AW: This is correct. Women were subject to an unofficial ban; while nothing in the rules and regulations of the RA Schools prohibited women from studying there, no woman artists were admitted to the RA Schools until 1860.

The first female student was Laura Herford, who was accepted into the RA Schools on the merit of her drawings, which she had signed only with her initials and surname – the Keeper and teaching staff assuming therefore that they were the works of a male student!

Laura Herford opened the doors for more female students: in the following decades, many more women were admitted to the RA Schools. But they were still barred from life drawing (which was key to an artist’s professional development and success) until the 1880s, when the female students clubbed together to petition the President for access to a “partially draped figure”.

AW: Unlike art academies in Europe, the Royal Academy employed female as well as male life models from the inception of the RA Schools in 1769.

The male models were generally chosen for their physique and were often the porters of the Academy, soldiers or boxers. When it came to female models, Regency Society frowned upon the idea of women of nobility or gentry posing nude in public. Female life model positions were often filled by working class women and sex workers.

All the students could draw the male life models but male students under the age of 20 (unless they were married), were not permitted to draw from the naked female model. It is interesting to note that female models in the RA Schools were typically paid twice as much as their male counterparts.

AW: This sounds extremely unlikely to me. I’m pretty certain it has never happened. Students were, and have always, been accepted purely on artistic merit. Entry to the RA Schools was open to anyone with a demonstrable talent for drawing or modelling, and the course was completely free of charge (as it is today!).

To apply, you had to submit a finished drawing of an Antique statue, (or if the drawing was of a torso, it had to be accompanied by drawings of a head and a hand or foot). Sculptors had to send a model or relief of a similar subject. If the Keeper (head) of the RA Schools thought it was good enough, the student was admitted as a `Probationer’.

They would then be given three months to prepare a further set of drawings or models in the Academy, including a skeleton and an anatomical figure. Only if these were accepted by Council (the ruling body of the Academy), as showing sufficient promise, would the student be formerly enrolled in the RA Schools.

AW: I’ve certainly never come across any record of such behaviour going on! The official histories of the RA would have us believe that the students were all conscientious, hard-working and professional.

At this time in history, the RA Schools were the only formal art teaching academies in the UK, and so competition to gain admission would have been extremely high. I imagine that successful students would have regarded it as a great honour to have been selected.

Once female students began to be admitted in 1860, a number of social events and clubs were created which enabled the male and female students to meet socially. We have no record though, of what they got up to at these dances, dinners and soirees.

AW: Yes, the Prince Regent, later George IV often attended private views of the Summer Exhibition – and he was given a personal tour by the Academy’s first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds

Queen Victoria also often attended private views of the Summer Exhibition, and she and Prince Albert were known to buy paintings from the exhibition.

AW: It was the annual Summer exhibition of 1832. Constable’s huge painting The Opening of Waterloo Bridge was hung next to Turner’s seascape Helvoetsluys.

The surface of Constable’s 6ft-wide canvas glittered with speckled sunshine and bold touches of red, green and white. Turner’s seascape, on the other hand was one of his more muted works. Not wishing to be upstaged, Turner placed a single blob of bright red paint in the sea of his own canvas, later finessing it to look like a buoy bobbing in the water.

When Constable saw what Turner had done, he declared: “He has been here and fired a gun!”

The RA Schools is the UK’s longest established art school, offering a full-time, three-year programme to 17 early career artists each year. We charge no fees.

Lectures, group critiques, tutorials and artist talks support the production of studio work. Given the high student to tutor ratio, each student’s individual art practice is subject to in-depth and sustained discussion.

This programme is free and we offer financial support through bursaries, contributions to the cost of some materials, alongside a student support fund. This support does not fully cover the cost of living and studying in London, and most students work part time including those who take on paid work within the RA.