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pet-show, the "motions," and Bank's bay horse, Marocco, who had a book written about him and has been immortalized by the greatest writers of his time.

One can easily think what our contemporary dramatists would have to allude to in reviving the spirit that mentioned these things in serious playwriting. The police reports, the journals, in fact, all the sources of life as it is lived, would have to be called upon. The playwright would, indeed, be compelled to watch the Zeitgeist for himself. Such a study must surely result in a fresh, spontaneous literature that would be as fascinating to the reader of the future as all these infinitesimal details of life in Elizabeth's time are now. The sharp distinction made now between journalism and literature has worked much harm to both. Journalism can do itself great harm by forsaking interest in style and correctness; but literature will do itself more harm by affecting a contempt for what Walter Pater calls "the beauty of the transitory." We are living in a great age. The enormous democratizing of the opportunities for success

has enlarged it as well as the increase of territory. The development of science has given us a new world. Surely the writer that is not interested in expressing some of its feelings and is blind to the charm of things that interest the people, is not going to be rated very high among the people of a later generation. If the writer of to-day does not approve of what his contemporaries are interested in, he should be at least enough interested in these things to satirize them.

The local allusion is by no means an unknown thing nowadays. An appreciation of this charm for the people has made the fortune of a number of our farceurs in our comic operas, with their topical songs and local hits, in burlesques innumerable, in annual reviews, and in the music-halls. But the complaint of this screed is that all important work, instead of being credited for the virtue of local and ephemeral interest, is chiefly blamed for that thing. And yet only pedants quite miss the greatest preachment of all the classics; which is to be mightily interested in one's own environment.

THE FIELD OF

ART

THE ACADEMY IN ROME AND THE Chairman of the School of Classical Studies
TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIPS OPEN TO
AMERICAN ARTISTS

A

CONSTITUTION for the American Academy in Rome. was formally adopted at a meeting held in May, 1897, of the representatives of the American School of Architecture in Rome, of the committee in charge of the Lazarus Scholarship for the study of Mural Painting, and of that in charge of the Rinehart Scholarship for Sculptors. The preliminary steps for the establishment of the Academy were taken in December, 1894. At a joint meeting of the Archæological Institute and other learned societies held in Philadelphia in response to an invitation to the students of mural decoration, of sculpture, of archæology and of epigraphy, to co-operate with the School of Architecture in Rome, a committee consisting of Professor W. G. Hale, of Chicago University, Professor Frothingham, of Princeton, and Professor Minton Warren, of the Johns Hopkins University, was appointed to confer with the Architectural School in Rome and to report to the council of the Archæological Institute before the meeting in May whatever they might find it practicable and desirable to accomplish. On October 11th of the following year a conference was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, of gentlemen representing the School of Architecture in Rome, the National Sculpture Society, the Society of Mural Painters, and also the School of Classical Studies in Rome and in Athens, "in order to see whether it were not advisable to organize an American Academy in Rome which should embrace them all." A committee was accordingly appointed, consisting of Mr. John LaFarge, President of the Society of Mural Painters, Augustus St. Gaudens, Charles F. McKim, and Professor Warren,

in Rome, with Professor William R. Ware as Chairman, to draw up a plan for such an Academy," and if it were found to meet with general acceptance, to submit it to the committees in charge of the School of Classical Studies and the School of Architecture for their approval." This Academy, it was hoped, would be for this country what the Villa Medici has been for France since the days of Louis Quatorze. The American School of Architecture in Rome had been established in the upper story of the Palazzo Torlonia in the previous November, and in this same month of October, 1895, had opened in the Villa dell' Aurora upon the Pincian Hill. The Archæological Institute of America had established in Rome, under the care of an independent managing committee, the School of Classical Studies, like that which it had for fifteen years maintained in Athens, and endowed it with two fellowships. It was at first arranged that this school should share the Casino dell' Aurora with the School of Architecture, paying a proportional share of the rent, but this arrangement was not maintained. To the Departments of Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture which have been established in the American Academy, it is hoped that there will be soon added a scholarship for the study of music.

The Villa dell' Aurora, " once part of the famous Villa Ludovisi, is situated upon the Pincian Hill, not far from the Villa Medici. It rises from a terrace of about the area of Gramercy Park (or about 80,000 square feet), elevated some twenty feet above the surrounding streets, and planted with trees, in the midst of a garden, after designs by Le Notre. No abode better adapted to harbor. an artistic fraternity could well be imagined than this Villa, which enjoys the seclusion so essential to profitable study, and yet is in

the midst of a city containing masterpieces of all the arts, and filled with classic traditions and associations. The interior of the Casino contains decorations by well-known artists of the later Renaissance, among which is the Aurora' of Guercino." The American School of Architecture holds a three years' lease of the Villa, with option of purchase at expiration, which lease runs a year after the date when the school expires by its own limitations, in October, 1897, but it is confidently expected that the Academy will be firmly enough established before that time to take the lease, and to renew it at its expiration. The full academy term is fixed to be three years, so that the practice which has obtained, both among the architects and the artists, of entering themselves for terms of shorter duration will be necessarily discontinued. It is pleasant to record that the new American Prix-deRomes have been cordially welcomed in the Eternal City by their French confrères at the Villa Medici, as, indeed, has happened to some of the more distinguished American artists who have gone to Italy fresh from their studies in Paris, even though they bore no official honors. In spite of the furious assaults that have been made upon the whole academical training of the official École that leads up to the Villa Medici, this official return to the fountain head of antique and Renaissance Art maintains its dignity as an indispensable course in the curriculum of modern Art, and “it is believed," says the circular of the American Academy," that this generation in America can leave no greater legacy to the next than the founding of an institution of such character and of such aims as will assure the foundations of a sound national taste.”

Of the travelling scholarships for painters, the Chanler and the Lazarus scholarships, the former was established in Boston and New York, in 1890-91, by Mr. John Armstrong Chanler from private subscriptions; the first competition for the Lazarus prize was held in New York City in November, 1896. The sculptors' scholarship was endowed under the will of the late William H. Rinehart, the sculptor; and two beneficiaries are now enrolled on the list of the Academy.

It was Mr. Chanler's hope to found travelling art scholarships in various cities of the country, but the public opinion was not sufficiently awakened to the importance of this foreign training and travel as a post-graduate course. The Chanler "Paris Prizes," in Boston and

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New York, are subject to the same general conditions. The winner is furnished with $900 a year, for his support while studying drawing, painting, and decoration in Paris for five years. If, however, after two years' work in Paris the student should wish to work elsewhere, he may do so if his jury at home consider him sufficiently advanced. The prize is only open to those "who really need its financial aid, to carry on their art studies abroad. The holder of the Paris Prize will be expected to pursue some studies in the History of Art in connection with his main work." The competition is open to any man or woman over twenty-one years of age, resident, respectively, in the States of Massachusetts or New York, even if temporarily abroad, or who has studied Art in either of these States for the school year preceding the examination. No competitor shall have received a medal or honorable mention in any foreign art exhibition or salon. Before receiving any money, the candidate is required to agree to send home, at the end of each year, specimens of his or her work, signed by the master under whom he or she has worked. If the work falls below the standard required by the jury, the jury shall, after assuring themselves that it is not merely a temporary fluctuation in the student's work, warn him or her that, unless the work reaches the required standard during the following year, the money will then be withdrawn and a new election held." The winner of the Boston prize was required, at the end of his five years, to return to that city and teach gratuitously, twice a week for two years, a class to be selected by the jury; but if his "inability to sustain himself by the sale of his pictures " becomes too evident, the jury may permit him to take pay students. The New York beneficiary is required to agree to send home a copy made during his fifth year of some foreign masterpiece, to be selected by himself with the approval of the jury, which copy is to be the property of the Paris Prize. In both cities, if no candidate up to the standard of the jury appears, none will be accepted, and the fund will be allowed to accumulate until someone worthy be discovered. MM. J. L. Gérôme, Puvis de Chavannes, and other distinguished artists, have agreed to supervise the work of these students, and the first-named will report annually to the jury in New York.

The make-up of the juries is similar in the two cities, being composed of the presidents

of various museums and artistic societies and institutions, and of a certain number of selected artists. In Boston it consists of the Presidents of the Museum of Fine Arts, of the St. Botolph Club, the Boston Art Club, the Boston Art Students' Association, the Professor of the History of Art in Harvard University, and two artists chosen by the St. Botolph Club, two chosen by the Boston Art Club, two by the Art Students' Association, and two by the President of the Museum. In New York these gentlemen are represented by the Presidents of the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Students' League, and three artists chosen respectively by the National Academy and the Society of American Artists, and one chosen by the Paris Prize. Candidates must submit specimens of their work to the jury in New York-two drawings from life of a fulllength nude figure—and from these selections will be made for the final competition, which is to be a drawing from the nude, painting a head from life, and a composition in color. This work is done under the supervision of the jury. The successful candidate is to leave for Paris as soon thereafter as possible.

The winner of the Boston Prize in 1891 was Mr. John Briggs Potter, who returned last summer, and who devoted himself while abroad rather to the drawing of character heads in a manner suggestive of Holbein. The winner of the first New York Chanler Prize was Bryson Burroughs, who has recently returned to this country; and of the second, in November, 1896, Lawton Parker.

As will be seen from the terms of the com

petition, an intelligent effort has been made in each of these cases to keep the holder of the prize, while abroad, under some form of constant supervision by the committee at home, and, notwithstanding the general good showing made by these prize-winners, the general conviction of the necessity of still more systematically directing their foreign studies has had much to do with the founding of the Academy. In Philadelphia this is felt so strongly that it is believed that it would be exceedingly difficult to establish there an other foreign Art scholarship on any other terms. The Art Club in that city founded a Paris Prize in 1892, on conditions very similar to those of the Chanler Prizes in New York and Boston, the holder to receive $900

a year for a term of two years, which might be extended to a maximum of five at the discretion of the jury of appointment and the commission of control in Paris of several distinguished French artists. The competition was open to any native of Pennsylvania or to any resident of a year's standing, between twenty-one and thirty-two; an envoi of some rather important work was required each year, such works to become the property of the Art Club, and the regulation as to the beneficiary's teaching in Philadelphia, at the expiration of his term, was similar to that in Boston. The jury of appointment was constituted much as in the other cities, consisted of thirteen members, the honorable Presidents of the Pennsylvania Academy, of the Drexel Institute, of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, of the Art Club, and nine artists, six of whom were members of the Art Club. The winner was George Bladen Fox; but at the expiration of three years the scholarship was discontinued.

Since the establishment of the Chanler Prizes, some six years ago, there has been growing on this side of the water, in the bosoms of some of those most interested in the decorative arts, domestic, ecclesiastic, and industrial, a mistrust of the latest tendencies of Parisian Art that would have been thought heretical ten years ago. With the exception of two or three or four unassailable towers of strength, like the great Monsieur de Chavannes, these doubters see a steady decadence in modern French art, from the decorations of the Hôtel de Ville to the illustrated maga zines. Among the architects, this mistrust also prevails to some extent, though there are still to be found faithful élèves of the great Parisian École who have not been able to reconcile themselves to an academy in Rome. The decorative painters, or many of them at least, therefore heard with satisfaction last year, that the committee in charge of the scholarship fund, founded in the name of the late Jacob H. Lazarus, portrait painter, for the study of mural painting, the first of the kind it is believed, had expressed the desire that the beneficiary of this Fund become a member of the Roman Academy. "It is very important," said the circular of this scholarship, "that the mural painter should not only acquaint himself with pictorial compositions and their decorative details, but that he should study decorative 'ensembles.' In other words, both the expressional picture

and its architectural setting-the wall painting and the entire room-or, at least, so much of it as may be of the epoch." And it proceeds to cite a few of the more important frescoes, decorations, mosaics, and "Cosmati" work that "are but a portion of the many things that make Rome the best school for the mural painter."

The Lazarus Scholarship provides the beneficiary with $1,000 a year for three years, payable in quarterly instalments of $250 each in advance, by the treasurer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This sum includes travelling expenses to and from Europe. The scholarship is open to any unmarried male citizen of the United States. The holder of the scholarship was expected to be in Rome January 1, 1897, the competition for this prize having taken place in New York in the previous November. He will be obliged to spend at least twenty-four months in Italy sixteen in Rome, and eight in other places, but always with the permission and under the guidance of the committee in charge. On the first of April, July, October, and January of each year he must send a written report of his progress to the chairman of this committee, and, if so desired, "any studies or sketches that he may have made, in order that the committee may have a just idea of his progress and diligence. The holder of the scholarship will not be permitted to undertake any work or accept any commission foreign to the object of the benefaction, or sell any product of his hand executed during the term of his scholarship. Should the requirements enacted by the committee be not fulfilled, should the student wittingly violate the laws of the State in which he is domiciled, or should his conduct provoke scandal, the committee in charge may withdraw the benefaction." He will be placed under the authority of the Director of the Academy according to terms to be agreed upon between the trustees of the Academy and the committee in charge.

Circulars inviting competitors to present themselves for the examination for this prize in November, 1896, were sent out to the various art institutions, but only some seven

men seriously entered, and these were reduced in the final competition to four. The preliminary examinations were in perspective, artistic anatomy, and a painted nude figure from life, and those passing this were obliged to enter a further examination in the following subjects: History of Architecture, a written examination, based upon Rosengarten's architectural styles; free-hand drawing from memory of classical and Renaissance ornament; free-hand drawing from memory of the architectural orders; elementary French and Italian, written and oral; and the execution of a painted sketch for a mural figure composition with ornamental border. The scale of this sketch was to be one inch to the foot, to be executed in any material. and to be completed within nine hours and in closed loges," on the general plan of the concours for the Prix de Rome in the École des Beaux-Arts. The subject given the four competitors was the decoration of a central panel for a director's room in a modern life insurance building, of not less than four figures, the ornamenting of the side panels to be in the style of the Renaissance about 1500, the wainscoting and pilasters to be marble, to be selected by the designer. The subject for the central panel The Triumph of Commerce." The sketch of this decoration, if accepted, the competitor was afterward allowed to elaborate at his own convenience, with models and costumes, but without departing from any of its essential features, either as to form or color, and without assistance or criticism. The composition and sketch of the successful competitor remain the property of the trustees of the fund; and the winner was George W. Breck, of this city, President of the Art Students' League. The committee in charge consisted of the following artists: Frederic Crowninshield, J. Carroll Beckwith, W. H. Low, Geo. W. Maynard, H. Siddons Mowbray, Walter Shirlaw, Edgar M. Ward, and the architect, Mr. McKim. In a subsequent paper a brief sketch will be given of the Rinehart Scholarship for Sculptors, and of the various architectural scholarships that now lead up to the Academy in Rome.

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VOL. XXII.-27

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