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INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION.
WETHODS OF ART EDUCATION FOR THE CULTIVATION
OF ARTISTIC TASTE.
BY J. M. HOPPIN, PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF ART, YALE
UNIVERSITY.
ArtHOUGH the forms of art are in the mind, it is their expression which
makes them art. The artistic faculty itself lies undeveloped until it is
called forth by effort and training like any other faculty. Very crude,
indeed, are the beginnings of all knowledge, and so of art. It is inter.
esting to observe, in the practical workings of an art-school where pupils of
different sexes, tastes, and occupations are gathered, some of whom perhaps
did not have, at first, the consciousness of possessing the artistic faculty at
all, how by earnest and patient cultivation of their powers they develop
skill in drawing. They find something inspiring in an effort directed to
an artistic end, something in the way of freedom which makes it genial
and joyful work leading to constant satisfactions. And no pupil seems
to be utterly incapable of artistic improvement, so that I, for one, am
Inclined to the belief that though all cannot become artists in the best
sense of the word, yet that the human mind possesses, to a greater or less
degree, the artistic faculty, just as it possesses the moral faculty and the
knowing faculty, and which only needs training to develop it ; and it is
shis which gives encouragement for the use of all proper means and
methods of art education. I heard but recently of a person of fine artistic
talent remarking that up to a certain period of her life she had no knowl-
edge of art, no appreciation of art, no thought of art. But the artistic sense
awoke in her while she was looking at paintings in the Dresden Gallery ;
she was converted as in a mowent to the love of art, and felt that she had
a talent for it. The power was there, and it needed but some strong im-
pression of outward objects, or of nature, to develop it. “Man is artistic
‘n the constitution of his mind. The esthetic power of the imagination,
vhen acted upon by corresponding objects in nature that are sympathetic
bo man’s spiritual conditions, seeks to reproduce the forms of ‘these objects.
The mind’s susceptibility to be impressed by the world of nature through
she organ of the imagination, which not only receives but imparts impres-
sions of objects, since it is full of energy and creative power, is the mind’s
function of form ; and if the imagination works simply in order to body
forth the form of things as an idealized imitation, to interpret nature in
all its forms, it works artistically, and its products are what are termed
art.” * But, practically speaking, perfection in artistic production is
rarely attained, and, if at all, it is attained through imperfection, as is
* From an article on ** The Philosophy of Art,” by the writer.
