3-077-862 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours: "A Corner of the Fish Market" - W. H. Pike, 1890. Engraving of a painting. 'The members of the Institute are well advised in opening their annual exhibition before the distractions of the London art-season become too perplexing for the ordinary picture-lover. The display, too, of the present year shows that quality rather than quantity has been the uppermost thought in the minds of the hanging committee, whose work throughout has been carefully and judiciously discharged. A survey, however, of the three galleries only strengthens the view already and repeatedly expressed in these columns, that the present condition either of art-patronage or of art-study tends to the raising of the general standard of technical skill rather than to the development of special talent. The old favourites remain very much as they were and where they were ten years ago; while the younger aspirants are satisfied with a standard which meets with the approbation of their elders and of their patrons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.