If the great scheme which occupied Sir Charles Barry’s last years sets men’s minds to work, indicates public necessities, and suggests the general lines of public improvement, it will (as has been said) do all that its author hoped for. An artist, himself incapable of following servilely the plans of others, could have desired nothing more than to stimulate and guide the free conceptions of the future.
CHAPTER IX.
GENERAL NOTICE OF PUBLIC LIFE.
Public action—His natural dislike of publicity—His characteristics as a Commissioner—Royal Academy—Scheme for Architectural Education—Royal Institute of British Architects—Scientific Societies—Royal Commission of 1851—Exposition Universelle of 1855—Professional arbitrations at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Leeds—St. Paul’s Cathedral Committee.
To the description already given of Sir Charles Barry’s architectural works, it is necessary to add a brief notice of the various public commissions and duties in which he was called upon to take part. The labour bestowed on such work is perhaps less effective, certainly it is less definite in its results. But no man, who takes a leading position, has either the power or the right to refuse what is absolutely necessary for collective life and action.
In respect of such official labours, it must be remembered, that his constant occupation in professional work, and his great dislike of public speaking and public appearances, kept him to some extent removed from public life. No one acted more consistently on the conviction, that each man contributes most to the great sum of general progress by doing in the best possible way the task, which his station and talents specially mark out for him. But, whenever questions arose directly or indirectly bearing upon Art, he was naturally called upon for his opinion and his services; and under these circumstances, even at the busiest periods of his life, he could always make time for the work, and take the liveliest interest in its progress.
He served, therefore, on several public commissions. In some respects he must have been an embarrassing coadjutor. At all times he was more inclined to originate than to criticize; and he would seldom consent to limit his ideas by strict considerations of immediate practicability. He was apt therefore to strike out a line of his own, for which perhaps he could not command the sympathy of his colleagues; and, even when he found the impracticability of such wider schemes, he was reluctant to acquiesce in any others, which might seem to him too narrow for the occasion. Yet it has been seen how frequently it happened, that the ideas which he threw out proved ultimately fruitful, though under other hands, and under different circumstances from those contemplated by himself. For perhaps one of his most striking characteristics was quickness of conception, and a certain “readiness of mind,” which made its large resources available on the instant. This was certainly united in his own actual work with an unwearied industry in the working out of his general conceptions, and a willingness to consider and test them in every possible point of view. But in the task of suggestion and criticism, which belongs to a commission, it had the opportunities of rapid and fruitful exercise, and he was always ready to meet every need, and overcome every difficulty. Partly from a sanguine hopefulness, which led him to make light of obstacles, partly from a deliberate conviction, that in a country like our own considerations of expense are trifling, if any great public want is really supplied, he was always led to boldness and comprehensiveness in his conceptions, which might probably cause alarm in the first instance, and prevent the immediate execution of his designs, but which nevertheless arrested public attention, and showed the ultimate object which public convenience demanded. There are few public improvements at present proposed, which did not at one time or another come under his official notice, and set his pencil to work.
He was connected also with most of the artistic and scientific societies of England, and found in them abundant scope for activity.
Royal Academy.—In the work of the Royal Academy he took the greatest interest, for he had high ideas of what it should attempt in the guidance and direct inculcation of Art. Being himself a man little fettered by system, he was quite aware how little academies can kindle originality of talent, how liable they are to the danger of ignoring or even discouraging it. He had artistic friends, whose genius he greatly admired, among those who stood aloof from the Academy, who were the bitterest denouncers of its actual work, and who would have denied it even a theoretical value. But he always maintained that it had a most important sphere, and he contended, that, allowing for the inevitable defects of all institutions, it was working usefully and conscientiously in the right path. This being the case, he was anxious at all times to improve and develope that action still further, so as to make it, even more than it is, the mainstay and guide of artistic progress.
It was to his own department of Art that his attention was mainly directed. This was due, not by any means to a narrow-minded exclusiveness, for his great desire was that all branches of Art should be proportionately represented, but to an idea that architecture and sculpture existed in the Academy almost by sufferance under the overwhelming predominance of the painters, and that they ought to have a larger influence and more extensive representation. His own art he believed to be most comprehensive of all in its scope and requirements, and at least as powerful as any, in its effects on the taste and intellectual progress of the country. He was therefore impatient of its being regarded as holding a secondary position, and having a quasi-mechanical character. As an Associate, an Academician, and a member of Council, he laboured at all times to advance its due claims.
More particularly he felt that there was in England a great want of a more formal and definite architectural education, and this want he conceived that the Academy ought to supply. In 1856 a large Committee was formed, with orders to consider how the instruction in the schools of the Royal Academy could be improved. The subject of Architecture was delegated to a small sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. Cockerell and Hardwick, and Sir C. Barry. Each member of the Committee prepared suggestions for a scheme of architectural instruction, and these suggestions were carefully and thoroughly discussed. No result, however, followed from the time and thought expended on the subject; indeed, the sub-Committee were fettered by alleged deficiency, both of accommodation and of funds, for the carrying out of a perfect scheme. They reported accordingly in favour of an annual grant of 150l. for a travelling studentship, to be held for one year, and gained by competition amongst the students who had obtained the gold medal. But even this was not acted upon.