Royal Academy Sommerset House, London / [graphic]

"Students draw from a nude female model by artificial light. She stands on a low polygonal platform, gracefully posed, her raised right arm supported on a rope slung from the roof, underneath a large round reflector under which a lamp burns. Beside her is a bottle and glass. Behind the platform is a large closed stove and a high screen. The students sit on two rows of seats arranged in a horse-shoe, the second row raised above the first, resting their drawing-boards on a rail. Lamps or candles with reflectors are attached to this rail at intervals. One man (left) paints standing at a painting-table; he wears apron and oversleeves; behind him stands a man inspecting the model through a glass. Almost all the students wear powdered hair with side-curls and small pigtails; many are elderly. The room is handsome; the walls are covered with casts from the antique: busts on a shelf near the ceiling with bas-reliefs below. The drawing is realistic, the heads of the students slightly caricatured."--British Museum online catalogue