Drawing Academy: Time Traveling

Life drawing class for adults at the Brooklyn Museum under the auspices of the New York City WPA Art Project, c. 1930s–40s, students sketching a nude model in a large room
Life drawing class for adults at the Brooklyn Museum under the auspices of the New York City WPA Art Project, c. 1930s–40s, students sketching a nude model in a large room

When we step into the vital activity of drawing we are stepping into a conversation with all those who have come before us and who have faced the same obstacles we do when we draw. I found an image of a drawing studio when flipping through a book of Pierre-Paul Prudhon’s drawings at the library yesterday. The image inspired me to find similar images and create this post. Although the costumes and interiors in each image are different than we might find today the people and the activity remains the same.

Agostino Carracci, The Drawing Academy, c. 1500s, engraving showing artists drawing from a nude male model in a Renaissance-era studio
Agostino Carracci, The Drawing Academy, c. 1500s
Michel-Ange Houasse, The Drawing Academy, 1715, painting depicting students drawing from a live model in an 18th-century French academy
Michel-Ange Houasse, The Drawing Academy, 1715
Tiepolo, Piazzetta’s Academy, c. 1700s, drawing of a life drawing class in an 18th-century Venetian academy with students sketching a posed model
Tiepolo, Piazzetta’s Academy, c.1700s
Charles West Cope, Life School Royal Academy, 1868, painting of a Victorian-era Royal Academy life drawing class with students and instructor working from a nude model
Charles West Cope, Life School Royal Academy (1868)

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