Dudley Gallery Art Society. (Closes Aug. 3.) Earl's Court Exhibition of Modern Italian Art. This contains seven pictures by Segantini; also reproductions by Sangiorgi of Italian marbles, furniture, embroideries, etc., exhibited by Messrs. Norman and Stacey. C. J. Charles. Exhibition of Garden Ornaments. (See below).

Dowdeswell Galleries. Pictures by Old Masters, Early English, Italian, Dutch, and Other Schools. (August and September.)

Leicester Galleries.

English Water-colours. Drawings

for Punch by L. Raven-Hill. Water-colours by W. Lee Hankey.

Shepherd Bros. Pictures by Early British Masters. Bradford :

Cartwright Memorial Hall. Inaugural Exhibition.

Perhaps the most interesting and important of the English provincial exhibitions. It was designed to show the historical development of British painting, engraving, and furniture, and the collection is a fine one, although some departures have been made from the original scheme. An illustrated article on the representative series of specimens of English furniture contained in it appears in the present number of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE.

Rochdale :

Corporation Art Gallery. Byron Cooper's collection illustrating Tennyson's country. (To Sept. 30.)

Conway :

Royal Cambrian Academy. (To Oct. 1.) Llandudno :

Exhibition of Pictures, and Arts and Crafts. (To Sept. 15.)

At the end of the month exhibitions will open at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, at Birmingham (Royal Society of Artists), and at the Dudley Corporation Art Gallery.

GERMANY, AUSTRIA, AND SWITZERLAND: Baden-Baden :

Badener "Salon."

Berlin:

Berliner Kunst-Ausstellung.

Constanz and Chur:—

Swiss Circulating Exhibition.

GERMANY, AUSTRIA, AND SWITZERLAND-cont. Cracow :

Gesellschaft der Kunstfreunde.

Dresden :

Exhibition of brassware. Most of the public collections and many private collections have sent important contributions to this exhibition, as have the famous church treasuries, such as that of Maastricht.

NOTE.-The Council of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers propose to hold a memorial exhibition of the works of their late President, Mr. James McNeill Whistler, in the New Gallery, Regent Street, London, during February and March 1905, to which a great number of prominent collectors, both at home and abroad, have already promised their support.

BI

Y the permission of the directors I am allowed to call attention to one point in connexion with the Magazine which seems to have escaped the notice of many of its readers.

The proprietors of The Times were the first, I think, to point out that the advertisement revenue of a periodical enabled it to give its readers far more information. than the selling price alone would allow. The circulation of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE is by itself large enough to pay its cost and a fair share of the inevitable expenses, and for the balance it depends upon its advertisements like all other periodicals. Readers, in fact, get the fullest value for their money from the Magazine which is best supported by advertising.

Now, complaints have recently been made by certain advertisers, which, if they were continued, might needlessly restrict the good work it is attempting to do. therefore venture to call attention to them at once, before any serious hindrance has resulted.

I

The complaint that 'your readers know too much,' which was recently made by two entirely distinct firms as a reason for discontinuing advertising, was hardly a matter for regret, as we should not wish to recommend people who apparently have to depend for a living upon the ignorance of their customers.

A more serious complaint was that advertisers had no tangible proof that the Magazine was of any use to them, because they never heard it spoken of by any of

their customers.

The number and rank of our subscribers is a sufficient proof of their capacity for

taking an active interest in the Magazine, and the misconception can only be explained on the ground that they are not in the habit of mentioning the Magazine when making purchases, as the readers of cheaper papers are wont to do.

The Magazine can claim that it does not allow its readers to be misled by sham 'Answers to Correspondents,' or by that useful commercial stalking-horse the sham private collector, whose liberality almost equals that of the other gentlemen (also quite private) who offer to lend thousands of pounds without fees or security. Nor does it ever deliberately puff bad work, or allow its advertisements to influence its opinions. Other periodicals without a third of the circulation of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE are freely supported by advertisers, on account of their recognized connexion with perhaps one or two enterprising collectors. Is it too much to ask that those who are interested in the work which THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE is trying to do should assist that work by showing, whenever they have an opportunity of doing so, that their interest is not merely passive?

A few words indicating that the announcements in the Magazine had not escaped notice would be all that is needed. These might surely be spoken without the least departure from the recognized English tradition of good form, and the suggestion is put forward quite frankly because the aim of the Magazine is the sensible and disinterested study of art, and because many of its well-wishers may not be acquainted with the means of giving practical effect to their good will.

THE MANAGER OF
THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE.

HE British nation is being steadily shaken out of its complacent indifference of ten years ago, and though any appeal to finer sentiments has ceased to be effective, it is still sensitive where its pocket is concerned. For that reason we propose, for the moment, to deal with art, not as a noble or desirable thing for its own sake, but as a national asset.

Have we all realized, for instance, how much France and Italy have profited in hard cash by the taste, consistency, and liberality of their patronage of art, compared with a country like the United States, where not one man in a thousand takes even a superficial interest in it? Their cities are visited by hosts of travellers and students from all parts of the world, whose board, lodging, and railway fares alone would amount to an enormous sum annually. To this must be added the huge sales of works of art which their national reputation enables them to effect. Equally inportant is the effect of an artistic tradition upon the applied arts, for taste enables manufacturers to find a ready market in a thousand places which good workmanship and material could never reach unaided.

Now good work and material are characteristic of British manufactures, but their combination with good taste is only spasmodic. The practice of the applied arts has of recent years become an enormous industry in this country, but if we are to keep ahead of French and German competition we must make up our minds to develop the talent we possess on the best possible system. Such a system cannot be founded upon any general theory of human perfection, but must be adapted to the peculiar temper of our artists as experience has revealed it. In a short article it is impossible to go into details, but the leading characteristics and requirements of our

national talent might be summarized somewhat as follows:

It is rapidly becoming dexterous, that is to say a large amount of work is annually turned out by our designers which is almost all that could be desired as far as certainty of hand and eye are concerned. With this dexterity is coupled an extraordinary mental indolence or even indifference, which leads to the acceptance of the first attractive model that comes to hand, without any inquiry as to whether it is the best or even a good one. As our national taste is always prone to prefer what is pretty to what is dignified and serious, the combination of it with dexterity and indolence is peculiarly dangerous. The rapid deterioration of the work of Millais and Frederick Sandys might be quoted as an instance. The dexterity we have mentioned is at least a proof that our art schools are doing their work well so far as manual training is concerned. Where we need the help of the Government is in providing guidance for the designer's brains.

When a student leaves an art school he leaves it with skilful hands, but an untrained mind. In museums and galleries he sees a host of objects good, bad, and indifferent. Few books exist to teach him to criticize and select; he is quickly carried away by the first fashion or society that attracts him, and his talent for the future may be devoted to working on lines that are essentially bad. Supposing that he is clever his example corrupts that of his juniors, and so a bad tradition is perpetuated.

It is just when the student's mind is in the plastic state that the Government should come to his help, by teaching him to discriminate between the influences which surround him. This we think might be done in two ways. In the first place the manual training of all art schools could be supplemented by a simple and definite explanation of the theory of art,