THE ART MASTERS.

The article presents a discussion on the development of art education in the nineteenth century in Great Britain. Several writers have described the development of art education in the nineteenth century, but relatively little has come to light about the art masters themselves. In this article, the author provides an outline of the growth of a new class of teacher up to the time when it was found necessary to form a professional association to protect their interests. Whilst art schools were in existence in Scotland in the eighteenth century, the main center for academic instruction in England was founded in 1789 at Somerset House, England, where the Royal Academy Schools provided a training for future academicians. The local art masters would have classes in private or grammar schools and give private tuition to fee-paying pupils. They would therefore pose as gentlemen and as artists would be included amongst professional classes in the census returns from 1841, but for all this, would not be high in public esteem. It should also be remembered, that while the drawing masters saw themselves handing on an academic tradition, their success as teachers was not dependent upon any real intellectual discipline or training, but on the practice of an inborn skill and upon their experience in such practice.