Colour in the Home

INTRODUCTION IT is impossible that we can attain to a national taste in art and colour such as has been long characteristic of Continental nations-France and Italy and Spain-until we realise how important it is that the people, as an essential part of their education, should be taught to appreciate the beautiful. How much less likely are we to rival in this matter the great peoples of the East Until we have accomplished this we can only excel here and there by producing perhaps a few great masters of landscape and of sculpture such as those in the past whose very success should have encouraged us to go on and hope for a raised standard of taste amongst the general public. As it is, only a handful of us know how to appreciate the great things actually accomplished by our countrymen, and the general improvement in taste if it exists at all has not reached the masses. The houses of the middle and lower classes are far less artistic in their ornaments and furniture than the hut of an African savage, while the houses of the wealthy owe their beauty, when they possess it, to the help of experts. The excellent institutions which do encourage art education fail utterly to produce any widespread benefit. Is it therefore not time we realised that no haphazard system of art education such as ours can ever produce the permanent and general result we desire In literature the whole, level of literary composition has been raised, and the work of the day labourer at the present time often surpasses the work of those regarded as men of genius in the days of Dr. Johnson or Professor Wilson. In art, on the contrary, the lwel has remained unaltered, and the gulf between the great men we have produced and the journeyman is indeed a wide one. As Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson said long ago Taste, to be of use, must pervade all classes and by this means graceful and beautiful objezts for cveryday use will come into general demand, and be generally made. They will also be obtained at moderate prices, and be placed within the reach of all, instead of being confined to the wealthy few who happen to be possessd of cultivated taste. . . . Until good thing are within the reach of all, and recognised by the majority, it is vain to hope for exceltence in any country. It wouId be well if we realised these facts, for during, the next ttventy years there is promise of important developments in trade, and. if we would hold a foremost place, those engaged in the industrial arts will need a very much more thorough education than is provided at the present moment. Art and industry must be united. Countries of taste like Italy and France have long recognised the value of art as a national asset and have profited by their wisdom in giving it organised and persistent support. Has the reader ever considered how pitiful would have been the state of our art museums and galleries if it had not been for private benefactors like Sir John Soane, Sir Kichard Wallace, John Joncs, Sir Henry Tate, Georgc Salting, and othcrs And yet we arc the foremost trading and manufacturing nation in the vorld l Amongst thc improvcmcnts we so urgently need is the appointment of a Minister of Finc Arts. The present state of dividcd authority is shown by the result of recent so-called street inlprovemcnts and nellrly-erected public buildings...