Girtin " opened the gates of the art " and Turner entered in.
If the palette of the former was still restricted, Turner exhausted
all the resources of the colour box, and moreover enriched the
art by adding to the traditional transparent washes the effects
to be gained from the use of body colour. Body colours, however,
were not only laid on by Turner with the solid impaste of the
medieval illuminations. He was an adept at dragging thin
films of them over a tinted ground so as to secure the subtle
colour effects which can also be won in pastel. It would be
useless to attempt any account of the technical methods of
Turner or of the more modern practitioners in the art, for as in
modern oil painting so here, each artist feels at liberty to adopt
any media and processes which seem to promise the result he
has in view. The varieties of paper used in modern water-colour
practice are very numerous, and the idiosyncrasy of each artist
expresses itself in the way he will manipulate his ground;
super induce one over the other his transparent washes; load with
sohd body colour; sponge or scratch the paper, or adopt any of
the hundred devices in which modern practice of painting is so
rife. (G. B. B.)
General Authorities on Technique.— Hamerton, The Graphic Arts: A Treatise on the Varieties of Drawing, Painting and Engraving (London, 1882), a work combining technical and artistic information, is the best single book on this subject. More archaeological is Berger, Beitrage zur Entwickelungs-Geschichte der Maltechnik (Munich, 1897-1904; partly in second editions. The last part is yet to come). The series Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittclalters mid der Renaissance (Vienna, various dates from 1871) contains many publications of much value, among them being, i., Cennino Cennini, Das Buck von der Knnst, German trans, of the Trattato, with note by Ilg; vii., Theophilus, Schedula divers arum artium, Ger. trans, by Ilg. Cennino's Trattato has also been edited in English by Mrs Herringham (London, 1899). Mrs Merrifield, Ancient Practice of Painting (2 vols., London, 1849), and Sir Charles Eastlake, Materials for a History of Oil Painting (2 vols., 1849 and 1869), are valuable standard works. Information as to Byzantine processes is to be found in the Mount Athos Handbook in " Manuel d'iconographic chretienne grecque et latine, " by Didron the elder (Paris, 1845). Church, The Chemistry of Paints and Painting (:^rAed., London, 1901), is by far the best book on its subject. Vasari on Technique, trans, by Miss Maclehose and edited with commentary by Baldwin Brown (London, 1907), contains a good deal of information. Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Die Technik der Malerei (Leipzig, no date); Vibert, La Science de la peinture (Paris, 1890), may also be mentioned.
Recent Schools of Painting
British.
At the beginning of the last quarter of the 19th century British art was held to be in a vigorous and authoritative position. During the years immediately preceding k had been developing with regularity and had displayed a vitality which seemed to be full of promise. It was supported by a large array of capable workers; it had gained the widest recognition from the public; and it was curiously free from those internal conflicts which diminish the strength of an appeal for popular appreciation. There were then few sharp divergences or subdivisions of an important kind. The leadership of the Royal Academy was generally conceded, and its relations with the mass of outside artists were little wanting in cordiality. One of the chief reasons for this understanding was that at this time an almost unprecedented approval was enjoyed by nearly all classes of painters. Picture-collecting had become a general fashion, and even the youngest workers received encouragement directly they gave evidence of a reasonable share of capacity. The demand was equal to the supply; and though the number of men who were adopting the artistic profession was rapidly increasing, there seemed little danger of over-production. Pictorial art had established upon all sorts of people a hold too strong, as it seemed, to be affected by change of fashion. All pointed in the direction of a permanent prosperity.
Subsequent events provided a curious commentary on the anticipations which were reasonable enough in 1S75. That year is now seen to have been, not the beginning of an era of unexampled success for British pictorial art, but rather the culminating point of preceding activity. During the period which has succeeded we have witnessed a rapid decline in the
The
Grosveaor
Oallery
and the
Academy,
popular interest in picture-painting and a marked alteration in the conditions under which artists have had to work. In the place of the former sympathy between the public and the producers, there grew up something which almost approached indifference to their best and sincerest efforts. Simultaneously there developed a great amount of internal dissension and of antagonism between different sections of the art community. As an effect of these two causes, a new set of circumstances came into existence, and the aspect of the British school underwent a radical change. Many art workers found other ways of using their energies. The slackening of the popular demand inclined them to experiment, and to test forms of practice which formerly were not accorded serious attention, and it led to the formation of detached hostile groups of artists always ready to contend over details of technical procedure. Restlessness became the dominant characteristic of the British school, along with some intolerance of the popular lack of sympathy.
The first sign of the coming change appeared very soon after 1875. The right of the Royal Academy to define and direct the policy of the British school was disputed in 1877, when the Grosvenor Gallery was started " with the intention of giving special advantages of exhibition to artists of established reputation, some of whom have previously been imperfectly known to the public." This exhibition gallery was designed not so much as a rival to the Academy, as to provide a place where could be collected the works of those men who did not care to make their appeal to the public through the medium of a large and heterogeneous exhibition. As a rallying place for the few unusual painters, standing apart from their fellow^s in conviction and method, it had good reason for existence; and that it was not regarded at Burlington House as a rival was proved by the fact that among the contributors to the first exhibition were included Sir Francis Grant, the President of the Royal Academy, and such artists as Leighton, Millais, G. F. Watts, Alma-Tadema, G. D. Leslie and E. J. Poynter, who were at the time Academicians or Associates. With them, however, appeared such men as Burne-Jones, Holman Hunt, Walter Crane, W. B. Richmond and J. McN. Whistler, who had not heretofore obtained the publicity to which they were entitled by the exceptional quality and intention of their work. There was doubtless some suggestion that the Academy was not keeping touch with the more important art movements, for shortly after the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery there began that attack upon the official art leaders which has been one of the most noteworthy incidents in recent art history in Great Britain. The initial stage of this conflict ended about 1SS6, when the vehemence of the attack had been weakened, partly by the withdrawal of some of the more prominent " outsiders, " who had meanwhile been elected into the Academy, and partly by the formation of smaller societies, which afforded the more " advanced " of the younger men the opportunities which they desired for the exposition of their views. In a modified form, however, the antagonism between the Academy and the outsiders has continued. The various protesting art association continues to work in most matters independently of one another, with the common belief that the dominant influence of Burlington House is not exercised entirely as it should be for the promotion of the best interests of British art, and that it maintains tradition as against the development of individualism and a " new style."
The agitation in all branches of art effort was not entirely without result even inside Burlington House. Some of the older academic views were modified, and changes seriously discussed, which formerly would have been rejected as opposed to all the traditions of the society. Its calmness under attack, and its ostentatious disregard of the demands made upon it by the younger and more strenuous outsiders, have veiled a great deal of shrewd observation of passing events. It may be said that the Academy has known when to break up an organization in which it recognized a possible source of danger, by selecting the ablest leaders of the opposition to fill vacancies in its own ranks; it has given places on its walls to the works of those
