Incorporated Society of Artists

“ First it should be noted that there are very few societies designed for the artistic improvement of artists. The Artists’ Society has already been mentioned; and the Art Workers’ Guild, which meets at Clifford’s Inn Hall, provides meetings, from which the public is excluded, where profitable discussions take place on questions of craft and design. But, as a rule, the art society, of which only artists are members, is organized for exhibition purposes or for the protection of interests. ”

“ For instance, the membership of the Royal Society of British Artists advanced in the period mentioned from 80 to 150. Similar extensions can be noted in other societies, or in such a case as that of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, where the membership is limited to 100, it is to be noticed that more space is given to the works of outsiders. But the expansion of older exhibiting societies has not proved sufficient. Portrait painters, pastellists, designers, miniaturists and women artists have felt the necessity of forming separate coteries. ”

“ Such charts it is well to command in as great number as possible, and with all attainable completeness; but the Society cannot be considered as having entered on its true functions until it has obtained the hearty co-operation of European artists, and by the increase of its members, the further power of representing the subtle studies of masterly painters by the aid of exquisite engraving. ”

“ The decaying art of wood engraving is also fostered by the International Society of Wood Engravers, and the Society of Designers, founded in 1896, safeguards the interests of professional designers for applied art, without holding exhibitions. Special practice and protection are also considered by the Society of Illustrators, composed of artists who work in black and white for the illustrated press. This society was inaugurated in 1894, and fifteen of the members of the committee must be active workers in illustration. ”

“ The Woman’s Exchange was organized to provide a market for the large surplus of handiwork of all kinds that was pressed upon the society; and a less numerous, more compact organization was originated to attempt a higher development of the work—this being called the Associated Artists. Thus they had three efficient agencies occupying ground in this order, artistically considered—The Woman’s Exchange, The Decorative Art Society, The Associated Artists. ”

“ It will readily be understood that the organisation of exhibitions of this character, and with such objects as have been stated, is a far less simple matter than an ordinary picture exhibition. Instead of having an array of artists whose names and addresses are in every catalogue, our constituency, as it were, outside the personal knowledge of the Committee, had to be discovered. Under the designation of So-and-so and Co. many a skilful designer and craftsman may be concealed; and individual and independent artists in design and handicraft are as yet few and far between. ”

“ In founding the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society we desired to give opportunities of personal distinction for artistic work in design and craftsmanship, to put designers and craftsmen in the same position as other artists, such as painters and sculptors, before the public in this respect by giving the names of all responsible executants of a work. ”

“ The Society of Sign-Painters take this Opportunity of refuting a most malicious Suggestion, that their Exhibition is designed as a Ridicule on the Exhibitions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., and of the Artists. They intend theirs as only an Appendix, or (in the Stile of Painters) a Companion to the others. There is nothing in their Collection, which will be understood by any Candid Person as a Reflection on any Body, or any Body of Men. ”

“ It was first shown in England by a gentleman who saw it performed in a large party at Venice, under the direction of an officer of the American navy.
[pg 125]
ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS. "To this Society," a well-informed writer has said, "some of our best artists have owed the most priceless of all services that can be rendered to men of genius at the outset of their career—appreciation on the part of an enlightened few—introduction under favourable auspices to the many."
The Society of Arts was established in 1754, chiefly by Mr. William Shipley, a drawing-master ”

“ THE NATIONAL SCULPTURE SOCIETY Other gifts besides those commonly acknowledged as the artist’s peculiar possession are needful if the advancement of art and the status of the artist are to be fitly assured. These other gifts belonged to the painter Morse when in defending the interests of art-study he played his important part in founding our National Academy of Design in 1825. They belonged to the artists who, in espousing the cause of the young Saint-Gaudens half a century later, broke away from the Academy to form the Society of American Artists. ”

“ The New English Art Club, founded in 1885 as a protest against academic art, achieves its purpose by exhibition only. The International Society of Painters and Engravers, again, represents the wider ideas of the 20th century. ”

“ But the new society, if not official, included on its executive the strongest outsiders in Great Britain, and had the support of the most distinguished men of his profession throughout the world. Their choice of him was an acknowledgment of his supremacy as artist and an expression of confidence in him as leader, and he took no less pleasure in their tribute than trouble not to disappoint their expectations. His experience with the British Artists was a help in constituting the Society. ”

“ The Art Workers’ Guild, dating from 1884, was the source from which the new society sprang, the immediate purpose of the latter being to get the work of men who combined art with handicraft before the public by means of exhibitions, the committees of the Royal Academy and kindred associations refusing to accept examples of applied art for the exhibitions which they devoted to what they called “fine art proper.” ”

“ This society was founded in 1885 by a number of young artists who wished for facilities for exhibition which they felt were denied to them in the other galleries. It drew the greater number of its earlier supporters from the men who had been trained in foreign schools, and a complete list of the contributors to its exhibitions includes the names of many of the best known of the younger painters. ”

“ It is a very promising outlook for the future of art in our south and southwestern states that so many of the younger generation of artists are augmenting the growth of the Southern States Art League. That seems to refer to number, but not merely, for there are many sincere, enthusiastic workers, who realize the value of art to a nation, and of work to the highest achievement in art. ”

“ The arts have historically been more comfortable with collaborative production and community engagement than the humanities, though many art schools and departments do not support community engagement because of their concentration on studio teaching of future artists. ”

“ It is doubtful whether a more definite participation by the Academy in the controversies of the period would have been of any use as a means of prolonging the former good relations between artists and the collectors of works of art. The change is the result of something more than the failure of one art society to fulfil its entire Changed Conditions of British Art. mission. The steady falling off in the demand for modern pictures has been due to a combination of causes which have been powerful enough to alter nearly all the conditions under which British painters have to work. ”

“ The Exhibition of the Artists' Association offers little for remark. We are not sufficiently acquainted with the secret of the origin of this association to speak of the institution itself, but we observe many of the names familiar to us at the Academy and the Art-Union, and can truly wish that the pictures were upon the walls of one of those galleries.
On the whole, we remark an unwonted activity and interest in art. It is impossible not to rejoice at the fact, and at the brilliant proofs of artistic ability that illuminate the walls of the various galleries. ”

“ Art is one, though manifold, and when the Royal Academy of Arts, in spite of many protests, continued to restrict its Academic Exhibitions to Painting, Sculpture, and Abstract Architecture, a body of protesters came together, not any longer to protest only, but this time to constitute a society of exhibitioners who should widen the academic conception of art, and open its exhibitions to all forms of art, provided only that the form was of art, born of the imagination, and destined to touch the imagination. ”

“ Handbills were then sent over the United States announcing this fact. Of course, with such a celebrated work as this, thousands would be seduced to purchase a ticket, and thus place the Art-Union in a most flourishing condition, and probably secure to it at least double the sum which it had paid, or the sculptor had originally received, for the statue.
Now let us consider this transaction in its true light. The Art-Union was established solely for the purpose of benefiting artists, protecting their interests, and increasing the knowledge of art among the people. ”

“ We submit to the gentlemen connected with the Art-Union, that they should not suffer the hirelings they may sometimes employ upon the Bulletin, thus to refer to such artists and such men as Durand, Wier, Kellogg, Elliott, and many others, who have ventured to think that their Association does not present altogether the best means to be devised for the promotion of the fine arts. ”

“ Only a great moral earnestness joined to a knowledge of art and some acumen in judging human nature can properly answer some of the queries submitted.
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The Society’s professional membership includes nearly all persons in the United States who practise the art of sculpture with dignity and merit; it is safe to say that any renowned sculptor remaining aloof from the organization is an individualist, doubtless with a congenital distaste for organized effort. The Society’s lay membership is an unusually large and distinguished group, made up in the main of disinterested lovers of art. ”

“ The decorative designers, however, perceiving their vision of a really representative exhibition of contemporary works in all the arts fading away, and the whole force of the movement being wasted in the forlorn hope of forcing reforms upon the Academy, left the agitators in a body, and proceeded to take counsel together as to the best means of furthering their aims, and the immediate result was the founding of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society which, after many difficulties opened its first exhibition at the New Gallery in the autumn of 1888. ”

“ One is apt to forget in these enlightened days how greatly the art of painting benefited by the establishment of public exhibitions. Farington's observations on this point, occasioned by the inauguration of the exhibitions at the Society of Arts from 1760, until the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768, are both instructive and amusing. ”

“ ART SOCIETIES. In banding themselves into societies and associations artists have always been especially remarkable. The fundamental motive of such leaguing together is apparent, for, by the establishment of societies, it becomes possible for the working members of these to hold exhibitions and thereby to obtain some compensation or reward for their labours. With the growth of artistic practice and public interest, however, art societies have been instituted where this primary object is either absent or is allied to others of more general scope. ”

“ The art wants only public encouragement. Let the encouragement be given, and the talent will be found. Let Government offer a premium of even a thousand pounds for the best specimen. Let the Society of Arts make it one of [116] the objects of their patronage ”

“ III. Have they furnished any peculiar advantages to artists, as a body, by supplying the means of their improvement, in a free access to books, casts, pictures, or good engravings?
IV. Do Art-Unions promote the interests [Pg 192] and reward the labors of those who are most eminently deserving?
V. Do they elevate the pursuit of art, in the minds of the people, and teach them its value, by distributing to them, in return for their subscriptions, only the best specimens which they can purchase from the studios of our artists? ”

“ It was founded in 1849, and its purpose is to diffuse more widely, by means of suitable publications, a knowledge both of the history and true principles of Painting, Sculpture, and the higher forms of ornamental design, to call attention to such masterpieces of the arts as are unduly neglected, and to secure some transcript or memorial of those which are perishing from ill-treatment or decay. The publications of the Society have been very successful, and many of them cannot now be obtained. ”

“ As one of the regenerators of the old or American Academy of Fine Arts, I now make bold in saying to its directors a few things, which if duly weighed and followed must result favorably to its vitality and best interests, and be the medium of establishing the reputation of artists on firm and lasting basis, viz.: by collecting around the American Academy and with it all the genius and talent in the arts of design which our country possesses and creating a fund sufficient to all its wants and expenditures. ”

“ As an instance of the tendency of art workers to combine, the Society of Art Masters is a good illustration. This is an association of teachers of art schools, controlled by the art branch of the Board of Education, and has a membership of over 300. Good work of another kind occupies the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. ”

“ Since the launching of the Great Exhibition, the Society of Arts has done much good work in promoting industrial art and encouraging inventive genius. It is true that much of its work has been taken out of its hands by the societies and museums to which it has given rise. Among these is the Photographic Society, whose inception was due to the exhibition organized by Dr. ”