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Page 9
Sirs, there is no help to be got out of these latter, or those who
let themselves be led by them: the only real help for the
decorative arts must come from those who work in them; nor must they
be led, they must lead.
You whose hands make those things that should be works of art, you
must be all artists, and good artists too, before the public at
large can take real interest in such things; and when you have
become so, I promise you that you shall lead the fashion; fashion
shall follow your hands obediently enough.
That is the only way in which we can get a supply of intelligent
popular art: a few artists of the kind so-called now, what can they
do working in the teeth of difficulties thrown in their way by what
is called Commerce, but which should be called greed of money?
working helplessly among the crowd of those who are ridiculously
called manufacturers, i.e. handicraftsmen, though the more part of
them never did a stroke of hand-work in their lives, and are nothing
better than capitalists and salesmen. What can these grains of sand
do, I say, amidst the enormous mass of work turned out every year
which professes in some way to be decorative art, but the decoration
of which no one heeds except the salesmen who have to do with it,
and are hard put to it to supply the cravings of the public for
something new, not for something pretty?
The remedy, I repeat, is plain if it can be applied; the
handicraftsman, left behind by the artist when the arts sundered,
must come up with him, must work side by side with him: apart from
the difference between a great master and a scholar, apart from the
differences of the natural bent of men's minds, which would make one
man an imitative, and another an architectural or decorative artist,
there should be no difference between those employed on strictly
ornamental work; and the body of artists dealing with this should
quicken with their art all makers of things into artists also, in
proportion to the necessities and uses of the things they would
make.
I know what stupendous difficulties, social and economical, there
are in the way of this; yet I think that they seem to be greater
than they are: and of one thing I am sure, that no real living
decorative art is possible if this is impossible.
It is not impossible, on the contrary it is certain to come about,
if you are at heart desirous to quicken the arts; if the world will,
for the sake of beauty and decency, sacrifice some of the things it
is so busy over (many of which I think are not very worthy of its
trouble), art will begin to grow again; as for those difficulties
above mentioned, some of them I know will in any case melt away
before the steady change of the relative conditions of men; the
rest, reason and resolute attention to the laws of nature, which are
also the laws of art, will dispose of little by little: once more,
the way will not be far to seek, if the will be with us.
Yet, granted the will, and though the way lies ready to us, we must
not be discouraged if the journey seem barren enough at first, nay,
not even if things seem to grow worse for a while: for it is
natural enough that the very evil which has forced on the beginning
of reform should look uglier, while on the one hand life and wisdom
are building up the new, and on the other folly and deadness are
hugging the old to them.
In this, as in all other matters, lapse of time will be needed
before things seem to straighten, and the courage and patience that
does not despise small things lying ready to be done; and care and
watchfulness, lest we begin to build the wall ere the footings are
well in; and always through all things much humility that is not
easily cast down by failure, that seeks to be taught, and is ready
to learn.
For your teachers, they must be Nature and History: as for the
first, that you must learn of it is so obvious that I need not dwell
upon that now: hereafter, when I have to speak more of matters of
detail, I may have to speak of the manner in which you must learn of
Nature. As to the second, I do not think that any man but one of
the highest genius, could do anything in these days without much
study of ancient art, and even he would be much hindered if he
lacked it. If you think that this contradicts what I said about the
death of that ancient art, and the necessity I implied for an art
that should be characteristic of the present day, I can only say
that, in these times of plenteous knowledge and meagre performance,
if we do not study the ancient work directly and learn to understand
it, we shall find ourselves influenced by the feeble work all round
us, and shall be copying the better work through the copyists and
WITHOUT understanding it, which will by no means bring about
intelligent art. Let us therefore study it wisely, be taught by it,
kindled by it; all the while determining not to imitate or repeat
it; to have either no art at all, or an art which we have made our
own.
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