Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/243

 from marked mannerisms or affected excellence imparts reality and character to every part they undertake.

VICTORIAN EXHIBITION OF ART.

Since the announcement made in a recent Number, of our intention to organize "An Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and Decorative Art," we have been honoured with so many communications from amateurs and artists approving of the object of such an exhibition—pledging themselves to become exhibitors, and otherwise promote, in every way in their power, the end in view—that we are prone to argue most favourably of the success of the project. "While prosecuting inquiries in furtherance of our plans, we must confess likewise to being agreeably surprised to discover the amount of talent, in almost every department of the Arts, at present available in the colony. One not inconsiderable benefit, therefore, we hope, will accrue from an exhibition of the proposed kind is, that it will influence the educated and wealthy, when they become acquainted with this circumstance, to extend to Art a more liberal patronage than has hitherto been their wont.

A rivalry, we are glad to perceive, is already springing up among the members of this class for building houses of architectural beauty, where Art is visible both in their construction and decoration, and adapted in every feature to the peculiar climate of the colony. This step should be followed by a corresponding desire on the part of their owners to possess fine pictures of local interest, and statues of classic beauty to adorn their interior. Such a taste for the beautiful and artistic will, as a natural consequence, spread among the colonists at large, for it is to be cultivated in a villa or a cottage no less than in a mansion. Let there once be a proper demand for works of Art in good taste and sound principles, and we can promise, from what we have recently seen of the artistic talent of the colony, that demand will be readily and satisfactorily met.

To show that every branch of Art is represented at the present