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Stephen Farthing RA at Ham House
National Trust / Sophia Schorr-Kon
Stephen Farthing RA
10 works | 12:15 minutes
Artist Stephen Farthing RA had a solo show, The Back Story, at the RA in 2010. He was the Rootstein Hopkins Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London from 2004-2017.
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Dame Laura Knight RA, Ella Naper in the Apple Orchard at Trewoolfe, c.1916.
Part of the RA Collectionpencil on wove paper. 285 mm x 198 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Dame Laura Knight RA
This drawing demonstrates just how skilled Laura Knight was at looking at something and then making, not a copy of it, but an interpretation of what was going on.
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1. Laura Knight's study of a model
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George Dance RA, Van dreamt of having taken a dose of physic in Van Diemen's Land.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink and wash on cream laid paper. 148 mm x 100 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
George Dance RA
Van dreamt of having taken a dose of physic in Van Diemen's Land
As a drawing, the important thing is that Dance imagined it all, but then he put in this big shadow that runs through the middle of the drawing, which gives it a physical credibility.
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2. George Dance's dreaming Van Diemen
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Richard Doyle, Page from the catalogue of the 1850 Royal Academy exhibition, with drawings, 1850.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink on wove paper. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Richard Doyle
Page from the catalogue of the 1850 Royal Academy exhibition, with drawings , 1850
Drawing doesn’t have to be some big demonstration of skill, it can be drawn onto any convenient surface as an aid to memory, or literally as a way of amusing oneself.
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3. Richard Doyle's exhibition catalogue
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Sir John Gilbert RA, Drawings of heads for 'Field of the Cloth of Gold', June 1873.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink over pencil on off-white wove paper. 288 mm x 134 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Sir John Gilbert RA
Drawings of heads for 'Field of the Cloth of Gold' , June 1873
This drawing was made as part of the preparation for a large picture called ‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’. It’s looking not only at the shape of an individual’s head but how a crowd of heads might form.
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4. John Gilbert's drawings of heads
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Gerard van der Gucht, The fifth lowest rib, for Cheselden's Osteographia, by 1733.
Part of the RA Collectionpencil on laid paper. 110 mm x 268 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Gerard van der Gucht
The fifth lowest rib, for Cheselden's Osteographia , by 1733
Here we have a draughtsman staring at a bone and trying to draw it as accurately as he can. It has little or nothing to do with the imagination or art, it’s somebody practising the craft of drawing.
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5. Gerard van der Gucht's fifth lowest rib
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Angelica Kauffman RA, A scene from the story of Rhodope and King Psammetichus of Egypt, 1780.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink and wash on cream laid paper. 187 mm x 154 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photographer: John Hammond.
Angelica Kauffman RA
A scene from the story of Rhodope and King Psammetichus of Egypt , 1780
It’s a rather carefully, beautifully made drawing that’s made by combining the imagination with a knowledge of the way things really are.
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7. Angelica Kauffman's Rhodope
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Henry Hugh Armstead RA, Two studies of floating female figures.
Part of the RA Collectionpen and ink over pencil on cream wove paper. 103 mm x 172 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Henry Hugh Armstead RA
If you start to look at drawings not as a series of lines on paper but as a meeting of a series of lines and a white metaphysical space, I think you get a better idea of what a drawing is.
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8. Henry Hugh Armstead's floating female figures
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Thomas Banks RA, Portrait of John Malin, ca. 1768-69.
Part of the RA CollectionBlack and red chalks, heightened with white, on laid paper on canvas. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photographer: John Hammond.
Thomas Banks RA
Portrait of John Malin , ca. 1768-69
This drawing has been so heavily drawn that it has ceased to be a drawing, because the paper is no longer playing an active part in our understanding of the drawing, it is merely a support.
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9. Thomas Banks's portrait of John Malin
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Tracey Emin RA, Trying to Find You 1, 2007.
Part of the RA Collectionacrylic on canvas. 210 mm x 298 mm x 26 mm. © Tracey Emin RA. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited.
Tracey Emin RA
Trying to Find You 1 , 2007
I suspect it’s not really a painting. I think it’s a drawing. What is a drawing? It’s an idea. Drawings are full of ideas, they’re not necessarily full of resolutions.
Now playing
10. Tracey Emin's painting – or is it a drawing?
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