Life Class Roman sketch Book

Seated Nude Study
Pen & Ink.
Rome

 People have all sorts of ideas about what takes place in a life drawing class. Often equating it to some form of debauchery. When in fact students are so intent on trying to understand the structure, anatomy and rhythm of their subject  that they are totally  unaware of any nudity. The emphases in Rome was a long way from the anatomical analyse at Julian Ashton School in Sydney'. The contrast was very refreshing as the 19th cent. academic approach to drawing  unless you were a highly gifted draftsman often led to tight lifeless work.

Nude sitting in front of mirror
Pen & Ink
Rome

Each day we would arrive at nine and spend the next three hours drawing what ever model had been hired.
Most sessions would start with some quick sketch of half to one minute before the class would settle down to fifteen and half hour poses. The longer poses would have a short break between them. The model would sit or lie on a central platform with the students drawing her from different angles. The assistant professor [everyone in Italy with some sort of tertiary training was called professor] would walk around offering advise. This respect for professional people was very wide with nearly every educated person addressed as Doctor.  Our class consisted of thirty students from every corner of the globe.

Reclining Nude
Pen & Ink
Rome

Roman Nude Study
Pen & Ink
Rome

The drawings below were executed at Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney, as you can observe the approach to drawing was very academic and exacting. We were expected to develop the work from rough block out to a finished piece of work, generally we were not encouraged to develop original approaches.

Charcoal drawing with an abstract directional diagram of the poses movement

Pencil study

Conti crayon tonal sketch

Blocked out nude study
Pencil

Charcoal anatomical study.



Generally at about ten to twelve our Professor would arrive from some fresco he was painting in a church near by.
The whole approach to teaching, if you could call it that was very laid back and there was no expectation that you would be taught a great deal. Many American students were fairly upset by this system ,while Europeans accepted it as normal. It is not uncommon for a young person to pay a master just to work in their studio or workshop.