160
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
iier, and thousands, even in the present day, annually learn the trade of artist with the same ease as they would learn to become blacksmiths or shoemakers, and with much the same idea. While the true artist will rarely fail to find his way to the fountain-head, notwithstanding the enervating and withering influences of academic training, an army of worse than mediocre painters and sculptors is raised up by this system, and their pulseless productions cover the walls of our picture galleries, or pall upon the visitor from stilted pedestals.
It is not my intention to discuss the merits of the academic system, or even to attempt to support the opinion wdiich I entertain, that we would be worse off without these institutions, for this argument would occupy a great deal of space, and the simple statement that all academies are rapidly acquiring the character of the old studio system, and are developing individuality and encouraging originality, is enough to answ r er the most valid objections to them.
Another tendency in art lias a double signification. This is the admiration for truth of tone wdiich is happily gaining ground among painters. In a material sense, truth of tone adds greatly to the value of the w T ork as a mechanical production, and, in a higher sense, it is absolutely necessary to the perfect expression of an idea in painting. Examples of the perfect harmony of tone with the sentiment expressed will he -found by no means rarely in the review which follows. Black and wdiite illustrations do not impress to the same degree -with paintings, and when falsities of tone, prevail in !1 picture, to the sensitive eye the force of color is nullified» and the idea might have been better expressed by a photograph or a print.
The great characteristic of French art is its impressibility» and by this quality alone it ranks above every other national art, or school, or whatever it may be called. The French are more truly artistic by nature than their contemporaries, and their capability of seizing the salient points of a subject, the characterizing lines of the expression of any idea, no matter how trivial, is beyond dispute. Endowed wdth these high artistic faculties, and enjoying the advantages of an art-education superior to those offered by any other country, it is not surprising that French art takes the lead. A s