Art Students League of New York

“ While much may be urged with reason against compulsory instruction of art in the public schools, it would seem that few could be found to object to the education of art instructors, and the addition of an optional art branch to the State schools for the benefit of those who are desirous of art instruction, but are too poor to avail themselves of the advantages offered by such admirable art schools as those of the Cooper Institute and Artists' League in New York, the National Academy or the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or the Academy in Philadelphia. ”

“ New York is swarming with girl art-students. They mostly live in poor boarding-houses, and some of them actually suffer from hunger and cold. For men the profession is hazardous, arduous; for women it's a slow anguish of endeavor and disappointment. Most shop-girls earn more than most fairly successful art-students for years; most servant-girls fare better. If you are rich, and your daughter wishes to amuse herself by studying art, it's all very well ”

“ Already artists of distinction have pronounced her oil paintings of sufficient merit to entitle her to enter the Academy of Design in New York, and she has been advised to adopt art as a life vocation. ”

“ Another evidence of the awakening art feeling of a great nation is the demand for art education—a want which has been met by the establishment of numerous schools or academies of art in our leading cities all over the land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is true that in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York academies were founded early in the century, and the last especially had become a very important factor in stimulating the latent love for art in our people. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Oh, to be an artist! It has always been that. To paint beautiful pictures that will live long after I am gone, and will make people better and happier. Then the work itself would be such a joy to me. Ever since I have been old enough to realize that I will have to do something to earn my own living, I've hoped that I could do it in that way. I have had lessons from the best teachers we could get in Plainsville, and Cousin Kate took me to the finest art galleries in Europe, and promised to send me to the Art League in New York if I finished my high school course creditably. ”

“ They seem to excel in a bold, large composition and the rendering of grandiose ideas. This, rather than color, is their strong point. If our New York schools of art are able to equal the portfolio of drawings I saw as the result of a fortnightly exercise, they are certainly not in the habit of doing so. ”

“ A young man or woman can now learn just as much art in some of our great cities, like New York or Philadelphia, as abroad. Our art schools are as good as those of Paris. In fact, they are superior in some respects, and I am very sure that the average American art student is, in general, better off in the United States. ”

“ Genius in this age is pretty apt to have an eye to the main chance.
For all these reasons we are prepared for the conclusion that the impulse given to decorative art by the organizations known as the “Decorative Art Society,” and the “Associated Artists,” all of New York City, is the most valuable of anything that has been done since the nation’s new sense of the beautiful awoke. These are the parts of one movement possessing these characteristics:
It is distinctively American. ”

“ We shall not venture to touch that most sensitive of all topics, native art, on which no opinion can be expressed with safety, Suffice it to say, that New-York has a National Academy of Design; the nucleus of a free gallery; an Art-Union, largely patronized; an Artists' Association, with a gallery of its own; and various exhibitions of European pictures. Lessing's Martyrdom of Huss has been for some time exhibiting in a collection of paintings of the Düsseldorf school. ”

“ There always has been a fight on the part of the school to get what it wanted from the directors; but things can be done. Read the list of “illustrious names” of visiting instructors, years ago, and then compare the student roll of the same time. Once the Art Institute was an art school with art students, who were artists, who in spite of everything led the life of artists, knew the analogy between painting and the other Arts, swarmed to concerts and the theatres, and created their own atmosphere. ”

“ Art, from having been a very rare luxury among our forefathers even as lately as the beginning of this century, has become an adjunct, it may even be said a necessity, of our civilization. Drawing is being taught in our schools, and is regarded as one of the polite accomplishments of educated young ladies. Art galleries have sprung up everywhere, and art stores are popular resorts in our larger cities. Art societies thrive and flourish in many States, and art teachers are in demand in most of our towns. Colonies of artists swarm in stately buildings in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. ”

“ An institution incorporating in a systematic and substantial way the public and philanthropic spirit which has called into existence so many of our conservatories and schools of music is the Institute of Musical Art of the City of New York. ”

“ The time has come when a man or woman may take much pride in being a true American artist. We are no longer mere imitators. We are forging ahead into leadership, and I venture to predict that this century will see New York the art center of the world. ”

“ In the educational work of the city, a prominent place is occupied by the Art Institute, the numerous classes of which are as free as practicable, and are attended by 1000 or more students. Its Art School, which is self-supporting, offers one of the most complete courses in America: besides the usual branches of art, prospective and mechanical drawing, ceramics, and the modeling of ornament are taught by a large staff of professors. There are a year's traveling scholarship in the department of drawing and painting, and two annual scholarships for women. ”

“ The present year sees the début of a young sculptor of New-York, named Palmer, who has just finished a work of great promise, for this spring's exhibition of the National Academy, an exhibition most cheering to the friends of American art, from its marked superiority in many respects to any that have gone before it. A Home-Book of Beauty is in progress, for which a young English artist, son of the celebrated Martin, is making the portraits. This promises to be very popular, since the reputation of American female beauty is world-wide. ”

“ ART IN THE UNITED STATES.
If it is possible for this nation to become artistic in tastes and habits, we shall not fail. There is no branch of special education more enthusiastically advocated and patronized. Of course the end in view will require more advocacy and more patronage—a great deal more—but we are doing so much that the necessary more will doubtless be done. It should be remembered too, that if blood tells in the matter of art culture we have no lack of blood drawn from the artistic nations. Flemings, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and even Greeks, come to New York in large numbers ”

“ Charles Martel, chief of the catalog division in the Library of Congress, Dr. Andrews, librarian of the John Crerar library, Chicago, and others also expressed their belief in close classification as a safeguard against confusion and unscientific grouping.
Only a few minutes remained for a paper on "Art in the college library," by Mr. FRANK WEITENKAMPF, chief of the art department, New York public library.
ART IN THE COLLEGE LIBRARY
The problem of art in schools has been frequently discussed. The matter of art in colleges, apparently, has not been so much considered. ”

“ Throughout his life he was ever producing canvases, and designing, and his interest in the art activity of the country, which connects his name with the establishment of the New York Academy of Design, together with his writing on the subject, make him an important figure in that line of work. ”

“ The Art Students' League, founded in 1875, was incorporated in 1878, and the Society of American Artists was established in the same year. Societies and painters began to spring up all over the country, and as a result there is in the United States to-day an artist body technically as well trained and [268] in spirit as progressive as in almost any country of Europe. ”

“ If you did not, art life in New York might be a very dreary thing and one might go a long time without finding just the particular crowd with which to associate.
Beside the painting world there was the illustrating world, made up of beginners and those who had established themselves firmly in editorial favor. These were not necessarily a part of the painting or sculpture worlds and yet, in spirit, were allied to them, had their clubs also, and their studios were in the various neighborhoods where the painters and sculptors were. ”

“ The facade also contained an admirable exhibit of art work prepared by the students of the New York School of Applied Design for Women.
SIGNIFICANCE OF SOME CITY EXHIBITS Various methods of instruction peculiar to certain cities or localities were fully set forth. Albany exhibited the work of one of the most complete systems of free kindergartens in the country, as well as the correlation of subjects in the elementary grades; also manual training and art courses in the high school. ”

“ The Federation of Child Study in conjunction with the Women’s City Club, the National Committee for Better Films and the Juvenile Motion Picture League, have formulated a scheme by which entertainments suitable for young people are given in the various picture theatres on Fridays and Saturdays, for which the Committee select the films to be shown and guarantee an audience. The University of the State of New York are making every endeavour to promote “visual education.” ”

“ Nothing of the artist's pleasure, nor of the revelation of that larger world which surrounds and completes our own, is lost to him because a careful technique has been exacted,—on the contrary this has only dignified and enhanced it. It would also be easy to illustrate youth's eagerness for artistic expression from the recitals given by the pupils of the New York Music School Settlement, or by those of the Hull-House Music School. These attempts also combine social life with the training of the artistic sense and in this approximate the fascinations of the five-cent theater. ”

“ During the next twenty-five years few if any women exhibited paintings in the National Academy of Design in New York, or in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. But a few had the impetus and instinct for art, and like bulbs beneath the Winter snows were persistently growing toward the season of buds and blossoms ”

“ A REPRESENTATIVE EXHIBIT Almost every New York painter of individuality and ability—in oil, water-color and miniature work—was represented adequately and creditably; the exhibit of sculpture was exceptionally fine; etching and engraving were exemplified by the ablest exponents of these branches of art, wood engraving by types of its highest expression; there was an excellent collection of works from the leading American illustrators, and noteworthy examples of the applied arts—of artistic handicrafts—by New York art workers were well in evidence. ”

“ I have never quite managed to shake off the attitude of mind of a student, and I find myself constantly weaving my experiences in New York into my philosophy of life. The two events which seem to stand out most clearly are the visit to the Art Museum, and the concert at the Metro [101] politan. That was a glorious day, for it showed how men in the rush and flurry of business life have at hand the means of soul purifying and refreshment in art and music, two great agencies which bring men’s minds back from semblances to truth. Will you ever forget the music we heard? ”

“ It is a noticeable fact that, since women entered the field of palette and brush, a large per cent have been natives of Pennsylvania, or have been attracted to its school of Fine Arts for instruction in painting, while those whose natural ability decided for the plastic medium of clay, mallet, and chisel, seem to have found needed help in the schools or studios of New York. ”

“ What influences one most at college, and makes most for one's happiness, is not the fact of the work in recitation-rooms, out of books, laboratories, and under teachers. The glory of college life is, that wherever one goes, the eyes look out on beauty, and wherever one works, there are those whom we love who work beside us.
As one passes down the long college corridors, the eyes fall upon palm and statue, upon frieze and fresco, and the carbon copies of immortal paintings. Everywhere there are the inspirations of sculpture and architecture, of music, literature, and art. ”

“ No country in the world has such advantages as France for nurturing talent, and giving it the opportunity of developing itself, so numerous are the societies and institutions where lectures and instruction are afforded gratuitously, hence the great assistance to young artists; without any expense or trouble, they are admitted into a drawing academy, where they may acquire the fundamental principles of the graphic art ”