A letter to the council of the Society of Arts, on elementary education in the arts of design

Abstract

To the Council of the Society of Arts.

Gentlemen,

I observe from the published weekly proceedings of the Society for the week ending 31st January 1852, that you have appointed a Committee to carry out the establishment of Elementary Drawing and Modelling Schools for Artizans and Mechanics, and that you have put forth a statement of your views and intentions, desiring, at the same time, to call the attention of the Members generally to the following extract :-

" The Great Exhibition has materially strengthened a growing conviction, that one ef the most serious disadvantages under which ornamental British manufactures are produced, is the want of artistic knowledge and executive ability on the part of the artizans engaged in producing them. Every one competent to judge admits that the ornamental productions of the French exhibit much more ability, on the part of the French workman, in drawing, modelling, chasing, &c., than our own. The Council believe that a radical cure for many imperfections of British manufactures will be found in a much more , enlarged and liberal system of Art-education than at present exists - an education which will make the power of drawing at least as easy to be acquired as that of writing, and shall begin at an early period of life. The Council are convinced that there is hardly any handicraft in which a workman can be engaged, as a carpenter, mason, smith, tailor, &c., which would not be greatly improved by an ability to perceive the form of objects correctly, and represent it with precision.''

Having had the honour of being examined before a select Committee of the House of Commons on Arts and their Connexion with Manufactures, so far back as 1836, and the evidence I gave, and the suggestions I offered on that occasion, agreeing with the belief at which you have now arrived, I take the liberty respectfully to address you on the subject.

My evidence was given at great length, filling nearly seven pages of the Committee's printed Report. Since that time I have thought much on the subject, and in several works published in the interval, have treated of it very fully. But as, these works are not calculated to get rapidly into circulation, and as the demand for a better mode of disseminating an elementary knowledge of Art amongst the working classes is urgent, I shall take the liberty of laying before you a few of my opinions thus published, which seem to me in some measure to meet the present exigency... [Excerpt]