88 ART EDÜCATION.
examining the aids for teaching, specimens by the pupils, &c.,
whicli were to be seen at the Exhibition.
Dark days intervened for France between the years 18G7 and
1873, and the fury of war rudely compelled the Studios and the
Workshops to pause. But in spite df these drawbacks, the country
appeared in the arena of labor at Vienna most gorgeously decked.
In art (painting and sculpture) not muck tliat was new was to be
seen, the traditional character being represented on the whole ; but
in industry an important advance in the revolution of taste was to
be noticed. The style of the time of Louis XV. is, indeed, still
dominant; flowers and plastic Ornaments are still to be found
where neither of them belong; but, nevertheless, forms of well-
deflned style are gaining ground step by step, and the architec-
tonic, which used to be tabooed, has found its way into designs for
textile fabrics, into bronzes, faiences, &c. That the elements of
the reform liave not yet been adopted to a greater degree, and that
the imitation of old, and especially of Oriental art, is more gener-
ally preferred, may perhaps be owing to national pride, which at
present is more irritated than ever. In these imitations, how-
ever, in consequence of the national character, the effective is fre
quent^- preferred to the beautiful.
We must now endeavor to answer the following questions:
What is the prevailing tendency in the schools in regard to style ?
And what position does art-instruction in general occupy in France
at present?
As regards the first question, the most important point, which we
will liave to place above all others, is this: “ What is it that is
drawn in the schools?” for the practieal draughtsman will fiually
express himself in the forms in which he was trained, or will at
least find pleasure in them. The importance attaching to copies,
models, &c., has long been recognized in France, and for decades
Parisian firms liave mied the world by the drawing-copies published ’•
by them. ,
Julien, w-ith bis numerous works, was the leading author until
after the year 1850, and not in France alone. Plis smoothly-
executed heads, his showy Ornaments, —taking to the eye, but of
doubtful value for rational instruction, — were to be found wher-
