Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876.

Date:: 1877-1878

Credit: Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876. Source: Wellcome Collection.

383/446 page 283

$Report on the Section of Plastic and Graphic Art at the International Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. By Charles West Cope, Esq., R.A. 19, Hyde Park Gate South, London, My Lord Duke, August 7th, 1876. I have the honour to submit the following report upon the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, as far as relates to the duties confided to me by your Grace, as one of the Judges on Plastic and Graphic Art, Group 27. The Judges were 21 in number :— Number of American. Judges, eight F. H. Smith, Boston, Massachusetts. ^ericaS?' J. Taylor Johnston, New York. th?rteeu Fo J. L. Claghorn, Philadelphia. reigners. Professor J. F. Wier, New Haven, Connecticut. Brantz Mayer, Baltimore, Maryland. Donald G. Mitchell, New Haven, Connecticut. G. W. Nichols, Cincinnati, Ohio. Professor Henry Draper, New York University, New York City. Foreign. Peter &E-A- ^Britain. Carl Schlesinger, \ r>n Dr. H. W. Vogel. } Germany. Emile T. Saintin, France. Fritz L. von Dardel, Sweden. P. N. Arbo, Norway. Conde de Donadio, Spain. Tantardini, ~i , G. de Sanctis, /ltal7' Carl Costenoble, Austria. Professor Dahlerup, Denmark. J. E. Heemskerck vanBeest, Netherlands. At the first meeting of the committee of Judges it was determined to Division into subdivide the group into six classes:—1, Sculpture; 2, Painting; 3, En- classes graving and Lithography; 4, Photographs; 5, Industrial Designs, Models, and Decoration; 6, Decoration with Ceramic and Vitreous Materials, Mosaic and Inlaid Work. By this proceeding progress was facilitated, and judges were selected according to their respective fitness as experts in the respec- tive classes. They were empowered to propose awards of medals. These awards were afterwards submitted to a committee of the whole group, and required confirmation by a majority of signatures in support of the name pro- posed. Thus a certain amount of responsibility for the award made, rested on each individual judge. I will now make a few remarks upon the class of « Painting, to which I Class of Paint- was appointed, and of which I was elected chairman. At the very outset of ing. our labours it was generally agreed that the regulations prescribed by the Uniform Centennial Commission for the award of equal Bronze Medals, accompanied Bronze in each case by a certificate, descriptive of the particular merits of each work Medals. were inapplicable to works in the fine arts. It was soon found that it was impossible to get a jury to agree upon the exact reasons (which indeed are often undennable) for preferring one work of art to another. In a mechanical invention such a description is both possible and useful, and is to the inventor$

Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876.

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