Drawing—A "Polite Recreation" in Eighteenth-Century England

Abstract

Drawing—A "Polite Recreation" in Eighteenth-Century England KIM SLOAN "Yesterday begun my wife to learn to limn of one Browne, which Mr. Hill helps her to, and by her beginning, upon some eyes, I think she will do very fine things, and I shall take great delight in it."1 Thus Samuel Pepys, in 1665, recorded in his Diary the commencement of his wife's lat­ est diversion — learning to draw and to paint in miniature. The subse­ quent entries in his Diary about his wife's progress during the following year provide useful information about the methods employed for teach­ ing drawing in the seventeenth century; one learned, for example, to draw parts of the face first before proceeding to complete figures. We also learn that although Pepys praised and encouraged his wife in this leisure pastime, her drawing master, Mr. Browne, was not considered to be of sufficient social standing to sit with them at table.2 The purpose of this es­ say is to provide a brief compendium of amateur art instruction in eighteenth-century England and, at the same time, to illustrate whether the methods and social status of amateur art and drawing masters altered significantly during the 150 years after Pepys. In order to put eighteenth-century art education into a framework and finish establishing points of comparison, let us first look at an amateur in the nineteenth century. This particular young lady (from Wilkie Collins's Woman in White) is introducing herself to her new drawing master and discussing his duties: 217 218 / SLOAN Upon my word, if you can be contented with a quiet country life, I don't see why you should not get on well here. . . . After lunch, Miss Fairlie and I shoulder our sketchbooks and go out to misrepresent Na­ ture, under your directions. Drawing is her favorite whim, mind, not mine. Women can't draw —their minds are too flighty, and their eyes are too inattentive. No matter — my sister likes it; so I waste paint and spoil paper, for her sake, as composedly as any woman in England.3 From the framework thus provided by Pepys and Collins, one could be forgiven for assuming that for two hundred years women had been spending their leisure time in the company of drawing masters, "wasting paint and spoiling paper," and being humored by their husbands and friends. Wilkie Collins also indicated, in a later passage, that drawing masters were still considered by the majority of the English gentry as little more than servants.4 The question to keep in mind, therefore, when con­ sidering eighteenth-century amateur art education, is whether these as­ sumptions hold true. Throughout his Diary, Samuel Pepys shows a fascination with various instruments which could be used as an aid to drawing. A Mr. Spong in­ troduced him to the parallelogram or pantagraph with which persons with no skill in drawing could copy designs, prints, maps, etc. in any pro­ portion.5 He also attended lectures at Gresham College explaining the art of drawing pictures by Prince Rupert's rule and machine, and another method of Sir Christopher Wren's — although the latter told him that nothing worked as well as the use of squares6 or, "best in the world, a dark room [camera obscura]."7 Pepys was not unusual in his interest in pictorial arts; numerous entries in his Diary relate discussions of this sub­ ject with friends, notably John Evelyn and his wife who also painted.8 This fascination with mechanical methods of drawing and the sharing of their interest between husband and wife continued into the eighteenth century.9 Pepy's knowledge of drawing, however, had an important effect on the development of art education in the eighteenth century. As Clerk of the Acts of the Navy in 1672, he persuaded King Charles II to endow a Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital. The Hospital was a charity foundation which prepared poor children for apprenticeships in trades and the more talented of them for university. The Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital would take promising students and prepare them for apprenticeship at sea. This preparation included learning per­ spective, chart...