No. 216 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE - Aug. 15, 1835

SCHOOLS OF ART.

AMONG the many advantages that Lyons possesses, the school of St. Peter, where a course of instruction in the different departments of art is gratuitously given to about 180 students, must not be forgotten. The course lasts five years; the classes open at nien and continue till two o'clock. The students must be of French birth, and Lyonnese are to be preferred. The city of Lyons pays 20,000 fr. annually for the support of the school, and the government gives 3000 fr. from the budget of the Minister of Commerce. A botanical garden, a hall of sculpture, a museum of natural history, and an anatomical theatre, belong to the establishment. There are professors of the different branches of the fine arts, and one whose particular business it is to teach their application to manufactures, and to instruct the students in the manner of transferring the production of the artist to the loom of the weaver. The students who are advanced, are generally easily located as draughtsmen or pattern producers among the manufacturers, and the school constantly pours forth a supply of talented young men, whose taste is specially devoted to the production of novelties, and who very frequently are admitted to partnership in the principal houses, if their creative or inventive powers are of a distinguished order. The gain of an artist is from 3 fr. to 10 fr. or 12 fr. per day, and in some cases of very high merit, considerably more. The preparation of new patterns is the great concern at Lyons; it commences many months before the season approaches for which they are intended. The success of the most prosperous of the manufacturers may be traced to the artistical skill of some one of the partners or dependents. Lyons is constantly sending forth and creating novelties, and receiving fresh impulse from every part of the world which her beautiful productions reach. The School of Art at Lyons has undergone of late some remarkable improvements. A distinguished professor (M. Bonnafond) is now at its head, and I owe to him the following account of its present position. (March, 1834.)

There are now 200 students. they are divided into seven classes, under the direction of seven professors.

These classes are,--1. The elementary class; 2. The bust-copying class, or that in which the study is solely devoted to inanimate objects; 3. The animate-object class, in which the studies are all of living models; 4. The ornamental class; 5. The architectural class; 6. The botanical class--flower-drawing, painting, &c.; 7. The mise en carte and sculpture class--in which the application of art to manufacture is the object of instruction.

Since the Revolution of July, two additional classes have been instituted, to each of which a professor is attached.--1. Engraving; 2. Anatomy, comparative and picturesque. The anatomical professor is also the keeper of the cabinet of natural history.

There is also a library and museum accessible to the students, consisting of works of art, drawings, models, &c. The students are allowed to study in the gallery of the museum.

In the centre of the school is a depot of all the materials necessary for the students, from which they are supplied.

The morning lessons last five hours--the evening lessons two hours.

The whole of the studies are carried on under the same roof; but a separate building is being erected to serve for the exhibition of the works of Lyonnese artists.

The works which have been crowned, or recompensed with the first prizes, are to be collected in a separate apartment, and so arranged as to exhibit the progress of the school from its first foundation.

Great progress is making in the ornamental classes, whose combinations are susceptible of so many varieties.

A botanical garden is attached to the school, which furnishes a supply of plants and flowers to the students throughout the year.--Dr. Bowring's Report on the Commercial Relations between France and Great Britain.