3-028-537 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Drawing from Life," by J. Henderson, 1870. Engraving of a painting. 'The meritorious little picture by Mr. T. [sic] Henderson...from the first exhibition of the New British Institution...tells its simple story in an appropriately unpretending way. To the student of art, especially if he be a Royal Academy student, "Drawing from the Life" may suggest much that is severe, and even formidable. It may recall the struggles of probation, dreary copying of the antique, and dry anatomical lectures, before winning admission into the "life school"...The young artist before us is, however, pursuing his life-studies under more agreeable conditions. He has, it appears, his cottage-studio all to himself...his knees save him the embarrassment of an easel; his slate and pencil render him independent of the artists' colourmen; above all, his model [ie pet cat] seems to be posed quite naturally and to be displaying exemplary patience. Well may our embryo artist become wholly absorbed in his task under conditions such as these! And if the immediate result may be not commensurate with the effort - if the portrait of Grimalkin should not turn out to be a masterpiece - still the art of even a Landseer must have had an equally humble beginning'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.