V.-NATIONAL ART TRAINING SCHOOL.

1. This school is a development of the former School of Design and Central School of Art at Somerset House, and its special object is the training of art teachers of both sexes, of designers, and of art workmen, to whom facilities and assistance are afforded in the shape of scholarships, maintenance allowances, and complete or partial re mission of fees. A school for the instruction in art of general students is attached to, and serves as a practising school for the training school. In 1853 the school was removed from Somerset House to Marlborough House, and opened under the designation of National Training School of Art." In 1856-57 the school was transferred to South Kensington, a transfer which was followed by an increase in the number of students to 407 in 1858 as compared with 292 in the previous year at Marlborough House. In the year ending July, 1857, at the time of the removal to South Kensington, 190 students paid £570 in fees.

2. In 1863 the school was removed from the temporary wooden buildings in which it was first placed to permanent premises specially built for its reception. The increased accommodation thus afforded was followed, in 1864, by a very marked increase in the number of fee-paying students. For the year ending July, 1864, there were 825 such students, with a total of £1,824 fees. In 1863 a system of scholarships was established, open to candidates from local schools. The training class for the same year numbered 54 students, 41 of whom were in receipt of maintenance allowances, and 13 were free students.

3. In 1-71, with a view to enable the school to fulfil more efficiently its primary object of training masters for art schools, it was found necessary to impose an examination test for all candidates for admission, and to make certain alterations in the regulations of the schools introducing payments on results.

4. During the year 1880-'91 128 students (34 females and 94 males) attended the school without paying fees, viz, 35 students in training, 12 national scholars, 65 students formerly in training, ex-national students and others having passed higher grade examinations, and 14 men of the Royal Engineers; 47 students were also admitted at half fees; 759 students attended the school (400 females and 359 males), and the total amount of fees received was £3,022 168.

During the year 1882-83 102 free students (23 women and 79 men) attended the school, viz, 34 students in training, 17 national scholars, 32 students formerly in training, ex-national scholars and others having passed higher grade examinations, and 19 men of the Royal Engineers; 32 students were admitted at half fees and 710 (400 females and 310 males) students paid full fees, the total amount being £2,987 14 8. 9d. [See Calender and General Directory for 1885, page 33.]

5. The course of instruction is as follows, though it must be understood that it is not progressive in the order in which the stages are named:

Stage 1. Linear drawing by aid of instruments, including linear geometry, mechanical and machine drawing, perspective, details of architecture, and sciography. Stage 2. Free hand outline drawing of rigid forms from flat examples or copies. Stage 3. Free hand outline drawing from the "round."

Stage 4. Shading from flat examples or copies.

Stage 5. Shading from the "round" or solid forms and drapery.

Stage 6. Drawing the human figure and animal forms, from copies.

Stage 7. Drawing flowers, foliage, and objects of natural history, from copies.

Stage 8. Drawing the human figure or animal forms, from the "round" or nature. Stage 9. Anatomical studies, drawn or modelled.

Stage 10. Drawing flowers, foliage, landscape details, and objects of natural history, from nature.

Stage 11. Painting ornament, from flat examples.

Stage 12. Painting ornament, from the cast, &c.

Stage 13. Painting (general) from flat examples or copies, flowers, still life, and landscapes.

Stage 14. Painting (general) direct from nature, flowers, or still life, landscapes, and drapery.

Stage 15. Painting from nature groups of still life, flowers, &c., as compositions of color.

Stage 16. Painting the human figure or animals in monochrome, from casts.
Stage 17. Painting the human figure or animals in color.

Stage 18. Modelling ornament.

Stage 19. Modelling the human figure or animals and drapery.

Stage 20. Modelling fruits, flowers, foliage, &c., from nature.

Stage 21. Time sketches in clay of the human figure or animals, from nature. Stage 22. Elementary design, including studies treating natural objects ornamentally, ornamental arrangements to fill given spaces in monochrome, or modelled orna mental arrangements to fill given spaces in color, and studies of historic styles of ornament drawn or modelled.

Stage 23. Applied designs, technical or miscellaneous studies, including machine and mechanical drawing, plan drawing, mapping, and surveys, done from measurement of actual machines, buildings, &c., architectural design, ornamental design as applied to decorative or industrial art and figure composition, and ornamental design, with figures as applied to decorative or industrial art, both flat and in relief.

Certificates of competency to teach the subjects included in these 23 stages of instruction are given to candidates who pass the necessary examinations, and are called (a) the intermediate or art class teachers' certificate and (b) art certificates of the third grade.

6. The staff of the National Art Training School consists of a principal, a registrar six assistant teachers, an instructor in decorative art, lecturers, occcasional professional assistants, and a visitor, Mr. E. J. Poynter, R. A.

Some of the masters and teachers receive, in addition to their fixed pay, payments ou the results of their instruction, as tested by the examination of the students, and a proportion varying according to circumstances of students' fees, and there are other teachers who are paid wholly by fees.

The foregoing account of the school and of the courses of study is taken from the "History of the Science and Art Department" in the thirtieth annual report. The following further particulars are from a former prospectus of the school, with such additions from the register of 1885 as show thepresent facilities and regulations:

1. The courses of instruction pursued in the school have for their object the systematic training of teachers, male and female, in the practice of art and in the knowledge of its scientific principles, with a view to qualifying them as teachers of schools of art competent to develop the application of art to the common uses of life, and to the requirements of trade and manufactures. The instruction comprehends the following subjects: Free hand, architectural, and mechanical drawing; practical geometry and perspective; painting in oil, tempera, and water colors; moulding and easting. The classes for drawing, painting and modelling, include architectural and other ornament, flowers, objects of still life, &c., the figure from the antique and from life, and he study of anatomy as applicable to art.

2. These courses of instruction are open to the public on the payment of fees, the classes for male and female students meeting separately.

Fees for classes studying five whole days, including evenings: £5 for five months, and an entrance fee of 108. Evening classes: Male school, £2 per session; female school, £1 per session, three evenings a week.

Teachers in private schools or families may attend the day classes for not more than three months on payment of £1 per month, without payment of the entrance fee. An evening artisan class is held in the elementary room; fees 108. per session, or 38. per month. Students of this class may pass into the general class rooms at the same fee when they have passed examinations in the four subjects of the second grade.

4. No students can be admitted to these classes until they have passed an examination in free hand drawing of the second grade. Examinations of candidates will be held weekly at the commencement of each session, and at frequent intervals throughont the year. These examinations are held at the school on Tuesdays, at 11.45 a. m., and 6.45 p. m., except in the months of May, June, and July, when the evening examination takes place at 5.45 p. m.t Candidates should bring their own lead pencils and india rubber. Unsuccessful candidates cannot be re-examined until after a month's interval. Candidates who have already passed an examination in free hand drawing are admitted on application to the registrar without further examination.

Students may attend a special architectural class which is held on Tuesdays. Fee, £1 18. per term of five months, and an entrance fee of 108.

Students may attend a special designing class which is held on Tuesdays at a fee of £ 18. per term for each day, and an entrance fee of 108.

The examination fees are 28. 6d. for day students, and 6d. for evening students to be paid at the time of examination.

5. The annual sessions, each lasting five months, commence on the 1st of March and the 1st of October, and end on the last day of July and the last day of February, respectively. Students who have passed the examination in accordance with paragraph 4 may join the school at any time on payment of fees for not less than five months; but those who have already paid fees for five months may remain until the end of the scholastic year on payment of a proportional fee for each month unexpired up to the 31st July in each year. The months of August and September are not counted as part of the five months paid for. The months of August and September, one week at Christmas and one week at Easter and Whitsuntide are vacations.

The school will be open every day, except Saturday.

Hours of study: Day, 9 to 3.30; evening, 7 to 9.

Evening classes for females on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

All day students are expected to attend at 9 a. m., and to remain in the school until the bell rings at half past 3 p. m., except during the half hour for lunch, from 1 to 1.30 p. m., or when permission has been specially obtained. The evening classes for male students are open daily, from 7 to 9 p. m., except during the months of May, June, and July, when they meet from 6 to 8 p. m. The evening classes for female students meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 6.30 to 8.30 p. m., except from 1st May to 31st July, when the hours are the same as in the male school, viz, from 6 to 8 p. m.

6. Classes for schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, and pupil teachers of elementary schools meet on two evenings in each week. Fee, 58. for the session.

7. Students properly qualified have full access to the collections of the museum and library, either for consultation or copying as well as to all the school lectures of the department.

8. A register of the students' attendance is kept, and may be consulted by parents and guardians.

Masters and students in the National Training School and other schools of art under the department who are desirous of studying in the galleries of foreign countries, and who have obtained one or more certificates of the third grade, may receive, on application to the secretary, a form of recommendation as to their competence, which may be presented with their certificate to the British consul or to the directors of the galleries in question.

Further information may be obtained on personal application at the schools, or by letter addressed to the secretary, science and art department, S. W.

LECTURES AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.

A course of twelve lectures on anatomy as applicable to the arts is given in each session. The spring course may be attended by ladies. Fee for the course, 68. ; for a single lecture, 18.

A course of forty lectures on the "historical development of ornamental art" is given each year. The public is admitted on payment of 158. for the complete annual course; 108. for the course of twenty lectures each term, or 18. each lecture. Other lectures will be delivered occasionally and duly announced.

The schools are open free for the inspection of the public every Saturday, from 2 till dusk. Entrance through the museum.

VI.-THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM AND BETHNAL GREEN BRANCH MUSEUM.

(a) ART COLLECTIONS.

1. From the year 1837 up to 1849 models or casts, prints, and examples had been purchased as necessary means of instruction in design and ornamental art in connection with the schools of design already adverted to (see page xxxvii); £1,299 were spent, for instance, in 1844-45 in the purchase of miscellaneous examples from Paris. For some time these objects had been stowed away in Somerset House for want of space. They included casts of ornamental art of all periods, copies of Raphael's Loggie, specimens of manufactures, &c. In 1851 the board of trade appointed a committee to select objects notable" entirely for the excellence of their art or workmanship for purchase to the amount of £5,000 from the Exhibition of the works of Industry of all Nations in 1851.__These, together with the casts, models, and examples from the vaults of Somerset House, were transferred to Marlborough House, and Her Majesty the Queen and others lent valuable specimens which were placed with them. The collections thus formed were opened to the public as a Museum of Ornamental Art on the 6th September, 1852. They were arranged in divisions such as textile fabrics, lacquer ware, ivory carving, jewellery, enamels, furniture, wood carvings, paper hangings, pottery, stone ware, hard porcelain, soft porcelain, Sèvres, Dutch earthen ware, majolica. A selection of casts of the renaissance period was also shown.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF A MUSEUM.

2. No special provision had been sanctioned by Parliament for increasing the collection during the year. It was therefore proposed that an annual vote should be submitted to Parliament for the gradual formation of a systematic national collection of manufactures of all periods, the first of its kind apparently in Europe.* Such a "collection of specimens which should illustrate both the progress and the highest excellence attained in manufacture, both as to material, workmanship, and decoration, had long been a most desirable object, and considered indispensable to instruction. Indeed, a museum presents probably the only effectual means of educating the adult, who cannot be expected to go to school like the youth, and the necessity for teaching the grown man is quite as great as that of training the child. By proper arrangements a museum may be made in the highest degree instructional." (See First Report of the Department of Practical Art.)

AN ART LIBRARY BEGUN.

3. Concurrently a library of works upon art was commenced from the collection of books of reference on art, purchased in earlier years for the use of the School of Design. This became the National Art Library.

AID TO LOCAL SCHOOLS OF ART.

4. In November, 1852, in view of a proposal to purchase additional objects for the museum, a minute was passed approving of a proposal of Mr. Cole's, which concluded as follows:

"As the collection of articles for the museum proceeds, objects of the same kind but of various degrees of importance and value will be amassed, and in order to render the

66

*A petition in June, 1852, addressed to the Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the French Republic, prayed for the establishment in France of a museum of the fine arts as applied to industry, and in support of the prayer related how quite recently a museum of ornamental art had been solemnly inaugurated in London by Her Majesty Queen Victoria." (See p. 63, First Report Practical Art.)

objects which could be dispensed with most available for the purposes of public instruction, I propose that local schools of art may have the privilege of purchasing them at half the prime cost. Hitherto specimens of manufacture have been presented to the schools; but, in future, I recommend that the gifts be few and exceptional." Thus the principles of both forming a normal central collection and encouraging the establishment of local museums were affirmed.

5. It was from the first considered desirable to make the collections of art useful to the provinces as well as to the metropolis. With this view small selections of objects from the museum, and photographs and drawings of rare objects, either temporarily deposited or by their nature not easily removable, were lent for study and exhibition to provincial schools of art. (Second Report of the Department of Science and Art, P. 36.) This was the commencement of the system of circulation of art objects throughout the country.

EARLY ADDITIONS TO ART COLLECTIONS.

6. Towards the end of 1852 the Bandinel collection, illustrative of pottery and porcelain, was acquired. A special loan exhibition of furniture was held by the department in 1853, at Gore House, Kensington, when a collection of studies of the life, by W. Mulready, R. A., was also exhibited for the instruction of students in the anatomical and tigure class. Purchases to the extent of £8,583 were made in 1854 from the collection of Mr. Bernal, principally of specimens of pottery and porcelain, majolica ware, glass and metal work. In the same year the chancellor of the exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) purchased the Gherardini collection of models for sculpture, which was placed in the art museum. This collection, inasmuch as it referred to a branch of art not necessarily connected with manufactures, helped in extending the limits of the collections generally, which henceforth became "art collections." In 1855 purchases of objects were made from the Paris Universal Exhibition, and negotiations were at this time commenced for acquiring a large collection of medieval ornamental art from Mons. Soulages, of Toulose.

COLLECTIONS CLASSIFIED AND CATALOGUED.

7. Catalogues of the collections were printed with the earlier annual reports of the department and issued separately for public use; but as the collections increased it was determined to affix a descriptive label to each object, Accordingly in 1856 an inventory of the objects of art in the museum, excluding British pictures and sculpture, was prepared, and a classification adopted to give a practical and instructive character to the sections of the museum. Every object was labelled, the inventory entries serving the purpose also of labels. The classes of objects were defined as follows: Sculpture, glyptic and numismatic art, mosaics, painting, japanned or lacquered ware, glass painting, enamels, pottery, glass manufactures, works in metal, watches and clocks, jewellery and decorative objects in precious materials, arms, armor, and accoutrements, furniture and general upholstery, leather work, basket work, textile fabrics, bookbinding, and book decoration generally, ornamental designs, drawing, and engravings. Descriptive catalogues, with accounts of various classes of works of ornamental art, have been prepared from time to time by recognized authorities, and are intended to serve as standard works upon such subjects.

TRANSFER TO SOUTH KENSINGTON.

3. In 1856 Parliament voted £10,000 for the transfer of the Department of Science and Art from Marlborough House to South Kensington. As respects the selection of the site at South Kensington the following particulars may be given: Upon the close of the exhibition of 1851 a profit of over £150,000 accrued to Her Majesty's commissioners for that exhibition. His Royal Highness the late Prince Consort, president of the commission, proposed that this sum should be expended in the purchase of land to be devoted to institutions for promoting science and art. An estate was available for purchase in the neighborhood of Hyde Park. It extended from Kensington Gore to Brompton. Parliament co-operated with Her Majesty's commissioners in its purchase, and voted altogether about £181,000. By gifts and purchases from the exhibition of 1851, by gifts from the Society of Arts, &c., Her Majesty's commissioners had become possessed of divers collections for public instruction in science and art. They applied in 1855 to the Government for assistance in constructing a building to contain these collections, and Parliament voted £15,000. An iron building was accordingly erected under the supervision of the late Sir William Cubitt, upon the southeastern portion of the estate which Her Majesty's commissioners gave up to the use of the department. Her Majesty's commissioners contributed £2,000 for the building of refreshment rooms adjoining the iron building. They also