Studio: international art (46.1909)

Art School Notes

everywhere, both in London and in the provinces,
it seems strange that there was a time, within the
memory of artists still among us, when the Curator
of the Living Model Academy in Upper St. Martin’s
Lane claimed that his institution was the only
school in England, except that of the Royal Acad-
emy, in which drawing and painting from the life
could be practised. It was in 1841 that this asser-
tion was made, and it was probably not far from the
truth, for in a great city like Manchester there was
no attempt to institute a life class until 1845. “ The

want of such a class,” said the promoters of the
scheme, “has long been felt by the students and
artists of this town as an insuperable bar to profes-
sional advancement.” Even at the Royal Academy
as recently as 1863 there was no drawing or paint-
ing from the nude in the day classes, where only
draped models sat for three hours a day, three times
a week. South Kensington (the Royal College of
Art) had by that time arrived at life classes, but no
female figure models were allowed to pose. It is
worth remarking in this connection that, according
to Wilkie, who visited the Beaux Arts in Paris in
1814, no women at that time ever sat in the life
classes at the principal art school of France.

The architect of 1841 who
was desirous of drawing from
the life would probably have
found it difficult to obtain ad-
mission to the Living Model
Academy. Such a thing was
then unknown as a class avail-
able to any draughtsman who
could pay a fee for a month
or a term, and no one could
enter London’s only open life
school until he had been pro-
posed and secondtd by mem-
bers and had survived the
ensuing ballot. The Living
Model Academy, which was
the resort of most of the
younger artists of the time
who could gain admission,
and at which Etty was for
years a constant attendant at
such times as the Royal Aca-
demy life classes were shut,
was founded about 1825. The
schools of the Royal Aca-
demy, then at Somerset
House, occupied the rooms
in which the annual exhibition
168

was held, and the life and other classes were there-
fore closed for five months in the year. This in-
ordinately long vacation induced some of the more
industrious students to start an outside life class,
at first in a room adjoining Temple Bar, which
developed later into the Living Model Academy.
The foundation of this institution brought about a
welcome improvement in the supply and quality of
artists’ models. They were scarce and dear in the
early years of the eighteenth century, when at the
Royal Academy one or two of the porters posed
regularly for the male figure, and there were but
few openings for outsiders. One of these porters
was the well-known Sam Strowger, whose name is
familiar to the readers of Leslie’s “Life of Constable.”
Strowger, who came from the same part of Suffolk
as Constable, was for years the “ man-model ” of
the Royal Academy. He served in the Army
until his discharge was purchased by the Academy
Council.

Mr. W. Goscombe John, the newly elected
Academician, will be the Visitor for April at the
Royal Academy School of Sculpture. In the
same month Mr. E. J. Gregory will visit the School

DESIGN FOR A CHRISTMAS CARD BY MISS M. TRINDER

(L. C. C. School of Art, Westminster)