Royal Academy of Arts - Royal Academy Schools

Royal Academy Schools

The Royal Academy Schools form the oldest art school in Britain, and still offer the only three-year postgraduate art course to students.

The Royal Academy Schools was the first institution to provide professional training for artists in Britain. The Schools' programme of formal training was originally modeled upon that of the French Académie de peinture et de sculpture, founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and shaped by the precepts laid down by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In his fifteen Discourses delivered to pupils in the Schools between 1769 and 1790, Reynolds stressed the importance of copying the Old Masters, and of drawing from casts after the Antique and from the life model. He argued that such a training would form artists capable of creating works of high moral and artistic worth. Professorial chairs were founded in Chemistry, Anatomy, Ancient History and Ancient Literature, the latter two being held initially by Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith.

In 1769, the first year of its existence, 77 students were enrolled into the Schools. By 1830 over 1,500 students had enrolled in the Schools giving an average intake of 25 students each year. They included men such as John Flaxman, J. M. W. Turner, Sir John Soane, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake, Sir Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, Sir George Hayter, David Wilkie, William Etty and Sir Edwin Landseer. The term of studentship was at first six years. This was increased to seven years in 1792 and to ten in 1800 and it remained at ten till 1853. These figures must be regarded, however, only as years of eligibility. Undoubtedly many of the students did not complete their full term but there are no details of attendances at this early date or any record of the termination of studentships.

Teaching in the Royal Academy Schools was undertaken by a system of lectures delivered by Professors and Royal Academician "Visitors". Royal Academicians were elected as Visitors and served in rotation for nine months of the year. Each Visitor attended for a month, setting the models and examining and instructing the performances of the students. This system lasted through into the late 1920s when Visitors were replaced by permanent teachers.

The first woman to enrol as a student of the Schools was Laura Herford in 1860. Three more women enrolled in 1861 with a further three in 1862.

The Royal Academy has always provided free tuition to its students. Tuition is given by practising artists, many of them Members of the Royal Academy, under the direction of the Keeper.

Today some 60 students study in the Schools on a three-year postgraduate course. The programme is focused on studio-based practice across all fine art media. The studios accommodate a wide variety of disciplines, including painting, sculpture, print, installation and time-based and digital media. Selection of candidates is based upon evidence of individual ability and commitment, with an emphasis on potential for further development across the three-year tenure of the course. Students are given the opportunity twice each year to show their work in the Royal Academy.