Charles the First appears to have been the first English Sovereign who
regarded art, not merely as an aid to the splendour of the throne, but
for its own sake. As Walpole says, 'Queen Elizabeth was avaricious with
pomp, James the First lavish with meanness.' To neither had the position
of the painter been a matter of the slightest concern. But from Charles
the First dates truly the dawn of a love of art in England, the proper
valuing of the artist-mind, and the first introduction into the country
of the greatest works of the continental masters.
At the present day a complaint is constantly arising, that artists are
found to be deficient in general education, while what may be called for
distinction's sake the educated classes are singularly wanting in
artistic knowledge. The Universities do not teach art;[1] the
Art-schools do not teach anything else. As a result, speaking generally,
the painters are without mental culture, the patrons are without
art-acquirements. (This supposes the patrons to be of the upper classes;
but of course at the present time a large share of art-patronage comes
from the rich middle or manufacturing classes, whose uninformed tastes
are even less likely to tend to the due appraisement and elevation of
art.) Mr. Ruskin, giving evidence before the commissioners inquiring
into the position of the Royal Academy (1863), says, 'The want of
education on the part of the upper classes in art, has been very much at
the bottom of the abuses which have crept into all systems of education
connected with it. If the upper classes could only be interested in it
by being led into it when young, a great improvement might be looked
for;' and the witness goes on to urge the expediency of appointing
professors of art at the Universities. Upon the question of infusing a
lay-element into the Royal Academy by the addition of non-professional
academicians, Mr. Ruskin takes occasion to observe:--'I think if you
educate our upper classes to take more interest in art, which implies of
course to know something about it, they might be most efficient members
of the Academy; but if you leave them, as you leave them now, to the
education which they get at Oxford and Cambridge, and give them the
sort of scorn which all the teaching there tends to give of art and
artists, the less they have to do with an Academy of Art the better.'
[1] The Slade Professorship, recently instituted, is a step towards
mending this matter, however.
It is somewhat curious after this to consider an attempt made by King
Charles the First, in the eleventh year of his reign, to supply these
admitted deficiencies of University instruction: to found an Academy in
which general and fine-art education should be combined.
A committee, consisting of the Duke of Buckingham and others, had been
appointed in the House of Lords for taking into consideration the state
of the public schools, and their method of instruction. What progress
was made by this committee is not known. One result of its labours,
however, was probably the establishment of the _Musæum Minervæ_, under
letters-patent from the king, at a house which Sir Francis Kynaston had
purchased, in Covent Garden, and furnished as an Academy. This was
appropriated for ever as a college for the education of nobles and
gentlemen, to be governed by a regent and professors, chosen by
'balloting-box,' who were made a body corporate, permitted to use a
common seal, and to possess goods and lands in mortmain. Kynaston, who
styled himself _Corporis Armiger_, and who had printed in 1635 a
translation into Latin verse of Chaucer's _Troilus and Cressida_, was
nominated the first regent of the Academy, and published in 1636 its
constitution and rules, addressed 'to the noble and generous
well-wishers to vertuous actions and learning.' The Academy--'justified
and approved by the wisdom of the King's most sacred Majesty and many of
the lords of his Majesty's most honourable privy council,'--its
constitution and discipline being ratified under the hands and seals of
the Right Honourable the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and
the two Lord Chief Justices--professed to be founded 'according to the
laudable customs of other nations,' and for 'the bringing of virtue into
action and the theory of liberal arts into more frequent practice.' Its
aims were directed to the end that England might be as well furnished
for the virtuous education and discipline of her own natives as any
other nation of Europe; it being 'sufficiently known that the subjects
of his Majesty's dominions have naturally as noble minds and as able
bodies as any nation of the earth, and therefore deserve all
accommodation for the advancing of them, either in speculation or
action.' It was considered that a peculiar institution was required for
teaching those 'most useful accomplishments of a gentleman'--the
sciences of navigation, riding, fortification, architecture, painting,
etc., which, if taught, were yet not practised in the universities or
courts of law. Many of these sciences, it was admitted, were taught in
London, 'in dispersed places;' but it was convenient to reduce and unite
them in one certain place, and not to teach them perfunctorily and
rather for gain than for any other respect--desirable, too, that youth
should have, in a virtuous society, generous and fitting recreations as
might divert them from too much frequenting places of expense and of
greater inconvenience. The intention of the Academy was also to benefit
gentlemen going abroad, by giving them language and instruction, with
other ornaments of travel. 'There is no understanding man,' says the
prospectus or advertisement of the institution, 'but may resent how many
of our noblemen and young gentlemen travel into foreign countries before
they have any language or knowledge to make profit of their time abroad,
they not being any way able to get knowledge for want of language, nor
language for want of time; since going over so young, their years of
license commonly expire before they can obtain to sufficient ripeness of
understanding; which no nation is known to do but the English: for what
children of other nations come over to us before they are of able age
and ripeness?' Another inconvenience arising from the want of the
_Musæum Minervæ_ was stated to be the necessity many gentlemen were
under of sending their sons beyond seas for their education, 'where,
through change of climate and dyat, and for want of years of discretion,
they become more subject to sickness and immature death.'
It was required of gentlemen admitted into the _Musæum_ that they should
pay fees of at least £5 each, and should bring a testimonial of their
arms and gentry, and their coat armour, 'tricked on a table, to be
conserved in the museum.' There was to be a _Liber Nobilium_ always
kept, in which benefactors and their benefits were to be recorded,
beginning with King Charles, 'our first and royal benefactor;' and it
was provided that if any gentleman should have any natural experiment or
secret, and should communicate it to the _Musæum_ and upon trial it
should be found true and good, his name and experiment should be
recorded in _Liber Nobilium_ for a perpetual honour to him.
The regent was required to instruct personally, or to superintend
instruction in 'heraldry, blazon of coates and armes, practical
knowledge of deedes, and evidences, principles and processes of common
law, knowledge of antiquities, coynes, medalls, husbandry,' etc. The
Doctor of Philosophy and Physic was to read and profess physiology,
anatomy, or any other parts of physic. The Professor of Astronomy was to
teach astronomy, optics, navigation, and cosmography. Instruction in
arithmetic, analytical algebra, geometry, fortification, and
architecture, was to be given by the Professor of Geometry. A Professor
of Music was to impart skill in singing, and music to play upon organ,
lute, viol, etc. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, and
High Dutch were to be taught by the Professor of Languages. In addition,
a Professor of Defence inculcated skill at all weapons and wrestling
(but not pugilism apparently), and ample instruction was to be afforded
in riding, dancing, and behaviour, painting, sculpture, and writing. A
preparatory school was also to be annexed for the young gentlemen whose
parents were desirous of having them brought up in the _Musæum_ from
their first years. Finally, it was expressly provided that no degrees
were to be given, and the Academy was not to be conceived in any way
prejudicial 'to the Universities and Inns of Court, whose foundations
have so long and so honourably been confirmed.'
For no long time did the _Musæum Minervæ_ flourish. The King's troubles
began; and in the storms of civil war the Academy for teaching the upper
classes science and the fine arts, manners and accomplishments, fell to
the ground and disappeared utterly. So bitter and inveterate was the
feeling against the King, that, as Walpole says (and Walpole, be it
remembered, cherished no reverence for Charles the First--quite
otherwise--under a _facsimile_ of the warrant for the King's execution,
he wrote 'Magna Charta,' and he often found pleasure in considering the
monarch's fall), 'it seems to have become part of the religion of the
time to war on the arts because they had been countenanced at Court.' So
early as 1645, the Parliament had begun to sell the pictures at York
House. On the 23d July in that year votes were passed ordering the sale,
for the benefit of Ireland and the North, of all such pictures at York
House 'as were without any superstition.' Pictures containing
representations of the Second Person in the Trinity, or of the Virgin
Mary, were judged to be superstitious, and ordered to be burned
forthwith. Immediately after the King's death, votes were passed for the
sale of all his pictures, statues, jewels, hangings, and goods.
Cromwell, however, on his obtaining sole power, made some effort to stay
the terrible sacrifice that was being made of the royal collections.
There was thus an end of King Charles's _Musæum Minervæ_. Yet, if not
absolutely founded on its ruins, at any rate in some measure following
its example, we soon find record of the rise of a similar institution.
One Sir Balthazar Gerbier, without Government aid or countenance, but
acting entirely on his own responsibility, had opened an Academy 'on
Bednall-green without Aldgate.' This was probably in the year 1649.
Sir Balthazar Gerbier, architect and painter, 'excellent in either
branch,' says a biographer, had led a somewhat curious life. In a
pamphlet published in Paris, in 1646, addressed 'to all men that loves
Truth,'--singularly rich, thanks to the French printers, in blunders,
orthographic and grammatical,--Sir Balthazar gives some account of his
family and himself. He was born about 1591, at Middelburg in Zeeland,
the son of Anthoine Gerbier, a baron of Normandy, and Radegonde,
daughter-in-law to the Lord of Blavet in Picardy. 'It pleaseth God,'
writes Sir Balthazar, 'to suffer my parents to fly the bluddy
persecutions in France, against those which the Roman Catholics call
the Huguenots. My said parents left and lost all for that cause.' He
came to England when about twenty-one, and entered the service of George
Villiers, 'newly become favourite to King James, being immediately after
Baron, Viscount, Earle, and afterwards created Marquis and Duke of
Buckingham.' He accompanied Buckingham to Spain, and was employed in the
famous treaty of marriage, though ostensibly acting only as a painter.
While in Spain he executed a miniature portrait of the Infanta, which
was sent over to King James. The Duchess of Buckingham wrote to her
husband in Spain, 'I pray you, if you have any idle time, sit to Gerbier
for your picture, that I may have it well done in time.' After the
accession of Charles, it appears that Gerbier was employed in Flanders
to negotiate privately a treaty with Spain, in which Rubens was
commissioned to act on the part of the Infanta; the business ultimately
bringing the great painter to England. In 1628, Gerbier was knighted at
Hampton Court, and, according to his own account, was promised by King
Charles the office of Surveyor-General of the works after the death of
Inigo Jones. In 1637, he was employed at Brussels in some private state
negotiation with the Duke of Orleans, the French King's brother, and in
1641 he obtained a bill of naturalization, and took the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy. According to Vertue, he was much hated and
persecuted by the anti-monarchic party, for his loyalty and fidelity to
the King and his son. At the sale of the royal collection he made
purchases to the amount of £350. The suspension of all art-patronage
during the Commonwealth, probably necessitated the establishment of his
Academy at Bethnal Green, as a means of obtaining a livelihood. Painters
did not flourish very much under the rule of the Puritans.
A fly-sheet, undated, which may be found in the British Museum, sets
forth the plan of Gerbier's Academy. He addresses himself 'to all
Fathers of Noble Families and Lovers of Vertue,' desires public notice
of his great labours and exertions, and informs the world that 'the
chiefe Famous Forraigne Languages, Sciences, and Noble Exercises' are
taught in his establishment. 'All Lovers of Vertue,' of what age soever,
are received and instructed, and each of them may select such studies,
exercises, and sciences as are most consonant to his genius. Public
lectures are announced to be read gratis every Wednesday afternoon, in
the summer at three, in the winter at two o'clock. A competent number of
children of 'decayed families' are taught without fee. 'Lovers of
Vertue' are stated to be thus freed from the dangers and inconveniences
incident to travellers, who repair to foreign parts to improve
themselves, and leave the honour of their education to strangers,
running 'the hazzard of being shaken in the fundamental points of their
religion, and their innate loyalty to their native country.' The nation
is therefore exhorted to reflect seriously on Sir Balthazar's proffers;
to embrace them vigorously and constantly to countenance and promote
them, 'since that the languages declared to be taught in the Academy
are:--Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, High Dutch, and
Low Dutch, both Ancient and Modern Histories, jointly with the
Constitutions and Governments of the most famous Empires and Dominions
in the World, the true Natural and Experimental Philosophy, the
Mathematicks, Arithmetic and the Keeping of Bookes of Accounts by
Debitor and Creditor, all Excellent Handwriting, Geometry, Cosmography,
Geography, Perspective, Architecture, Secret Motions of Scenes,
Fortifications, the Besieging and Defending of Places, Fireworks,
Marches of Armies, Ordering of Battailes, Fencing, Vaulting, Riding the
Great Horse, Music, Playing on all sorts of Instruments, Dancing,
Drawing, Painting, Limning, and Carving,' etc. Certainly Sir Balthazar's
was a sufficient catalogue of arts, sciences, and accomplishments. The
lectures 'composed for the good of the public' were afterwards printed,
and to be obtained at Robert Ibbitson's house in Smithfield, near Hosier
Lane. It may be noted that a lecture upon the art of well-speaking,
brought upon the lecturer the derision of Butler, author of _Hudibras_.
In the winter the Academy was moved from Bethnal Green to Whitefriars.
Sir Balthazar issued advertisements as to his lectures. It is to be
feared his good intentions were not always appreciated by the public of
the day. In one of his advertisements we find him complaining bitterly
of 'the extraordinary concourse of unruly people who robbed him, and
treated with savage rudeness his extraordinary services.' Something of a
visionary, too, was Sir Balthazar;--yet, with all his vanity as to his
own merits--his coxcombry about his proceedings,--a sort of reformer and
benefactor also in a small way. At one time we find him advertising
that, besides lecturing gratis, he will lend from one shilling to six,
gratis, 'to such as are in extreme need, and have not wherewithal to
endeavour their subsistence, whereas week by week they may drive on some
trade.' By-and-by, however, Sir Balthazar was probably more disposed to
borrow than to lend. His Academy met with little support--with ridicule
rather than encouragement; was indeed a total failure; and he left
England for America. For some years nothing was heard of him.
In 1660, however, we find him publishing at Rotterdam 'a sommary
description, manifesting that greater profits are to be done in the hott
than in the cold parts of America.' This contains an account of his
journey with his family to settle at Surinam. But there, it seems, he
was seized by the Dutch, treated with much violence (one of his children
being killed), and brought to Holland. He attempted, but in vain, to
obtain redress from the States for this strange treatment of him. He
probably returned to England with Charles II., for he is said to have
aided in designing the triumphal arches erected at the Restoration.
Gerbier's name is attached to a long list of books and pamphlets. Some
of these are of a controversial character; the author was a stout
Huguenot, fond of denouncing the Pope; oftentimes alarmed at plots
against himself on account of his religion, and now publishing a letter
of remonstrance to his three daughters who, in opposition to his will,
had entered a nunnery in Paris. Other works relate to architecture and
fortifications, the languages, arts, and noble exercises taught in his
Academy, or contain advice to travellers, or deal with political
affairs. Mr. Pepys records in his diary, under date the 28th May
1663:--'At the Coffee House in Exchange Alley I bought a little book,
_Counsell to Builders_, by Sir Balth. Gerbier. It is dedicated almost to
all the men of any great condition in England, so that the dedications
are more than the book itself; and both it and them,' the diarist adds
somewhat severely, 'not worth a farthing!'
Sir Balthazar died in 1667, at Hempsted-Marshall House, which he had
himself designed, the seat of Lord Craven, and was buried in the chancel
of the adjoining church. Portraits of Gerbier were painted by
Dobson[2]--the picture was sold for £44 at the sale of Betterton the
actor--and by Vandyke. The work by Vandyke also contained portraits of
Gerbier's family, and was purchased in Holland by command of Frederick,
Prince of Wales, and brought to Leicester House.
[2] A portrait of Gerbier, Sir Charles Cotterel, and W. Dobson, painted
by Dobson, the property of the Duke of Northumberland, was exhibited at
South Kensington in 1868.
For something like half-a-century after Sir Balthazar Gerbier's time we
find no trace of another Art Academy in England.