THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18879, 29 November 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

RELATION TO BRITISH ART.

BT W. PAGE ROWE.

The Royal Academy has long had attached to it a popular tradition amounting to something very like a superstition, and, like most superstitions, founded on misconception. This error has done a good deal of harm to the progress of British art.

The Royal Academy was founded by George 111., in 1768, but it was not then, and never has been, a national concern under national control. The King undertook to meet any deficit from his private purse, and he advanced about £6000 during the first 12 years, after which no further demand was made upon the Royal patron.

The first exhibition was held in Pall Mall, but three years later the King found the Academy house room in his palace at Somerset House. In 1837 it moved to the National Gallery, and in 1867, having obtained a 999 years' lease of old Burlington House and the garden beyond, it erected the present buildings out of its savings, at a cost of over £160,000.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was the first president, and received his knighthood on that occasion. Not only by his splendi genius as a painter, but by his cultu and the standing in society which he hi. made for himself, he brought a distinction to the Academy which raised artists from their despised position, and won for art a national recognition which it had never received before.

But this social elevation has not always been for the good of British art. Succeeding presidents have too often been chosen for their social qualifications rather than for the quality of their art, and the same element has more than once prevented the election of an artist to the Academy, although his work was emphatically deserving of the highest honour, because his manners lacked the required polish.

Its personnel now consists of 40 Academicians (R.A.'s.), 30 Associates (A.R.A-'s) and seven honorary members. The body consists of painters, sculptors, engravers, and architects, in fixed proportion. One may take this opportunity to correct a very common idea that every artist whose work is accepted for exhibition is forthwith entitled to put R.A. after his name, whereas that privilege is strictly limited to the number just stated, and new members are elected only as vacancies occur through death or retirement. Artists are long-lived, and during the 156 years of its existence the Royal Academy has had but twelve presidents and about 400 members, a number of whom have not achieved the final distinction of R.A. One may say, without much fear of contradiction, that certainly not more than 7 per cent, of this whole list of artists, have survived by their work. It ia commpn knowledge that many have been elected without any just claim to that distinction whatever, and we must bear in mind that contemporary judgment is always likely to be influenced by contemporary achievement. All institutions having a settled numerical constitution abhor continued vacancies as Nature abhors a vacuum, and worthy candidates are not always forthcoming.

The Hanging Committee. It will be readily understood that the Royal ' Academy exhibitions necessarily reflect; the preferences and prejudices of that body and experience teaches that it has excluded and strenuously resisted departure, from its tradition, even after the results have been abundantly justified. Only very rarely has it welcomed new and unaccustomed manifestations of genius. The New Gallery, the Royal Society of British Artists, the New English "Art Club, and other societies, have come into being from time to time, as a protest against this attitude. Their exhibitions have brought to light splendid work, which the Royal Academy would not receive.

As a matter of fact, no one body will ever be created which will bo catholic enough, and remain so, to be in sympathy with art as a whole. Artistic sects are as inevitable and as necessary to complete expression of art as are religious sects for the expression of religious convictions. The last word in art will never be spoken, because its principles are for ever becoming fluid and recrystallised into new forms. The postulates of yesterday become the negations of to-day. To return to the Academy. Anyone may submit work without let or hindrance, and on the receiving days the road at the back of Burlington House is almost blocked by furniture vans and carts and cars of every description, all loaded with pictures to be deposited in the vast vaults, from thence to m hoisted upstairs before the Hanging Committee, which consists of the president and ten members, who serve in rotation. In about five or six weeks the judging is done, and the exhibition of about 1600 works is arranged. Considering that many thousands of works are sent in, it _is hard to see how the Hanging Committee can do full justice to its task. No mortal man can perform the exacting work of criticism for many hours on end and days in succession, and still keep his judgment unclouded. Were it not that the public accepts without question the verdict of the Academy, and consequently pays handsomely for its hall-mark, many artists would not seek a place on its walls.

A Place on the Line. The fallibility of the Academy is well illustrated by the following story which I had from a friend of the artist concerned. A mutual friend brought Sir Frederick Leighton, then President of the Academy, to the studio of J. M. Swan, who was then quite unknown. Leighton admired his work, and suggested that he should send to the Academy. Swan accordingly sent a picture, which was promptly rejected. He sent no more until, meeting Leighton again, and having meanwhile achieved some fame, the president asked him why She did not send to Burlington House. Swan replied, " I will not do so again until I am invited to a place on the line." " Very well," answered Leighton, " send us a picture and we will certainly place it on the line." Swan sent the picture which had already been rejected. It was placed on the line and bought for the nation, under tho terms of the Chantry Bequest, for £700, and the administering of that fund is in the hands of the Royal Academy. Swan subsequently became an B.A. There are numerous instances of pictures being sent in year after year, and being finally accepted. All this goes to show the fallacy of thinking that the artistic value of any picture is guaranteed by iti exhibition at the Academy. It is bad enough when acted upon by private individuals, but when public gallery officials act upon it, it is deplorable. There is not a single public collection at Home which has not suffered in quality through this ignorance of the facts, and where such a collection comes to bo weeded out, as most of them do sooner or later, quite a respectable proportion of these Academy pictures is banished to the cellars, or sold at a very considerable loss. Of course, to say that the Academy does not often show works of highest merit, as some would-be superior persons and rejected artists wduld have us believe, is manifestly absurd. It exhibits much of the very highest quality, and lias artists of world-wide reputation upon its roll, but it is wise to remember that it is xu4 infallibly