LECTURE VII.

The few words which I have to offer to you on the present occasion are concerned with the result of the recent competition for Scholarships and Prizes, and I shall endeavour in them to explain the reasons by which I have been guided in making the awards, since without a knowledge of these reasons half the value of the prizes would be lost to you.

I am aware that there are many persons who consider that the principle of prize-giving is altogether a wrong one, and who hold that the student's enthusiasm should be powerful enough to enable him to dispense with the additional stimulus of competition. Experience does not, however, lend any force to this view. Practically speaking, it is only when the students are spurred on to their best efforts in the struggle for a prize that the teacher is enabled to judge accurately of the progress they have made; and though students may doubtless be found who work less well than usual in a competition, it is far more generally the case that they do not even themselves know what they can do until their energies are called out in this manner. Another valuable element in these competitions is, that in awarding the prize to a particular drawing, the master is able to show in a practical manner the style of work which he considers the best for a student to pursue. At the same time the successful competitors must not imagine that they have completed their education in the different departments of study because they have won prizes in them. The prizes are given, not because the student is perfect in his work, but because he is the best; and it must be remembered that there are two ways in which he may be the best — one where in a good competition he carries all before him, and another where he is only first because the rest lag behind.

With regard to the Scholarships, it is worthy of notice that the number of competitors eligible in point of age, and qualified to pass the preliminary examination in general subjects, should bear such a very small proportion to the whole number of students in the school. The reason is probably to be found in the fact that parents as a rule cannot make up their minds to let their children study seriously as artists until the time has gone by at which they could enter for these scholarships (ftn. 2). The great majority, treating art as an elegant accomplishment to be practised in leisure hours, would doubtless prefer that their sons should make their living in some other way; the effect of which is, that by the time the inclination shown becomes too strong to be resisted, it is generally somewhat late for a student to begin his course. The fact that more than half the competitors on this occasion are ladies, points in the same direction; for as art is one of the very few professions in which women can compete with men, those who choose it as a means of livelihood will make every effort to begin early, while the far wider field open to the energies of young men tends to lessen the number of those who devote themselves from the first to art. It may, however, be hoped that parents will be induced by the liberal endowment of these scholarships to permit their sons to enter on their artistic studies at an earlier age. As it is, for the next few years the young ladies competing will no doubt be in a majority, though when the still-lingering prejudices against art as a profession have disappeared, we may hope to see an equal number of competitors from each sex.

To pass on to the subject of Prize drawings. It must be understood that the prize is necessarily awarded in every case to the work which is the best done, and does not depend upon the mere amount of pains the student may have taken, though it may be laid down as a general rule that the hardest worker gets in first at the end. With regard to the prize for drawing from the life, the only possible principle is to bestow it on the figure which is best in point of drawing — best, that is, in outline, and in the expression it gives to the character of the modelexecution or workmanship being necessarily put in the second place. The important points to be considered are the general action and proportion of the figure, the position of the joints and setting on of the head, limbs, and extremities, the correctness of the outline, and the elegance of the form, while an exact resemblance to the face of the model should always be aimed at. Excellence in these matters is difficult of attainment and requires the most painstaking study, while the execution of the drawing is a mere question of practice, and comes of itself if the other points are carefully attended to.

In connection with this subject, students cannot be too constantly warned against attempting to give a specious appearance of prettiness to their work by an easily-acquired knack of execution. The words of Sir Joshua Reynolds on this point are well worthy of quotation, and I may take the opportunity of recommending his Discourses on Art to those who are not already acquainted with them, containing as they do the very best precepts that are to be found for the guidance of the learner. His Discourses are indeed a mine of pithy and apposite phrases, each of which might serve as the text for a lecture. Upon this matter he says: — "A lively, and what is called a masterly, handling of the chalk or pencil, are, it must be confessed, captivating qualities to young minds, and become of course the objects of their ambition. They endeavour to imitate these dazzling-excellencies, which they will find no great labour in attaining. After much time spent in these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will be to retreat; but it will then be too late, and there is scarce an instance of return to scrupulous labour after the mind has been debauched and deceived by this fallacious mastery." Reynolds says again, a little further on: — "A student is not always advancing because he is employed; he must apply his strength to the part of art where the real difficulties lie." And again: — "The students, instead of vying with each other which shall have the readiest hand, should be taught to contend who shall have the purest and most correct outline." The application of these remarks will be clear; but a word of warning is necessary on the other side, lest it should be supposed that because more stress is laid on general correctness than on finished execution, you are therefore exempted from bestowing care upon the latter point. It must be remembered that attention to detail, although it comes after attention to general form, is not on that account of secondary importance. It is the tendency to make it take the place of the other unduly that must be guarded against.

In the case of the prize for painting, the same general considerations hold good. The figure must not only be well painted, but must be well drawn, though excellence in painting is obviously the quality to which most weight must be given. With respect to the painting and drawing of details, which are not always easily seen at the distance you require for taking in the whole figure, you must adopt the habit of going close up to the model to gain a nearer view of them. Inability to see often means want of knowledge, while forms that you understand you can generally see. Nothing is more objectionable than the use of opera glasses under these circumstances. Those who are short sighted had better wear spectacles; an opera glass isolates the details and throws them out of their true proportion, thus confirming the dangerous tendency to sacrifice unity to the elaboration of unimportant parts, against which I have often warned you.

There remain for notice the prize compositions, the subject for which is the wrestling of Jacob with the Angel, as described in these words: "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh: and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh: And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." In judging these, as none of the students are as yet very advanced in the technical parts of their art, the drawing of the figures must be put as far as possible out of the question, and the award depend upon which sketch tells the story best, and presents the most agreeable form of composition.

Now in the treatment of this subject there are two points that might be taken, — one, the act of wrestling; the other, the determination of Jacob not to let the Angel go, although disabled in the way described in the text. Of these two points I think that those who have chosen the latter have shewn the most originality of idea, and the best appreciation of the meaning of the subject, since it affords more opportunity for expression than the mere act of wrestling. This however is quite capable of being treated in a very noble and dignified manner. Supposing it were chosen, the first thing necessary would be to make it something more than a mere wrestling match. At the outset you must invest both figures with a certain dignity suited to the Scriptural and legendary nature of the story. Both in his face and figure you must shew that Jacob is no ordinary mortal. You must give him the grandeur and dignity of the patriarch of the chosen people, with the strength that should fit him to undertake a combat with a being of superhuman attributes; while in the figure of the Angol you must combine with the effort of the struggle, a look of ease and conscious superiority in the face, and a simpler majesty and beauty of form. In the figure of Jacob the effort should be more painful; while the effect of the exertion should be more apparent on a wiry and muscular frame, suited to a simple and patriarchal personage. In this way Jacob and the Angel might be distinguished from one another at a glance without the addition of wings or a halo to the Angel.

For a wonderful expression of ease combined with effort, I may call attention to a group in Michelangelo's Last Judgment, where an angel and a demon are disputing the possession of a soul rising from the earth; the demon is exerting his utmost strength in pulling the figure downwards, while the angel soars upwards with a calm dignity and an appearance of conscious and irresistible might which makes a sublime contrast with the ignominious exertions of the other.

The landscape in this, as in every other subject of an exalted kind, should be of the simplest possible nature, so as not to interfere in any way with the interest of the figures. To make the composition a landscape in which the figures only take a secondary place, is quite out of character with the dignity of the subject; which demands that our attention should be occupied as much by the figures as possible, the surroundings being only sufficient to add to the impressiveness of the scene and give such local character as may be deemed necessary.

In considering the second point which might be taken in this story, the detention of the Angel by Jacob until he has blessed him, the general treatment of the figures must be the same as in the former case, but the struggle of Jacob should be that of a disabled man, and what will be required will be rather a kind of desperate clinging on his part; and as a certain reluctance on the part of the Angel is implied in the text it will be necessary to convey this impression in the action of his figure.

Next to the treatment of the subject, comes the equally important point of the composition of the group Lionardo da Vinci goes so far as to say that "the principal part of painting lies in the art of making happy compositions. The expression is the next part in dignity, and consists in giving each figure the necessary attention to what it is doing." This is doubtless in one sense right, for the picture is not a picture at all unless well composed; if it consists merely in the rendering of an action, it will be no better than a photograph of a good actor might be; but at the same time it must be borne in mind that a composition, which is agreeable in lines, but in which the figures are deficient in action, or the action not in accordance with nature, is mere emptiness, and signifies nothing, however skilful may have been the designer.

In this as in all compositions it will be necessary to pay particular attention to the draperies, both as to costume and arrangement. It would be possible, no doubt, to treat it with nude figures only, but it would require a Michelangelo to do it; the superhuman nature of the Angel would then be expressed by his superior beauty of face and form alone; but the experiment would be dangerous for more ordinary mortals, and failure would involve so ignominious and undignified a presentation of a noble theme that I should not advise a student to make the attempt. A much easier method of conveying the contrast between the two figures may be found by clothing them in draperies of different character. That of the Angel, for instance, may be the conventional flowing dress, girt up for the convenience of the strife; while the dress of Jacob may very well consist of such a sheepskin coat and rough thick mantle as a shepherd would wear. Special costume, indeed, it is not advisable to introduce; rather, it is most desirable to avoid; anything at all approaching the dress of the modern Bedouin Arab would be fatal, even if correct, as immediately associating the actors in the scene with the commonplaces of modern Oriental life, and so destroying the dignified and exalted impressions which we always associate with the Biblical narrative. But any arrangement which should suggest a generic type of the primitive shepherd's dress would be correct. It would be appropriate to make Jacob wrestling in his under-garment, having cast his mantle to the ground; and in this case the mantle might usefully assist the lines and masses of the composition by being the means of connecting the group together. The great and important use of drapery in a composition is, not merely to serve as a covering to the limbs, or to give character through costume, but to add dignity or grace to the figures, to assist their movement by the direction of its folds, and to knit together by broad masses or leading lines the various parts of the composition; and in the colouring of a picture it is of course invaluable. Viewed in this light it is perhaps the most difficult part of a picture, and that which requires the most knowledge and study.

It would be of great advantage to the students if the sketches submitted in this competition were now taken up to be carried further, and after having been corrected and improved in composition, in accordance with my remarks, wee worked out from nature. Studies of the action of the figures should be made from models, and persevered in till the required action is obtained. Where necessary two models should be used together. Then must follow separate studies of the hands, feet, heads, and draperies; of wings, if the angel is to be represented with wings, and of any other accessories that may be required in the picture. Finally, a carefully finished cartoon should be made in chalk or charcoal, with the figures about twenty inches or two feet high. Those to whom models are inaccessible must, when they have fully made up their minds as to the action of their figures, have recourse to prints, antique statues, and the like, for assistance in the matter of drawing. Aids of this kind should not of course be looked to for the suggestion of ideas, but should merely serve as substitutes for models.

I have here given you nothing more than hints as to how such a subject as you have for competition may be treated. A man of genius might no doubt defy any of the rules for composition here suggested, and produce a work of great and original merit. But if you proceed on these lines you will be safer than by trusting to your own unaided original gifts, and by working out your design in this way you will have gained a most important step in preparing yourself for the painting of pictures later on in your career.

Footnotes:

1. Portion of a Lecture given at the end of the first session of the Slade School. There are a few practical hints in this lecture on various subjects connected with the ordinary school course, which made me think it worth publishing; but it will probably not be found to contain much of interest for people in general.

2. By the terms of Mr. Slack's will, six scholarships of 50/. a year, tenable for three years, are open to competition among students under 19 years of age.