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Since even before the Renaissance, drawing and the arts were believed to be useful in the world of art and artists, genteel society, and the world of technology. By the beginning of the 19th century, the art academy replaced artist apprenticeship throughout much of Europe. Art Education and Training
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Access to fine arts was limited to upper-class men and women during the 18th century. Art was seen as a luxury, only intended for individuals with economic resources and leisure. Art students were predominantly men. Art education was desirable because it became a way to better oneself by cultivating and demonstrating good taste, aesthetic sensitivity, and artistic skills The Academy of Art
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Early schools taught, needlework, deportment, reading, and writing.
Advocates argued that girls needed education in literature and science. Drawing demonstrated scientific knowledge, and the observation of divine creation. Science and drawing heightened moral taste, appreciation of beauty, natural order and designed, and piety. Instruction of Young Ladies -
Most preceptresses (female teachers), collected engravings and copied from collections. Mary Ann Dwight argued that the study of art needed to be based on scientific principals that were discovered in the unchanging laws of nature. Mary, like others argued that learning to draw by copying only taught superficial skills, without deepening the understand of artistic principals. The Voice of the Preceptress: Female Education in and as the Seduction Novel
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With the growth and development of technologies, farming became more efficient, and things that were made at home were able to be manufactured in factories (such as cloth). Learning to make a machine by watching a master was now able to be self taught through blueprints and drawings. The designing of machines and technologies required mastery of visual-spatial, mathematical, and technical skills. Art of the Draftsman
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Understanding how to create and read drawings provided an advantage in growing the American industrial economy. Copies of engineer drawings showed workmen how to build new mills or install machinery. Common and art school drawing had systematic and discipline, establishing principles that gave rise to rational rules for practice and purpose. Drawing continued to be a necessary extension of communication and language. -
Chapman was born in Alexandria Virginia. He studied with local artists before attending the Pennsylvanian Academy of Fine Arts in 1827. He also studied in Rome and Florence, copying old master paintings. Upon returning to the United States, he taught wood engraving, drew and engraved illustrations, and painting portraits in New York. Chapman's American Drawing-Book 1847, continues to be republished.
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Drawing was for pleasure but also practical technical skills; hand eye coordination. Drawing supported the growth of good taste and national art. Provided artistic education for workmen, by improving American goods and better compete with European manufactures. Help copyists avoid work errors. Support females with drawing skills in their own work and educating children. Aided school girls with their education. -
Dwight was known for her books on mythology, astronomy, and poetry. However, she is best remembered for her books on art. 1856 - 57, Barnard's American Journal of Education published a series of her articles on art education, articles in which she argued that drawing should be taught like any other subject. During her last year of life (1858), Dwight established a school in Hartford, Connecticut. Mary Ann Dwight
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The state of Massachusetts by 1860 established laws requiring elementary and secondary schooling. Requiring a minimum attendance for working children, annual inspections of school houses, and teacher certification. June 1869, leading merchants and manufacturers petitioned the state legislature for an act that would require drawing, and that drawing would be taught free to workers in the evening in common schools. Drawing Petition
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In response to the petition, the state of Massachusetts asked the board of education to provide provision by law to allow the instruction of mechanical drawing be free to men, women, and children. Drawing was critical to industrial education, it introduced and enhanced technical skills that workers needed read constructive drawings. [1870 Drawing Act]http://www.noteaccess.com/APPROACHES/ArtEd/History/MADrawingAct.htm
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In the 1870s, chromolithographer Louis Prang began publishing art books for use in public schools. Prang became the publisher and illustrator for Walter Smith's first American book on art education. Though their partnership ended in 1881 and despite Smith's return to England, Prang's company continued to publish a revised version of the "American Text-Books of Art Education" under Smith's name. Louis Prang -
Walter Smith, director of drawing for the Boston schools, implemented a drawing program and hosted classes for teachers, teaching them his methods. Putting great emphasis on vocabulary and definitions, he expected students to learn the rules of observational drawing rather than create copies. He developed a series of drawing books and teachers struggled to follow the rigid instruction within. Walter Smith
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Advocates for drawing instruction wanted the following:
- Examples of art, drawings, and other visual resources needed to be collected and made avaible for school use.
- Classroom teachers should be taught the drawings skills they themselves were expected to instruct.
- Student work should be exhibited.
- Have one individual appointed to organize and direct the common schools' art education efforts.
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Prang self-published an art-educational series that included three types of drawing: constructive, representational, and decorative. Constructive was most closely related to Smith's linear industrial drawing. Decorative consisted of historical ornament, decorative design, the study of natural growth, and color work. Representational trained students to correctly draw what they could see through observation. Prang Publishing -
While drawing was a skill to be learned, researchers began to believe a child's drawing was a more developmental skill, such as speech, that would improve naturally given the right support. In 1880, psychologist G. Stanley Hall used children's drawings with the goal to create a science of education based on the laws of natural development. Hall showed teachers that a child's thoughts, feelings, and impulses should be valued, that all children are creative.
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Despite his advocacy, vigorous attempt at sharing his methods for implementing industrial drawing, and various lectures throughout the northeastern states and Canada, Walter Smith was removed from his positions with the city and state after conflicts with his publisher Louis Prang lead to negative newspaper articles. He returned to England in July of 1882.
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As a means to promote interest in nature and careful observation, nature drawing became very popular. Still live arrangements were used to introduce children to broader concepts of everyday objects. Teachers would prompt discussions about the objects expecting children to respond correctly, learning simple facts along with the skills of representational drawing. Prang Instructional Pages -
In 1899, Massachusetts held its 11th state exhibition of drawing where over 9,000 drawings from public schools in six states were displayed in Boston. An overall consensus from board members and state art supervisors was the quality of work displayed was disappointing. There was no longer an emphasis on mechanical drawing. Students showed strong work in color and nature drawing. It was decided that children had imitated a sense of beauty. The educational change met the social needs of students.
