REPORT OF MR. MILLETT.
157
FINE ARTS OE THE PRESENT TIME.
Grout XXV. — PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE. By F. E. MILLETT.
i. pahttiug-s.
It was the original intention of the Directors of the Vienna Exposition to invest the Art Department with a character not unlike that of the annual exhibitions held in almost every large city in Europe, and to assemble at Vienna pictures from every country, which would represent the art of the present day, and indicate the artistic development of the world within the last decade. In a very mild degree was this plan followed, and instead of an exhibition we had a museum; and the distinction is a strong one. An exhibition proves what the artists of the present generation can do ; a museum shows ^hat artists have done, and is a collection of superior or curious specimens of art, made up regardless of the date of production. A large proportion of the pictures were from state museums and private galleries, and comparatively few came from the studios. In consequence of this method of filling the halls, the display offered much less advantage for the study of the tendencies of art in the present generation, than was confidently prophesied by the managers and expected by the public. The reasons for this change in the composition of the art department are numerous. Some are based upon the inharmonious relations existing between the ai 'tists and the selecting committees, in which case the art- treasures of the government were drawn upon to secure material for a worthy representation of the country, and other causes are found in the poverty of the inducements held out t° artists, in comparison with those of local exhibitions,