"To attain the power of imitating the forms of letters with freedom and precision in all their due proportions and various elegant turns, as Snell has given them, requires as much skill as to copy different forms of columns and cornices in architecture, and might with some show of propriety be said to demand a knowledge of design; yet common sense and experience convince us that the proper place for acquiring a fine hand is a writing-school. As measuring is but measuring, I do not think that a tailor would make a suit of clothes fit better from having been employed twice seven years in taking the dimensions of all the bits of antiquity that remain in Greece.[43] How absurd would it be to see periwig-makers and shoemakers' boys learning the art of drawing, that they might give grace to a peruke or a slipper! If the study of Claude's landscapes would benefit the carver of a picture-frame, or the contemplation of a finely-painted saucepan by Teniers or Bassan would be an improvement to a tinman, it would be highly proper for this society to encourage them in the practice of the arts. But as this is not the case, giving lads of all ranks a little knowledge of everything is almost as absurd as it would be to instruct shopkeepers in oratory, that they may be thus enabled to talk people into buying their goods, because oratory is necessary at the bar and in the pulpit. As to giving premiums to those that design flowers, etc. for silks and linens, let it be recollected that these artisans copy the objects they introduce from nature,—a much surer guide than all the childish and ridiculous absurdities of temples, dragons, pagodas, and other fantastic fripperies which have been imported from China.
"As from all these causes (and many more might be added) it appears that a smattering in the arts can be of little use except to those who make painting their sole pursuit, why should we tempt such multitudes to embark in a profession by which they never can be supported? For historical pictures there never can be a demand:[44] our churches reject them; the nobility prefer foreign productions; and the generality of our apartments are too small to contain them. A certain number of portrait-painters, if they can get patronized by people of rank, may find employment; but the majority even of these must either shift how they can amongst their acquaintance, or live by travelling from town to town like gipsies. Yet, as many will be allured by flattering appearances, and form vague hopes of success, some of the candidates must be unsuccessful; and men will be rendered miserable who might have lived comfortably enough by almost any manufactory, and will wish that they had been taught to make a shoe, rather than thus devoted to the polite arts.[45] When I once stated something like this to the society, a member humanely remarked, that the poorer we kept the artists, the cheaper we might purchase their works."
These two societies, of whose projects and practice Hogarth seems to have entertained very similar opinions, became for a short time so far connected, that where one held their meetings the other exhibited their pictures. The donations in painting which Hogarth and several other artists had made to the Foundling Hospital had much engaged the public attention; and the painters finding the effects they produced, determined to try the fate of an exhibition of their work; in consequence of which, on the 27th of February 1760, Mr. Hayman, then chairman of the committee of artists, wrote a letter to the society for encouragement of arts, requesting permission for the painters to exhibit at their great room opposite Beaufort Buildings in the Strand; and in the following May they accordingly made their first Exhibition. This proved very attractive; and, from the money paid for admission, they were soon enabled to relieve not only the indigent of their own body, but also aliens; and to establish themselves into a regular institution by the name of "A Society of Artists, associated for the relief of the distressed and decayed of their own body, their widows, and children." For these humane purposes they agreed to form a fund. As far as this plan went it had Hogarth's approbation; and for their Exhibition Catalogue of 1761 he made two designs, which were engraved by Mr. Charles Grignion, and of which the following are copies:—
FRONTISPIECE
TO THE CATALOGUE OF THE ARTISTS' EXHIBITION, 1761.
"Et spes et ratio studiorum in Cæsare tantum."[46]—Juv.
FRONTISPIECE TO ARTISTS' CATALOGUE
Erected in the cleft of a rock, we have here a building intended for a reservoir of water; and by the bust of his present Majesty being placed in a niche of an arch, which is lined with a shell and surmounted by a crown, we must suppose it a royal reservoir. The mouth of a mask of the British lion is made the water-spout for conveying a stream into a garden-pot, which a figure of Britannia holds in her right hand, and, with her spear in the left, is employed in sprinkling three young trees, the trunks of which are entwined together, and inscribed, "Painting, Sculpture, Architecture." These promising saplings are planted upon a gentle declivity. Painting is on the highest ground, and Sculpture on the lowest. It is worthy of remark that the fructifying stream which issues from the watering-pot falls short of the surface on which is planted the tree inscribed Painting, and goes beyond the root of that termed Sculpture; so that Architecture, which is much the loftiest and most healthy tree, will have the principal benefit of the water. If the tree of Painting is attentively inspected, it will be found stunted in its growth, withered at the top, and blest with only one flourishing branch, which, if viewed with an eye to what the artist has previously written, seems intended for portrait-painting. The tree which is the symbol for Sculpture appears to bend and withdraw itself from the reservoir;[47] one branch from the centre of the trunk is probably funereal, and intended to intimate sepulchral monuments. The top, being out of sight, is left to the imagination.
Those who wish to inquire how far this allegorical and sylvan symbol has proved prophetic of the unequal encouragement now given to the different branches of the arts, may go to Somerset House, contemplate the building, pay their shilling, and walk through the rooms of the Royal Academy during the time of their annual exhibition!