trouble, from Rome and all parts of Italy-was dispersed to form parts of the royal collections of London, Spain, and France." A few were purchased or retained by Cromwell for the State, and some were recovered and repurchased by Charles II; but the foundation of a great National Gallery, superior to any other in Europe, was lost. We will not attempt to follow the history of these Royal Galleries. It was reserved to Queen Victoria, not only to give the public and artists free access to these Galleries, as her predecessors had done, but to place the choicest of these pictures in public exhibitions to be seen by the largest number of people, and to bring them within the study and copying of students not only in the capital but in provincial schools of art.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS was constituted Dec. 10, 1768, and opened its first exhibition in Somerset House in May, 1780. The objects set forth in its charter are:-1. The establishment of a well-regulated School, or Academy of Design, for the use of Students in the Arts; and 2, An Annual Exhibition, open to all artists of distinguished merit. The Society consists of forty Royal Academicians, twenty Associates, and six Associate Engravers, all of whom must be confirmed, on their election by the Society to fill vacancies, by the sovereign. The Academy possess a valuable library of prints, casts from the antique, and pictures by old masters, as well as a specimen painting or work of art, of each member, from his own design and execution. The School is open to applicants, whose drawing or model carries evidence of sufficient ability to profit by the instructions and opportunities, and the testimony of an Academician as to moral character. After three months' successful practice in drawing or modeling from one of the antique figures, he is accepted as a student.

BRITISH MUSEUM.

The BRITISH MUSEUM originated in the individual liberality of Sir Hans Sloane, who was born in the north of Ireland in 1660, but studied and practiced the profession of medicine in London, where he enjoyed a high reputation both as a man of science and a physician. In consideration of the first, he was elected President of the Royal Society in 1727, and was created baronet in 1716 by George I, and physician in ordinary to his successor. He died in 1752, leaving by will a large museum of natural history, a valuable library, and many rare objects of scientific interest, which he had accumulated in a long life at an expense of £50,000, to the care of the public, on condition that Parlia ment would pay £20,000 to his heirs, and make provision for their preservation and increase. The offer was at once accepted, and an act passed in 1753, entitled "An Act for the purchase of the Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., and of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, and procuring one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said Collection, and of the Coltonian Library, and additions thereto." In pursuance of this Act, the sum of £300,000 was raised by a lottery; £20,000 was paid for the Sloane Museum, £10,000 for the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, and £10,250 for Montague House, with a garden of eight acres in Bloomsbury district, a mansion well adapted to accommodate the resources of this National Collection, large as they were for that period. The Cottonian Library was begun by Sir Robert Cotton (b. 1570—d. 1631), and embraced many ancient deeds and charters, among them the original manuscript of Magna Charta. It became the property of the nation in 1700 for £4,500. The Harleian Manuscripts, begun by Robert Harley, created Earl of Oxford in 1711, and increased by his son, the second Earl, were purchased in 1753. From 1759, when the British Museum was first opened to the public, it has received frequent and large accessions by purchase, gift, bequests, and loans, until it has become an intellectual treasure-house not surpassed in its way by any other in the world, and worthy of a great nation, toward which there is an annual appropriation of £100,000. Among the accessions by gift was the library of George II, of 10,000 volumes; the library of George III (63,000 volumes), estimated to have cost £200,000 the Elgin marbles, purchased in 1816 for £35,000; the Egyptian monuments, collected mainly by the French, and acquired by the capitulation of Alexandria in 1801; the Townley marbles, collected by Charles Townley (begun in 1768), and purchased by Parliament for £28,000; the Etruscan and other Italian antiquities, purchased for £9,000. Total cost to 1869, £3,000,000.

NATIONAL GALLERY.

The NATIONAL GALLERY, now an object of annual Parliamentary grant, is of recent origin. After losing many opportunities to secure choice collections, which are now among the most valuable treasures of the National Galleries of France, Prussia, Russia and Belgium, Parliament voted in 1824 the sum of £57,000 to purchase 28 valuable pictures of Mr. Angerstein, and to provide for the reception of 29 more donated by Sir George Beaumont, which together were placed on exhibition in 1825. From 1824 to 1843, 19 pictures were bought at an expense of £48,000; and from 1843 to 1869, 155 pictures at a cost of £104,000. Total cost of 360 pictures, £270,000. Of the 820 pictures (belonging to the Gallery in 1870) 427 are by foreign artists, and principally old masters; and 460 by British artists. More than one-half were bequeathed or donated.

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS OF DESIGN.

In 1835, Mr. William Ewart,* member of Parliament from Liverpool, succeeded in raising a select Committee of the House to take into consideration "the best means of extending a knowledge of the arts and of the principles of design among the people (especially the manufacturing population) of this country; also to inquire into the constitution, management and effects of institutions connected with the arts." This Committee (continued) in 1836 carried on its inquiries for two sessions, and reported to this effect:-"That from the highest branches of artistic design to the lowest connection between drawing and manufactures, the arts had hitherto received little encouragement; that a lamentable ignorance of art was manifest among English workmen, especially in the fancy trades, the silk, ribbon, china, and similar trades, although an earnest desire for instruction appeared to prevail among them; that in this respect the workmen of France, and of other parts of the Continent, enjoyed superior advantages, the result of which was that French manufactures were in many cases preferred to British solely on account of the superiority of the patterns; and that this superiority on the part of French workmen appeared to be in a great measure attributable to the Schools of Design, or the general taste, diffused throughout that country by the practice of drawing, and the multiplicity of objects of art accessible to workmen, and the people generally."

In 1836, in compliance with the recommendations of this Committee, a Government School of Design was established, under the auspices of the Board of Trade, of which Lord Sydenham was president, in Somerset House. It was placed under the superintendence of a Council consisting of several members of this Board (Mr. Elty, Sir R. Westmacot, Mr. Cockerell), several eminent artists (Eastlake, Chantrey, Callcott, Wilkie), and two or three other persons (Lord Colborne) distinguished for their knowledge of the arts. The immediate management of the institution was intrusted to a Director, an artist by profession, and who has generally officiated as one of the teaching masters. The first Director was Mr. Papworth, who was succeeded by Mr. William Dyce, in 1838. In 1840, Mr. William Dyce, who in 1836 had submitted an admirable course of study for a School of Design contemplated by the Board of Directors for the encouragement of arts and manufactures in Scotland, was employed by the Council of the London School to make a tour of the Continent, for the purpose of visiting schools of this class, and ascertaining the different modes of instruction there followed. On his return he made a report to the Board of Trade, afterwards printed by Parliament, which contained much useful and interesting information on the subject of technical education both in France and Germany. He was soon afterwards made Director of the School at Somerset House, which office he filled with great success, until he resigned, because its duties were found inconsistent with his professional engagements, and was succeeded by Mr. Wilson in 1843.

In 1842, a School of Design for Females was opened in Somerset House, and at different periods branch schools were established at Spitalfields, Manchester,

• Mr. Ewart was born in Liverpool in 1798, educated at Eton, and Christ Church, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. in 1821. He represented Liverpool in Parliament since 1828, and has signalized his membership by originating the legislation which established the Schools of Design, the system of Town and Borough Public Libraries, and by a sturdy support of all educational

measures.

Birmingham, Coventry, Sheffield, Nottingham, York, Newcastle, Leeds, Norwich, Paisley, Dublin, Belfast, and Glasgow. These provincial schools, as well as the central school at Somerset House, were visited by an official Inspector. In 1841, £10,000 were placed by Parliament at the disposal of the Council, for the special purpose of assisting in the establishment of Schools of Design in the provinces. A portion of this sum was expended in the formation of a library, and a collection of drawings, casts, and models, which had been begun in 1838. The teaching force of the central school, which originally was confined to two, in 1848 embraced six, including the Director and Head of the Female Department.

In 1846 a special committee of the Council was appointed, of which Mr. Redgrave, of the Royal Academy of Arts, was chairman, to inquire into the discipline, management, and improvement of the school. This Committee summed up their examination substantially as follows:

(1) That the principles of ornament, and the practice of original design as applicable to manufactures, were not efficiently taught.

(2,) That a knowledge of manufacturing processes, so as to enable the student to unite fitness and practicability, was not communicated.

(3,) That a large portion of the students receive instruction only in elementary drawing.

(4,) From want of space, no sufficient instruction exists in painting.

(5,) No sufficient accommodation for modeling, and none for casting, exists. (6,) That the collections of works of art, and books of prints, are practically inaccessible to the students from the want of room, and a descriptive catalogue. (7,) That the existence of a Directorship is a barrier between the Council and the masters.

(8,) That the Council is burdened with too many official and financial details. In conclusion the Committee find, that although the methods of instruction did not at the start accomplish all that the most sanguine anticipated, nevertheless, both the central and provincial schools were accomplishing much good.

In 1849, as time enough had elapsed, and sufficient experience had been collected, to test the value of the system inaugurated in 1836, Parliament instituted another Committee, of which Milnor Gibson was chairman, "to consider

*The Report of Mr. Dyce is full of valuable remarks suggested by his observations abroad :"Design for industry is not an abstract thing; it is not the business of the designer to produce good patterns for every possible condition of manufacture, but, taking it as he finds it, to bring his cultivated taste to bear on its improvement. It is the fashion of each succeeding season that he has to deal with. The practice of the French manufacturers in this respect seems to me worthy of being noticed. It is, I believe, considered by them that fashion is something more than the caprice of the moment; and though individuals of rank and of celebrity of some kind may, for a time, give a particular bias to the mode, yet that the current of taste in the ordinary matters of life has its origin, and takes its direction, from the general character and habits of society. Hence, they say, if we refer to the history of any past age, we shall find the records of its literature and its art, and the remains of its every-day appliances of life, all partaking of some common character or sentiment. Acting on this notion, the manufacturers of France make it their business to discern accurately the characteristics of the under-current of feeling to which fashion and its changes are supposed to be dne; and, by this means, to keep pace with people's inclinations, and even to anticipate them. We know,' said one of the Lyonese manufacturers to me, that when the fashion of this year shall have run its course, every one will have a longing for something new yet not absolutely new, but something to which the present mode naturally tends. That something, which, in the world of fashion, is only an indefinite sentiment-in fact, a mere predisposition-we endeavor to render palpable, to give it a strongly pronounced character, and assign it a name. Therefore it is that with us fashion is so paramount; the objects of industry presented at the commencement of a season chime in with the predispositions of society.""

†The purchases consisted of articles employed in educational purposes in the Ecole des BeauxArts in Paris, and the Schools of Design in Munich, Florence, and Venice, and of articles selected from the French Exposition of 1844.

the constitution and management of the School of Design." This Committee, after examining the school, and gathering the evidence of manufacturers and artists, submitted a report, in which the Committee conclude :-"From a general review of the evidence, it is clear that the schools, though far from having attained the degree of perfection of which they appear capable, are producing beneficial effects, and may in due time be expected, with energetic support and under judicious management, to realize the anticipations with which they have been founded. . . . . Large as the field of usefulness appeared when these schools were established, it has been found by experience to be very much larger than was anticipated. As the managers of the schools have proceeded, they have found the work grow under their hands. For the teaching of ornamental art necessarily presupposed the students having attained to a certain degree of proficiency in elementary studies; and this proficiency few if any were found to have acquired; so that it has been necessary to impart it at the beginning of each man's education. The demand for such teaching has been so great in proportion to the means which the schools possess of supplying it, that they have of necessity assumed more of the character of elementary institutions than was originally expected. The importance of this sound elementary grounding has not always been comprehended, and too great anxiety has been shown in some cases to reap premature fruits from the schools; but the Committee believe that what has been done was both necessary and important, and that, under the circumstances of the case, the managers have been right in endeavoring to raise the taste of the great mass of artisans, rather than by special efforts to force on a few eminent designers."

These views are sustained by the evidence of manufacturers and practical designers, published with the Report. Over 15,000 students, up to 1849, had attended the schools, and a large proportion of them were connected with existing establishments, and have had a marked effect on the taste of the country, both in directly training designers, improving the skill of under-drawers and fillers-up, and creating a demand for an improved domestic fabric, over the foreign. An indirect advantage accrued from the visits made by the masters and teachers to the schools and manufactories of Paris, in consequence of which the superior training and workmanship of the latter was seen and felt, and a higher standard of possible attainment set up. The methods of instruction, although open to criticism, were found in the main to be in harmony with similar schools abroad-and the shortcomings of the schools were to be attributed to the narrow field which they occupied, to the low appreciation in which the culture which they afford is held by the public in general, and by manufacturers in particular-and that the public interests required an extension of the special means of instruction, and the rapid and universal improvement of the popular taste of art and artistic production.

At the close of this period (which ushered in the first International Exhibition at London in 1851 under the auspices of the Society of Arts and on the suggestion of Prince Albert), there were nineteen Schools of Art in the provinces which received direct parliamentary grants for their support, which, after 1848, were placed in the hands of local committees, and which, by the action of the government in 1852, were placed under the supervision of the Department of Practical Art, and in 1853, of the Department of Science and Art.