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_WORKS BY WALTER CRANE_


  THE BASES OF DESIGN. With 200 Illustrations, many drawn by the
      author. _Third Edition._ Crown 8vo, 6s. net.

  LINE AND FORM. A Series of Lectures delivered at the Municipal
      School of Art, Manchester. With 157 Illustrations. _Third
      Edition._ Crown 8vo, 6s. net.

  THE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS, OLD AND NEW. With 165
      Illustrations. _Fourth Edition._ Crown 8vo, 6s. net.


LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS




IDEALS IN ART




  IDEALS·IN·ART:

  PAPERS·THEORETICAL·PRACTICAL·CRITICAL·
  BY·WALTER·CRANE·Author·of·“Line&Form”.Et

  [Illustration]

  LONDON:GEORGE·BELL·&·SONS:1905




  CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.




PREFACE


The collected papers which form this book have been written at
different times, and in the intervals of other work. Most of them
were specially addressed to, and read before the Art Workers’ Guild,
as contributions to the discussion of the various subjects they deal
with; so that they may be described as the papers of a worker in design
addressed mainly to art workers. They are not, however, wholly or
narrowly technical, and the point of view frequently bears upon the
general relation of art to life.

Some of the papers were delivered as lectures to larger audiences, and
others have appeared as articles, mostly in journals devoted to art.

Of the former, the one upon the Arts and Crafts movement was prepared
for and read as one of a series of lectures given during a recent
exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, and is now for
the first time printed in its entirety.

The “Thoughts on House-Decoration” was read before the convention of
the National Association of Master Painters and Decorators recently
held at Leicester.

“The Influence of Modern Social and Economic Conditions on the Sense of
Beauty” was the substance of an address at the opening of a debate on
that question at a meeting of the Pioneer Club.

The paper on “The Progress of Taste in Dress” was written for “The
Healthy and Artistic Dress Union,” and appeared in their journal
“Aglaia.” The article on Mr. Chesterton’s book appeared in “The
Speaker”; that on “The Teaching of Art” in “The Art Journal.”

The notes on “Gesso” work appeared in an early number of “The Studio,”
and I have to thank the editor, Mr. Charles Holme, for kindly allowing
me to reprint it here, and also for the loan of the blocks used for the
illustrations, both for this and others of the papers.

My best thanks are also due to Mr. Ernest Gimson for the loan of
photographs of his cottage at Stoneywell; to the Earl of Pembroke for
enabling me to obtain those of the double cube room at Wilton; to Mr.
Charles Rowley, and Mr. Charles W. Gamble of the Municipal School of
Technology, Manchester, for photographs of the Madox Brown frescoes; to
Mr. Augustus Spenser and Mr. FitzRoy, the Principal and the Registrar
of the Royal College of Art, for their help in obtaining for me the
examples of the work of the students given; and to Mr. Arthur P. Monger
for the care he took in photographing them; also to Mr. Kruger of the
Royal College, for the use of his admirable drawing of the decorations
of Westminster Bridge, which appeared in “The Magazine of Art,” and is
now reproduced by permission of Mr. M. H. Spielmann and Messrs. Cassell.

I should like to add a note or two on some of the illustrations, on
other points not commented upon in the papers.

The sketch plan and elevation of a collective dwelling (at page 116),
for which I am indebted to my architect-son, is offered as a suggestion
of what could be done in this way on very simple lines. Each tenant in
such a collective dwelling would have his private house or cottage,
with the advantage of the use of the common dining-hall, and the
service of a collective kitchen; also a general reading-room, and to
these rooms a vaulted way with an open arcade on