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ijj-ounniii -Li-M.ii.D, oaiOUR LADIES’ COLUMN.If three-fourths of the people who find pleasure almost without limit in works of art were to trace back their early impressions to their source* the great debt owed to old engravings would be cordially ac-'I knowledged. Before the days of photography, coloured lithography, chromo-lithographs, and other cheap reproductive processes, art was represented in middle-class houses by engravings on copper and steel. Most of us can remember our first acquaintance with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Peter Lely, Angelica Kauffman, Cipriani ltomney, Sir Thoma3 Lawrence, and others, not in their original paintings, for they were away far cut of reach, but by the engravings from the pictures which hung in the rooms of our fathers and mothers, and bur grandfathers and grandmothers. We knew George the Third and all his family by sight quite as well as if we had seen them in the flesh. We had our first idea*, of Court beauties in the ladies of the Georgian period in short waists, elbow sleeves, and Court plumes instinctively feeling that they had sweet, gracious manners, and were not by any means every-day folk. We got a good deal out of the illustrations of folio ' editions of certain books. Handel’s bust in the frontispieces of the earlier editions of his works impressed his personality indelibly upon young minds. Virtues, vices, graces, attributes, all expressed after the quaint fashion of the day in characteristic figures and grouns of figures, became almost friends in households. The freaks of Cupid, the power of Beauty, the charm of the Graces,the distinctive emblems of the tuneful Nine, these and many other scraps of useful knowledge were imbibed, rather than learned* in those earlier times, before the higher education of women had been invented, or the permission given for girl graduates to qualify for degrees in arts. The list of our benefactors, to whom we owe so much, is shorter than might be supposed. Among the engravers of the last century, one stands out, the most prominent figure among them all, Francesco Bartolozzi. An Italian who had studied first at Florence, and then at Venice, he came to England in 1700. He brought with him skill in his particular kind of wurk, and power of delineation, which was then unknown, and has never since been excelled. Pencil and brush, graver and etching point, he u.-ed with equal facility. His apprenticeship over, lie engraved on his own account for various patrons, artists, printsellers, and private owners of pictures. At the time of Barto-lozzi’s arrival in England a new style ofengraving— the stippled—had become the fashion. It suited the Italian engraver’s method, and still more did he suit it, for he brought it to a perfection which established its reputation as an acknowledged- branch of art. If Bartolozzi’s stippled red or brown prints had had their first day of admiration now, we should stylo them “ high art ”• engravings, and so in point of fact they were. But the great engraver was equally strong in line engraving and etching, and though lie fell in with the humour of the times, and produced what then sold, he has left specimens - of other styles which, will always be in fashion, because unapproached in beauty by any of his disciples or pupils who profited by his teaching. Some 20 years ago or more the Prince Consort, who Was far in advance of public taste, made a collection of Bartolozzi prints. Slowly' since that time the appreciation for them has been growing, which has culminated in an exhibition in the Savile Galleries, Savile* row, of a loan collection of Bartolozzi’s works. To visit the rooms is to have a lesson in humility, in seeing how vastly superior our great grandfathers were to ourselves; it is like a renewal of youth to recognise the old prints that were the pleasure and instruction of days lang syne; it is comforting to find that however false were many of the early formed estimates of men and things, the Bartolozzi engravings are rich in comfort and grand in suggestiveness. For ladies the Savile Gallery ought to have especial interest, for here it is that Mr. E. Barrington Nash, to whose exertions the bringing together of the exhibition is owing, means to establish his art school of fan painting.The Society for Psychical Research, to which allusion was recently made in connection with the subject of ghosts, has held its second meeting. Admission being courteously, accorded to strangers, tliere-was a rush of visitors, all devoured with curiosity to know the result of the society’s inquiries. Without wishing to disparage jitlier the ability or the politeness of the members, it must be admitted that the result of the meeting was rather disappointing. The ground which the object of the inquiries covers is so extensive, including thought-reading, clairvoyance, c., that ghost hunting is only treated of incidentally, and very little information was given by the committee appointed to investigate haunted houses. The ghosts that haunt old manor houses and supply material for Christmas stories are not to be dislodged for a little longer. Any fears entertained that these ancestors and ancestresses would disappear under the “girding of nineteenth century young men may be laid to rest. The two cases brought before the,meeting were similar in one respect, the owners of the houses declining to-give a local habitation and a name, and one story was at least a quarter of a century old. People who own a good old family ghost have, as a rule; a great objection to the application of the scientific method. A case is on record.respectfully tendered to the members of the Psychical Society,ofafamily ghost which had shrieked, and sobbed, and groaned in the vicinity of the guest chamber for many years. A visitor to the house had the temerity to occupy the room and hunt down the troubled and troubling spirit.' A swarm of bees had got under the roof, and had lived, worked, and enjoyed the fruit of their labours for many years undisturbed. It is almost unneces* sary to add that in spite of the wealth of honey to which the owners were introduced, that visitor was never forgiven having carried his investigations to such a conclusion. The ghost had conferred considerable dignity upon the mansion, and consequently upon the family, and when the story got abroad of the hive of bees, Ieliabod was necessarily the only motto suitable for the heraldic device.The Christmas Cattle Show is over, and our provincial friends have returned home. Time was when these visitors were suggestive subjects for the comic writers. We called them Hodge and Margery, sneered at their tailors, laughed at their woollen mufflers, and.professed horror at their rustic manners. No arguments would have convinced us that these people were like oufselves in miud any more than they were in manners. Between us and them was a great gulf which centuries of civilisation and decades of education would be needed to bridge over. The sooner we drop all this conceited and exceedingly tall talk the better. The farmer of to-day bears no resemblance to the farmer of mme years ago. Not only has he had the advantages of modern education, but his tastes are cultured. He reads a daily paper, and has one or two London weeklies to fill up .Sunday. He lias his clothes from- London or Oxford, or the town at which he was educated. When he comes up to London he is no longer a fish out of water, but perfectly at home in its ways. Over the women of the family the same change has passed. Their dress is possibly a little exaggerated in style, as it is constructed from fashion journals, hut the wearers are quick to Replace the provincial hat or bonnet with one from Regent-street. They lay in new music and make annual arrangements at Mudie’s, or the more fashionable Grosvennr Gallery Library. Madame Tussaud’s is visited, not to see the Chamber of Horrors, but to get hints for fancy dresses. We have no right to grudge our countrymen and countrywomen all the comforts which a higher civilisation affords, but farming as a profession cannot fit in with these conditions. Our climate would in itself be preventive of the certainty of a steady return for labour, hut the relations between the ground and the tiller mu.-t needs be closer. In the colonies it is so, and work is accepted as a necessity. In England we strive to combine the social, the intellectual, and the agricultural, and the result U failure. These are the convictions which force themselves on Londoners who have been watching the gradual changes from year to year in the dru»*, manners, and habits of our cattle show visitors.
Newspaper Details
London Mid Surrey Times and General Advertiser
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Dec 16, 1882
Page 3
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CA 04 May 2025
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