Academy of Fine Arts

“ LONGING TO BE AN ARTIST.
In the meantime, however, many doubts and self-questionings arose within me. I knew that there was a school where one could really learn to draw and paint and make statues. Heavens, how delightful it would be to know how to make statues! In fact, I understood there was the Academy of Fine Arts, for so I had been told, and some of the fortunate young men who frequented this Academy were my acquaintances, and had shown me their designs, which seemed to me, as my friend Dotti would say, most stupendous! ”

“ Why, in so many words, that the knowledge of Art in this country is inconsistent with the existence of the Academy, and that their success as a body of men instituted for promoting and encouraging the Fine Arts, requires the destruction or concealment of all works of Art of great and acknowledged excellence. ”

“ I saw the Academy of Fine Arts last autumn, but went there again, as the exhibition of paintings had been opened. This collection, however, consisted merely of portraits, and these were rather indifferent. In general, the fine arts, as I believe has already been mentioned, do not yet flourish in the United States to a great degree ”

“ It is, I understand and believe, pretty much the same in more modern institutions for the encouragement of the Fine Arts. The end is lost in the means: rules take place of nature and genius; cabal and bustle, and struggle for rank and precedence, supersede the study and the love of art. A Royal Academy is a kind of hospital and infirmary for the obliquities of taste and ingenuity—a receptacle where enthusiasm and originality stop and stagnate, and spread their influence no farther, instead of being a school founded for genius, or a temple built to fame. ”

“ It was necessary, people were agreed, to offer, in opposition to the Academy of Fine Arts, managed by pedantic dilettants who were embittered by the triumph of the new art, a form of instruction at once free and sane. ”

“ Just as it is necessary for the painter to keep up with the times by going to the annual exhibitions of the Academy of Design, or the Academy of Fine Arts, or by seeing a selection of the pictures shown, so the artisan should keep abreast of the work done not only in this country but abroad in the same field as his own. ”

“ Three hundred artists of different nations, some of whom are known by master-pieces, while others announce the genius necessary for producing them, are to be distributed in the seven classes of this academy, which include the fine arts of every description. Each artist being at liberty to follow the branch to which he is most partial, it may easily be conceived how noble an emulation will be roused by such an assemblage of talents. Several are now employed here in the workshops of Painting, Sculpture, Mosaic, and Engraving. ”

“ This is an Art Club in effect, as well as name; rooms are artistically furnished in beautiful color harmonies, and embellished with choice bronzes bought at our Academy exhibitions, and fine porcelains. Students are educated in art, for the practical good it will do them, and cultural growth; all are day workers. The faculty is composed of well known artists; classes include portrait and still life painting; illustration and sculpture. From this school have gone some of the most original workers in the schools of the Academy of the Fine Arts. Landscape classes are in session during the summer. ”

“ He recalled to the remembrance of his auditors the circumstances in which the Academy originated, and reminded them of the encouragement which the efforts of artists had received from the countenance which the King had given to the arts. "Let those," said he, "who have traced the progress of the fine arts, say among what people did the arts rise, from such a state as that in which they were in this country about forty years ago, to the height which they have attained here in so short a period. ”

“ It has flourishing colleges, lyceums, observatories, gymnasiums, famous libraries, institutes and schools of all kinds, and the Academy of Fine Arts is celebrated all over the world. It has a beautiful triumphal arch, begun in 1807 and finished in 1838. They take their own time, them old Milanise do, but when their work is done, it is done. ”

“ At great cost it is arranged to offer every facility for thorough, systematic and complete work in this direction. The school rooms and equipment are unequalled by the Artists' League for the Academy of Design in New York, and are not excelled by the great schools of Paris, up to the present time. ”

“ Matthew Arnold says that "Culture is the acquaintance with the best that has been said and known in the world." To further such acquaintance, and in the words of the Charter, "to promote the cultivation of the Fine Arts, by introducing correct and elegant copies from the works of the first masters in sculpture and painting," was the purpose of those who, in 1805, founded the Pennsylvania Academy, the oldest art institution in the United States. ”

“ The purpose of the Academy has been and is to offer opportunities for higher education, and facilities for study subject to criticism by the instructors; it is not to teach details but the fundamentals of art, and the instruction is primarily and chiefly for those who intend to make art a profession.
When Michael Angelo saw Titian's painting of Danæ, he is said to have remarked "pity that in Venice they do not learn how to draw well," and to have added that if "art had done" for that great master of luminosity and color "all that nature had, everything would have been possible for him." ”

“ It gives us a thrill of patriotic pride, as for a moment we feel ourselves present in that Hall, already filled with sacred associations, where twenty-nine years before, the forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, and where now seventy-one of our citizens, of whom forty-one are lawyers, are met to subscribe to the articles of association for this our first art academy. ”

“ From this famous Academy down, through the International Expositions, the Salons, and the numberless exhibitions in various countries, a large proportion of medals and other honors are conferred on women, who, having now been accorded all privileges necessary for the pursuit of art and for its recompense, will surely prove that they richly merit every good that can be shared with them. ”

“ National Academy of Design.—The growing interest felt in relation to the Fine Arts in this country, and the influence which the National Academy of Design has had in producing that interest, make it imperative upon us to notice the pictures which are annually sent to this exhibition. ”

“ They have ranged themselves into four classes; the first is devoted to the improvement of natural philosophy, chemistry and mathematics, and is denominated the "Academy of Sciences;" the second makes the language and literature of France its care, and is called the "French Academy;" the third applies itself to history and ancient learning, and bears the title of the "Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres," and the fourth, the "Academy of the Fine Arts," is employed on music, painting, sculpture and architecture. ”

“ If any one be inclined to give credence to the superstition that the Academy's directors are sufficient unto to themselves, and arrogate to themselves control and responsibility for all art in Philadelphia, a protest and denial must here be entered. The Academy eighty-five years ago, was founded, fostered and built up by the citizens for the public good. ”

“ Nay, we may carry such melancholy reflections yet further, and find in them a condemnation not merely of particular works of art, but of Art herself and all that she gives us. What sums of money are involved in the building by the State of an Academy of Arts, or the purchase of ancient and modern works of art, and the appropriate embellishment of public galleries, theatres, and museums! ”

“ Thus, on the 10th December, 1768, under the title of the Royal Academy of the Arts in London, that Institution, which has done more to excite a taste for the fine arts in this country, than any similar institution ever did in any other, was finally formed and established. ”

“ A distinct feature of the School is the desire and expectation that every student shall enter the class for modelling the human figure in clay, at the same time with the class in drawing or painting, being able in this way to gain a definite knowledge of anatomical structure, form and movement. In artistic anatomy a course of thirty-five lectures is given to the whole school ”

“ As for several years past, it is in charge of a Committee of Artists, nominated by the exhibitors of the previous year, and in connection with the regular Exhibition Committee of the Directors.
Of the permanent collection of the Academy it is not always the fashion to speak with the respect which it deserves. Whether this be owing to ignorance, or to the fact that the frames of some of the pictures sadly need renewing, or to that wilful lack of appreciation, regarding its own things, which distinguishes Philadelphia among American cities, it is difficult to say. ”

“ She may, like most artists, have a specialty, but a walk through her studio and a critical examination of her work—ranging all along the line of oil paintings, water-colors of the most exquisite type, wash drawings, crayons, and pastels—would scarcely result in discovering her specialty.... As a colorist she has few rivals, and her acute knowledge of drawing and genius for composition are apparent in everything she does."
Nichols, Catherine Maude, R. E. The pictures of this artist have been hung on the line at the Royal Academy exhibitions a dozen times at least. ”

“ One can but approve the encouragement afforded women artists in France, by the generosity with which their excellence is recognized.
To be an officer in the French Academy is an honor surpassed in France by that of the Legion of Honor only. Within a twelvemonth two hundred and seventy-five women have been thus distinguished, twenty-eight of them being painters and designers. ”

“ The sketch class, the portrait class and the class in composition are open to all students. Much interest has been shown in the composition class, and good results have followed, the stimulus here given being on the literary and poetic side of art. ”

“ Grey has exhibited miniatures and pictures in both oils and water-colors at the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colors, and the exhibitions at Liverpool, Manchester, and York. Since 1890 she has continuously exhibited at the Academy of the Royal Institute, London, except in 1895 and 1902. ”

“ All universities recognize literature in the sense of the old rhetoric, which is art incarnate in words. Some, to their credit, recognize art in its narrower sense, to a certain extent, and confer degrees for proficiency in some of its branches. If there are doctors of music, why should there be no masters of painting, of sculpture, of architecture? I should like to see professors of the fine arts in every university; and instruction in some branch of their work made a part of the arts curriculum. ”

“ In conducting the schools the Direction aims that study shall be on the broadest, most liberal and highest plane, still believing, in the face of denial, that there is a conscience in art, and that earnest sincerity and genuine purpose are the proper conditions, as well as the justification for its pursuit. ”

“ Year by year the opportunities for art-study by women have been increased until they are welcome in the schools of the world, with rare exceptions. The highest goal seems to have been reached by their admission to the competition for the Grand prix de Rome conferred by l'École des Beaux Arts.
I regret that the advantages of the American Art Academy in Rome are not open to women. The fact that for centuries women have been members and professors in the Academy of St. ”

“ Many a picture he bought to help the artist, rather than for his own gratification as a collector. Further on in life he became deeply interested in the Academy of the Fine Arts, which was then in Chestnut street above Tenth. Subsequently he became its President, and very largely through his influence and his personal means that fine building at the southwest corner of Broad and Cherry street, which all of you ought to visit as opportunity is afforded, was erected as a depository of art. The splendid building of the Academy of Music at Broad and Locust street, is also largely indebted to Mr. ”

“ The present Academy building, designed by Furness and Hewitt, and dedicated to noble uses in the first year of the Nation's second century, is one of the most commodious, as well as the best adapted for its purposes of art education and art exhibition, which has been constructed in the United States. It stands as a monument to the liberality of Philadelphia's citizens, and to the energy and persistent work of Mr. ”

“ Medals in Paris and at Chicago Exposition, 1893. Born in London, 1859. Daughter of T. B. Rae, Esquire. Married the artist, Ernest Normand, 1884. Pupil of Queen's Square School of Art, Heatherley's, British Museum, and Royal Academy Schools. Began the study of art at the age of thirteen. First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and has sent important pictures there annually since that time. ”

“ A college of art founded in this part of the world cannot be expected, like a college of literature, to lay before its young members all that may be necessary to complete their knowledge and taste. What is to be had from books may be obtained almost every where; but the books of instruction by which the artist alone can be perfected, are those great works which still remain immoveable in that part of the world, where the fine arts in modern times have been carried to their highest degree of perfection. ”

“ Ries, Therese Feodorowna. Bronze medal at Ekaterinburg; Karl Ludwig gold medal, Vienna; gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900. Officer of the Academy. Born in Moscow. Pupil of the Moscow Academy and of Professor Hellmer, Vienna, women not being admitted to the Vienna Academy.
A critic in the Studio of July, 1901, who signs his article A. S. L., writes as follows of this remarkable artist: "Not often does it fall to the lot of a young artist to please both critic and public at the same time, and, having gained their interest, to continue to fill their expectations. ”