ART UNIONS. These institutions, which have for their object the promotion of a livelier interest in, and more liberal patronage of, the fine arts on the part of the general public, have gone far in modern times to supply the place of that encouragement which, at an earlier period, they received from princes and prelates.
The origin of A. U., though claimed by the Germans, seems really to belong to the French, and to be traceable to the stirring days of the first Napoleon. From France they passed over into Belgium, where they at once took root, and established themselves even in the less important towns, ten years before they were introduced into Germany. The A. U. of Malines dates from 1812, which is eleven years anterior to that of Munich. _But it was in Germany that the importance of the results which A. U. were capable of producing first became apparent. and it was from Germany that they were carried into England. The A. U. (Kunstverein) of Munich was established in--1823, and became the model of most of those which afterwards arose. The example of Munich was speedily followed (at the suggestion, we believe, of no less distinguished a personage than Alexan der von Humboldt) by Berlin, and shortly thereafter by Dresden, Leipsic, Breslau, Hal berstadt, etc. ; and in less than ten years there were few of the larger towns of Germany in which A. U. were not to he found. But the most important of all the A. U. of Ger many is.that which was established at Dusseldorf in 1829, for the Rhine provinces and Westphalia. The Dusseldorf association has aimed at higher objects than A. U. have usually had in view, either in Germany or in England, and has been instrumental in promoting the execution of monumental works of art of the highest class. In the space of 20 years from its institution (1849), it bad expended on works of art what in Germany was regarded as the enormous sum of 268,000 Hullers, equivalent to about £40,200 ster ling; and had been the means of placing 24 altar-pieces in churches, 11 paintings on a large scale in public buildings, of which the frescos in the council chambers at Elber feld and at Aix-la-Chapelle may be mentioned as examples. The association at Dussel dorf also publishes an artistic periodical (Uorreepondenzblatt). Other associations have imitated, not without success, the association of Dusseldorf in directing their attention to the promotion of great works. The Bohemian association at Prague has been peculiarly meritorious in this respect; and those of Berlin and of Cologne deserve the highest commendation for the zeal with which the first promoted the erection of Kiss's magnificent group of the Amazon on the steps of the museum at Berlin, and the second urged on the completion of what already, in its still unfinished condition, is one of the greatest architectural monuments of northern Europe—time cathedral of Cologne. The establishment of permanent galleries of art in the cities to which they respectively belong, is also regarded in Germany as one of the higher objects of A. U.; and in this they have been recently followed in this country, as, for example, in Edinburgh. In Munich there is already a very noble collection of modern works of art, which have been brought together in this manner; and another of the same description is in course of formation in Berlin. Association galleries also exist in Dresden, Leipsic, Breslau, Stettin, etc. Groups of associations have also been formed in Germany for the promo tion and encouragement of extensive works. The western group, or cycle, as it isealled, includes Hanover, Halberstadt Magdeburg, Halle, Gotha, Brunswick, and Cassel; the eastern. Danzig, Konigsberg, .Stettin, etc. This arrangement, by which the influence of these associations on the highest elaes of art must be vastly augmented, seems worthy of imitation in this country.
Scotland, as is not unusual where the suggestion comes from a continental source, preceded England in the establishment of A. U.; the first that was formed in Britain being that of Edinburgh in 1834. The cause of its introduction was not so much the hope of bettering the condition, as the necessity of preventing the utter extinction of everything beyond mere imitative art. Portrait-painting continued to furnish the means of living to those who practiced it with success; and those who represented familiar occupations or popular customs, obtained a more limited encouragement; but it was found that precisely as the artist rose in the scale of artistic endeavor, and tended in the direction of ideal art, the sympathy and interest of his countrymen, and consequently his own remuneration, declined. The royal academy of London, and the academies which had been formed after the same model in Edinburgh and in Dublin, notwithstanding the annual exhibitions which they had instituted, had entirely failed to remove this evil. Private purchasers were not to be found; and in Edinburgh it was calculated that never more than £300, and sometimes as little as £35, were expended in the purchase of pic• tures exhibited by the academy, and even these insignificant sums were usually paid for pictures of the very lowest class. Elsewhere, matters were even worse. Mr. Cash, a witness examined before the select committee of the house of commons on A. U. in 1845, stated that previous to the establishment of the art union in Dublin, " in 4 years, during the exhibition of the works of the royal Hibernian academy, 30s. only were expended on the patronage of art.'" " Thirty shillings annually?" asked the chair man. " No," replied the witness; "thirty shillings was the entire sum expended in the four years." The success of the Scottish association was immediate; and to its founders the public are in no small degree indebted for the rapid progress which art has made in this country during tho last 20 years. "A large annual fund," says the secretary, in his statement to the above-named committee, "exclusively devoted to the purchase of paintings and sculpture, and to the dissemination of engravings, was speedily realized, whih in the course of 9 years amounted to not less than £36,900. During the -acne period, 771 paintings, 40 pieces of sculpture, and about 30.000 impressions from engraved plates, were distributed among the members of the association." Since this period, the annual funds of the Edinburgh association have continued steadily to increase; and its promoters, as the results of their disinterested labors, have had the satisfaction to see a school of art spring up around them which is probably second to those of Munich and Dusseldorf alone. Our limits preclude us from entering into the history of the other societies in Britain which have been formed after the model of the parent institution of Edinburgh ; but some conception of the success. which has attended them may be gathered from the fact, that in 1856 it was calculated that they had 'expended not less than the enormous sum of a million sterling on the encouragement of art. In addition to this direct expenditure, what is a very remarkable, and was to most persons probably an unexpected result, was, that the patronage of private individuals, in placeof diminishing, greatly increased, both in Edinburgh and London, during the period in question. Before concluding our sketch of the rise of these very remarkable institutions, it is proper to mention the A. U. of New York, established in 1838, which now supports two galleries with works of art in that city, and the members of which have had the wisdom to establish an intimate relation and lively interchange of works between their own institution and that of Dusseldorf.