Using Art to Sell Beauty

Extract

As Mr. Hannen Swaffer said some time ago, they are using Art to sell Beauty. The remark was made, I believe, on the subject of the enlightened and progressive windowdressing of the shops in Regent Street, but it applies to quite a large number of things. In the first place, the capital ‘A’ recalls the unfortunate incident described by Anatole France, where the man who had learnt all the Art in the world was suffocated in his own catalogue.

The problem which is called, very impressively, the Adjustment of Art and Life, and which, in theory, has been solved over and over again, is, in practice, the subject of the most discouraging caricature. In spite of intelligent window dressing, of fine buildings and bridges, the ultimate comment, it seems, should be ‘they are using Art to sell Beauty.’

Mr. Gill, with his classical and impersonal precision, again gives us light on the subject.