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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
intended for the benefit of the artist alone, hut for that of the general public as well. But matters did not rest with the creation of the South Kensington Museum. A large School of Art, comprising all branches of elementary Art instruction, was established in connection with it. Since great artists , nowadays , do not make designs for man ufacturers as they once did , it was found necessary to educate technical designers, painters and sculptors, and to make them into accomplished artists, and to educate teachers competent to conduct schools of design in an artistic spirit. Moreover, drawing schools were established in all the manufacturing towns ; circulating collections of objects for exhibition were organized, and competitive examinations and distributions of prizes established. Competent persons were sent out to give lectures on all subjects relative to Art manufacture; a whole branch of literature on this province of Art was called into existence ; in short, a stir was made in every direction in which any practical result was to be hoped for. These efforts have been crowned with success, and it has been proved that something could be achieved in this new way. After the lapse of eleven years, at the second London Exhibition (1862) it became evident that England, which, till then, had been considered as taking the lowest rank in matters of taste, stood side by side with France, in an equally high position in these respects.
.Austria was the first among the continental States
to turn to profit the example, even before France had begun to make new efforts, and in May, 1864, a Museum was established at Vienna after the model of that of South Kensington—the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry.”
The italics are not in the original. Herr Jacob Falke here indicates the great want of the age—the need of men who are really artists and sculptors, to step down from the pedestals upon which they have elevated themselves, and mingle a little more amid the work of the world, as did the great men of old.
Grinley Gibbon, or Flaxman, did not injure themselves, or lessen their after fame one iota, but on the contrary they increased it, by exercising the powers God had given them, the first-named at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, where he was the guide and inspiration of a crowd of carvers and artisans, the latter, working for Josiah Wedgwood designing cups and saucers, etc., for common use, in accordance with the rules of art and classic taste ; not to mention the host of other great