The Scottish Art Review
- ,* FOUR PLATES are issued mth this
number of the Scottish Art Review. The repro- duction of the Blairs College Portrait of Mary QtiEEN OF Scots we are enabled to give by kind permission of Archbishop Eyre. The original portrait is a full-length. It has been reproduced in half-length form in order to show the head on a sufficient scale. To Mr. James Donald we are indebted for kindly allowing us to reproduce an important and characteristic painting by Mr. William M'Taggakt, R.S.A. The picture is entitled 'A Highland Buen,' and is in Mr. Donald's private collection. Two plates are illus- trative of a Review of ' The Glasgow Architectural Association Sketch Book,' the drawing of Rowallan Castle being by Mr. A. Paterson, and that of Chester Cathedral Pdlpit by Mr. Prentice. — Ed. THE PROSPECTS OF ART UNDER SOCIALISM. FOR the sake of clearness, I will commit myself to a definition : firstly of art, which, so far as its meaning can be packed up into the portmanteau of a sentence, might be described as a form of vital force applied to the expression of Beauty. This will at any rate sufficiently indicate the point of view from which I regard it. As to Socialism, I know no better, or more portable, definition than that of Mr. Belfort Bax — namely, that Socialism is a new view of life upon an ecotiomic basis. Under the present system of commercial com- petition, every opportunity which seems to afford a chance of gaining a livelihood, or a hope of gain, stimulates people to activity in all manner of ways. But it is an unwholesome stimulus, especially in its effisct upon art and artists, and as a result, the market is flooded with every kind of catchpenny abomination — pictures or so-called ornaments, and objects of art which could have brought no joy to the maker of them, and can bring no real or lasting pleasure to the user, for whom perhaps they but fit the whim of the moment, or are only bought because of the persuasive eloquence of some adroit salesman (under the aforesaid stimulus of gain), and for no better reason than that such things are in fashion. Now, naturally, there is this characteristic about geniune spontaneous art, that its creation is a pleasurable exercise and excitement. The artist is always anxious to give out what he has — to offer his best to the sight of all men ; and so far he is naturally sociahstic. Indeed, art itself is essentially a social product intimately associated with common life, and depending for its vitality upon a co- operation of all workers, upon living traditions, and quick and universal sympathies. These are its sunlight and air. Where the love of art is sincere, given the capacity, all a man would ask would be security of livelihood, with a fair standard of comfort and refinement, and materials to work with. For the rest it would be simply a pleasurable thing to exercise his crea- tive powers for the benefit of the community, and the praise he might win. It would seem, too, that humanity under any system cannot do without art in some form or another, and is always ready to welcome and reward the artist who has the skill to interpret nature, or beautify and refine the life of every day. But no artist, in so far as he is worthy of the name, works consciously for the sake of reward, other than the sympathy and praise of his contemporaries. Modern commercialism does its best to turn him into a man of business, but that was not his natural destiny. Originally one with the constructive workman, the builder, the smith, the carver, the weaver, the potter, he put the touch of art on his work in refining play of line and pattern, and he saw that it was good, with the pleasure and delight of a craftsman. So use and beauty were one in the old simple
