There is no country in Europe in which so much mo ney has been lavished by private individuals on the works of art, and on artists, as in England ; yet how little ad vantage it has operated on the improvement of the art it self is too obvious. Like bounties in general, which are often of very doubtful policy, pecuniary encouragement has, in matters of art, been found to defeat its own object, by multiplying the claimants faster even than the means of gain are proffered ; and by creating a swarm cf idle competitors, whom the temptation of profit had with drawn front more useful occupations. In fact, the multi tude who now follow the profession, is one great cause of the scarcity of good artists. Every pretender who daubs the semblance of nature's image, thinks himself a painter, helps out his deficiencies with the trickeries of the trade, and conceives that he thus has mastered all the noble at tainments of this delightful but difficult art. Formerly, the regular apprenticeship of years of toil and study under the best masters of the day, preceded the first step to the name of painter; the variety of learning required, ex hausted the scope of the then existing sciences ; and a great painter was at the same time a man of great learn ing and general acquirements. In the present age, in stead of the fertile soil of genius and learning, where alone the arts were formerly cultivated, crowds of vain and heedless pretenders, set to work with minds stuffed with dross and rubbish, out of which spring weeds profusely.
It is a dangerous thing to consider genius as omnipo tent in the fine arts. Truth will divulge to every man's own mind how much we owe to the suggestions and at tainments of others, however much vanity may tempt us to throw a veil over these helps ; and what we consider the result of genius in the great masters, is often more the fruit of anxious labour and study, than of any intuitive quality. Those accustomed to teach in the academies of painting, have generally found that the slow and laborious student was far more likely to rise to eminence, than those who pressed forward in the confidence of genius. After every thing is acquired that experience can teach, an am ple field will yet remain for the exercise of genius and in vention. The scope is boundless. But the basis of paint ing ought to be laid on study, on an intimate knowledge of the practice and discoveries of the best masters, on acute observation of nature, and unwearied combat with the difficulties of execution These are the substantial promoters of the art, and in so far as associations or pri vate patronage can supply facilities of employment, and ob jects of emulation and of study, they have done their part.
It is not an unusual error in institutions of this de scription, to defeat their purpose by overshooting the mark, and endeavouring to do too much,—to present the means of encouragement uninvited, and to urge its ac ceptance, before the privation it is meant to supply is keenly felt, and a consciousness of its value awakened in the minds of those for whose behoof it is intended. Aids of this description must be voluntarily sought for, and earnestly wooed, before their acquisition is likely to prove effectual. There is nothing in the management of which greater delicacy is required, than in conferring favours unasked, however much they may be needed; nor any thing more liable to rouse the jealousy of pride, (a feeling from which artists do not usually enjoy any exemption,) than those proffered kindnesses that savour of officious protection. Let the source whence it flows be ever so
pure in the eyes of those for whose benefit it is offered, it is not easily divested of a qualifying sentiment of humi liation in the acceptance, or suspicion of ostentation in the bounty, which defeats half its purpose. All that is re quired is, not to withhold those aids and that protection which genius lays claim to as of right ; and while we offer them with the hand of munificence as a tribute to the art, to preserve a due consideration for the feelings of the artist.
The objects of a painter's study are of that costly na ture, that he can scarcely look to any other means of ac quit ing them than to the public institutions of his country. And in most parts of the Continent where the fine arts have been cultivated, ample treasures have been liberally opened for the artist's use, as well as for the public grati fication and general improvement of taste, which we are sorry to confess have been grievously neglected in our island. Even to this day, an artist must despair of pro secuting the studies essential to his art, unless he can ac commodate his means to an expensive journey and a long residence in foreign countries, where those aids are placed within his reach. Not that we are deficient in the pos session of valuable specimens of ancient art ; for in the numerical riches of good pictures, the sum contained in England alone, is perhaps fully greater than that possess ed by any of the continental kingdoms. But to the artist as to the stranger they are alike inaccessible, except un der circumstances of inconvenience and constraint, which renders the hasty contemplation of them equally fruitless of utility as of gratification ; for it is only from the ha bitual, deliberate, and repeated study of the works of the great masters, that any benefit or improvement of taste can be expected to arise. The mere cursory transit of a gallery, however richly stored, only serves to whet the edge of our privations. We speak with reference to the arts alone, when we lament the seclusion of these great models of excellence from a more unreserved inspection ; for we are well aware that it is a consequence of habits peculiar to this country, and far too valuable to its cha racter and welfare to desire any change in that respect. While the country residences of our nobility continue to be (as we trust they ever will) their principal abode, there is little chance of seeing the valuable works of art, of which they are the chief repositories, assembled in our towns, as is generally the case abroad. But we cannot see that these valued habits arc at all incompatible with such arrangements, as would occasionally enable these works to be rendered conducive to the general improve ment of taste, and to the study of our artists, without either risk to the pictures or inconvenience to their pos sessors. A very successful experiment of this kind has already taken place in Edinburgh, and the advantages that have flowed from that effort are so conspicuous, that it cannot fail to prove highly gratifying to those who have furnished the means of its accomplishment.