Designing patterns for different manufactures,
especially for the potter and the weaver, is an
industry successfully followed by large numbers of
women in England, who do excellent work, and are
well paid for it ; but in Scotland women have
hitherto been backward in taking up this branch of
industrial art. A few women are employed as
designers in some of our best curtain and carpet
factories, but the number is very small. Wood-
engraving, which is a remunerative art, and one well
suited to women, is largely practised by them in
England. On asking a partner in a large Scotch
printing firm where their woodcuts were done, ' We
send them,' he said, 'to London, where they are
all cut by ladies.' There are excellent schools of
art in Scotland, where female students of drawing
take high places : how does it happen then that an
industry such as this is not carried on by Scotch-
women in Scotland . The art of wood-carving is
now beginning somewhat feebly to make its way as
an industry for women in the north, though it has
long been considered, and rightly so, as a delightful
recreative employment for amateurs. Combined
with a knowledge of design, wood-carving is both
interesting and remunerative ; but like most other
industries it requires a serious training, and there is
some difficulty in obtaining this in Scotland. There
are studios botli in Glasgow and Edinburgli (those
of the Social Union and of the Home Arts and
Industries Association) where ladies can learn this
art, and where they are employed to a considerable
extent both as teachers and in executing orders ;
but neither of these societies undertakes the regular training of apprentices as is done in London by the
School of Art Wood-carving. This institution has
now been established for some years, and is in con-
nection with the City arid Guilds of London Insti-
tute for the advancement of technical education :
male and female students or apprentices are received
on equal terms, a fair knowledge of freehand drawing being an indispensable qualification. A lady, herself a professional carver, is at the head of the school as manager, two excellent master-carvers are the instructors, and a lady formerly an apprentice of the school assists in teaching : the work done is of a very high class, and a number of the female students as well as the men are provided with
remunerative employment. It is much to be wished
that the germ contained in the studios already mentioned may one day develop into a floui'ishing
institution such as this.
C. P. Anstkuther.
GENERAL NOTES ON ART.
The Prize of Rome for 1888 in Architecture has been awarded to M. Joseph-Albert Tournaire, of Nice, a pupil of M. Andre. We find an interesting illustration of the system of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the fact that M. Tournaire was second in the competition for the Grand Prize in 1S82, and, after so nearly winning it once, has worked patiently for six years before his final success. Judging from the time usually necessary to enable a student in the school to win even a second Grand Prize, his course must have lasted at least ten years, and he has five years more of student life before him at the Villa Medici. For all this M. Tournaire, who is now in his twenty-seventh year, is rather a young man to have reached the highest academical honour, and he must have been an exceptionally brilliant student to gain the second place six years ago. The second in rank this year is M. Sortais, pupil of MM. Daumet and Girault, who gained the third position in 1SS6 ; and the third is M. Huguet, pupil of M. Elondel. ’Artistic Japan ' promises to be a mine of richly varied artistic material, each number containing nine plates, many of them reproductions in colour of lanes from the sketch-books of celebrated Japanese artists. There are also reproductions of characteristic fabric designs, pieces of pottery and metal-work. The illustra- tions are among the best of the kind we have seen, and leave little to be desired. From the names given in the introduction, one or two of which are Japanese, we believe the work to be in thoroughly competent hands, and likely to prove the most valuable contribution on the art of Japan that has yet appeared. Mr. John Lavery's Exhibition Pictures. — We have been favoured with a private view of this interesting collection of pic- tures, which will be on exhibition at the galleries of Mr. Craibe Angus, Queen Street, during the present month. The pictures are about fifty in number, and consist of finished work studies and lighter sketches of various parts of the Exhibition and Grounds. Many of the pictures are exceedingly beautiful, portraying aspects of light and colour on the buildings which only the artistic insight and delicate perception of such an artist as Mr. Lavery could have been able to discern. The masterly drawing and skilful treatment of the crowds of people at the various sights throughout the Exhi- bition exemplify the artist's unusual power of rendering life and animation. To very many of the visitors and regular /labitites these pictures will come like a revelation of numberless points of artistic interest and beautiful harmonious colour and form which exist in scenes with which they have become familiar. For ourselves, we may say that since seeing these studies a new interest has been added to our visits to the Exhibition, as we are now continually seeing beauties in the effects of sunlight and evening shadows which, combining with the bright colours of the buildings, the foliage and gay costumes of the ladies, form a series of exquisite living pictures. The true aim of every artist is to make others see the subtle charm of nature as he sees it, to feel the beauty of colour-line and form as he feels it. Mr. Lavery has succeeded in these pictures in demonstrating to all who see them the wondrous power of art to enrich our interest in what goes on around, by opening our eyes and minds to innumerable beauties and charms whose existence we scarcely suspect. We will not at present single out any pictures for particular notice, but reserve giving a more detailed review till the Exhibition is open to the public.
Two more busts were unveiled the other d.ay in the Hall of the Wallace Monument at Stirling, now making the number seven, all of them executed by D. W. Stevenson, Sculptor, Edinburgh. One would like to know if the custodiers have selected this particular artist to be their sculptor-in-ordinary. It would surely be fitting, if we are to have a collection of busts of great Scotsmen, that the art should be representative of the times, and not of an individual. Seven busts all seen together, even were they the work of a high-class sculptor, with a wide grasp of character, would be apt to appear monotonous ; so, what must be the effect in the present case?
