
Stephen Farthing RA at Ham House
National Trust / Sophia Schorr-Kon
Stephen Farthing RA
10 works | 12:15 minutes
Artist Stephen Farthing RA had a solo show, The Back Story, at the RA in 2010. He was the Rootstein Hopkins Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London from 2004-2017.

Dame Laura Knight RA, Ella Naper in the Apple Orchard at Trewoolfe, c.1916.
Part of the RA Collectionpencil on wove paper. 285 mm x 198 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Dame Laura Knight RA
This drawing demonstrates just how skilled Laura Knight was at looking at something and then making, not a copy of it, but an interpretation of what was going on.
Now playing
1. Laura Knight's study of a model

George Dance RA, Van dreamt of having taken a dose of physic in Van Diemen's Land.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink and wash on cream laid paper. 148 mm x 100 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
George Dance RA
Van dreamt of having taken a dose of physic in Van Diemen's Land
As a drawing, the important thing is that Dance imagined it all, but then he put in this big shadow that runs through the middle of the drawing, which gives it a physical credibility.
Now playing
2. George Dance's dreaming Van Diemen

Richard Doyle, Page from the catalogue of the 1850 Royal Academy exhibition, with drawings, 1850.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink on wove paper. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Richard Doyle
Page from the catalogue of the 1850 Royal Academy exhibition, with drawings , 1850
Drawing doesn’t have to be some big demonstration of skill, it can be drawn onto any convenient surface as an aid to memory, or literally as a way of amusing oneself.
Now playing
3. Richard Doyle's exhibition catalogue

Sir John Gilbert RA, Drawings of heads for 'Field of the Cloth of Gold', June 1873.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink over pencil on off-white wove paper. 288 mm x 134 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Sir John Gilbert RA
Drawings of heads for 'Field of the Cloth of Gold' , June 1873
This drawing was made as part of the preparation for a large picture called ‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’. It’s looking not only at the shape of an individual’s head but how a crowd of heads might form.
Now playing
4. John Gilbert's drawings of heads

Gerard van der Gucht, The fifth lowest rib, for Cheselden's Osteographia, by 1733.
Part of the RA Collectionpencil on laid paper. 110 mm x 268 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Gerard van der Gucht
The fifth lowest rib, for Cheselden's Osteographia , by 1733
Here we have a draughtsman staring at a bone and trying to draw it as accurately as he can. It has little or nothing to do with the imagination or art, it’s somebody practising the craft of drawing.
Now playing
5. Gerard van der Gucht's fifth lowest rib

Angelica Kauffman RA, A scene from the story of Rhodope and King Psammetichus of Egypt, 1780.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink and wash on cream laid paper. 187 mm x 154 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photographer: John Hammond.
Angelica Kauffman RA
A scene from the story of Rhodope and King Psammetichus of Egypt , 1780
It’s a rather carefully, beautifully made drawing that’s made by combining the imagination with a knowledge of the way things really are.
Now playing
7. Angelica Kauffman's Rhodope

Henry Hugh Armstead RA, Two studies of floating female figures.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink over pencil on cream wove paper. 103 mm x 172 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Henry Hugh Armstead RA
If you start to look at drawings not as a series of lines on paper but as a meeting of a series of lines and a white metaphysical space, I think you get a better idea of what a drawing is.
Now playing
8. Henry Hugh Armstead's floating female figures

Thomas Banks RA, Portrait of John Malin, ca. 1768-69.
Part of the RA CollectionBlack and red chalks, heightened with white, on laid paper on canvas. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photographer: John Hammond.
Thomas Banks RA
Portrait of John Malin , ca. 1768-69
This drawing has been so heavily drawn that it has ceased to be a drawing, because the paper is no longer playing an active part in our understanding of the drawing, it is merely a support.
Now playing
9. Thomas Banks's portrait of John Malin

Tracey Emin RA, Trying to Find You 1, 2007.
Part of the RA Collectionacrylic on canvas. 210 mm x 298 mm x 26 mm. © Tracey Emin RA. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited.
Tracey Emin RA
Trying to Find You 1 , 2007
I suspect it’s not really a painting. I think it’s a drawing. What is a drawing? It’s an idea. Drawings are full of ideas, they’re not necessarily full of resolutions.
Now playing
10. Tracey Emin's painting – or is it a drawing?
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