Page:The Academy Of the Fine Arts and Its Future, Edward Hornor Coates, 24 January 1890.djvu/17

 same nature may be said. Nothing but praise should be accorded to the exhibition which has just closed in these beautiful rooms of the Art Club, and to the energy and patient labor which such an exhibition always represents, but it may be fairly questioned whether all formal and regular displays, excepting of course such as may be made for members of the Club, as is now usual with the Century Club of New York, should not take place in the galleries of the Academy; and whether all should not there unite to make such exhibitions thoroughly representative, as well as wholly successful.

For the Academy a larger endowment is most desirable, and must be had, if bold, aggressive and permanent work is to be done, the bequest of the late Mr. Temple having proved a loss to the treasury, though a gain to the public, by reason of the free days which were its condition. Additions to the galleries for the permanent collection, and importantly the gift or bequest of portraits, representing the work of Trumbull, Copley, Stuart and others, necessary to complete the historical series of the institution, would be most valuable and acceptable. It is also hoped that it may be possible to enrich the collection of casts from the antique by the addition of reproductions from Grecian statues recently discovered. The influence of the Elgin marbles in England can scarcely be overestimated, and we are told by Madame Rachel that to the sculptures of the Louvre, first seen in her childhood, she was indebted for the artistic inspiration of her life.

But what the Academy now needs more than all else,—and it is worthy an eloquent and convincing plea,—is the intelligent interest and sympathetic co-operation of every citizen. 17