Taster talk: women and life drawing at the RA
International Women's Day 2020: women with influence
Monday 2 March 2020 2 - 2.15pm
The Julia and Hans Rausing Hall, Royal Academy of Arts
Free, no booking required
Drop in for a free 15-minute talk to unearth the hidden stories of the Royal Academy.
In this talk we look back at pioneering women students of the Royal Academy Schools in the 19th century and consider their significance for later generations.
Women were admitted to the RA Schools from the 1860s onwards but they were excluded from life drawing and confined to drawing plaster casts and clothed models. Unsatisfied with this restricted curriculum, the women students staged a continuous campaign to be allowed to draw from the nude model. Their efforts finally paid off in 1893 when a life class for women was set up and this soon became the norm for art schools throughout the country.
This talk will focus on a display of drawings by Minnie Jane Hardman who studied at the RA in the 1880s. She joined the campaign for women's life class and her surviving drawings demonstrate that she also found alternative ways to study by attending private classes outside the Academy.
International Women's Day 2020: women with influence
Join us for a week-long programme featuring panel discussions and a film screening, as well as workshops and courses. From patrons to historians, we celebrate the influential women working to support art and artists.