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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
development in the hands of vigorous and well supported leaders.
The following extracts are interesting, as showing the influence and value of the institutions comprised in Group XXII., illustrated by a single example—that at South Kensington :—
French Jurors’ Report —1862.
[Extract from Report by M. Natalis Rondot.]
“On the closing day of the Exhibition of 1851, Prince Albert pointed out to England the new object which she ought henceforth to pursue. His words found an echo in all workshops, and the mayor of one of the chief manufacturing towns then said that ‘ the greatest benefit which could be conferred upon industry would be to give, by the development and improvement of Art-education, a purer and more practised taste to the producer as well as to the consumer.’ The Department of Science and Art has been created under the swa}” of these ideas. * * * * In almost every direction, the influence of a larger number of teachers of drawing, and of working draughtsmen is making itself felt. The manufacturers of Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Worcester, and Staffordshire recognize the fact that their best designers come from the Schools of Art, and that, thanks to them, the general character of designs and of forms has undergone the most hapfy modification.
“ Before the next ten years have passed, English industry will have more than one million workmen, who will have acquired, by several years of schooling, sound notions of Art and Science, and an intelligent practice of drawing ; circulating museums and collections will have familiarized many millions of manufacturers and workmen with the stjdes of all countries, and of all great epochs, with the most beautiful types of ornament, and the most esteemed models of every kind.”
[Extract from Report by M. Rapet.]
“ The study of drawing in the primary schools in England dates only from ten years back. Until then it had remained a privileged study, reserved exclusively for the richer classes. But the Exhibition of 1851, which rendered distinctly visible the superiority of France, in those products which demand taste, and the value of which is based upon a knowledge of design, revealed to England the cause of her inferiority. With that ardor which she displays in the pursuit of an object, as soon as she thinks it useful to attain it, she undertook, almost immediately after the close of the Exhibition,