Genevieve's Journeys

On his appointment as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in 1806 Soane began to arrange the Books, casts and models in order that the students might have the benefit of easy access to them and proposed opening his house for the use of the Royal Academy students the day before and the day after each of his lectures. By 1827, when John Britton published the first description of the Museum, Soane’s collection was being referred to as an ‘Academy of Architecture’.  

In 1833 Soane negotiated an Act of Parliament to settle and preserve the house and collection for the benefit of ‘amateurs and students’ in architecture, painting and sculpture. On his death in 1837 the Act came into force, vesting the Museum in a board of Trustees who were to continue to uphold Soane’s own aims and objectives.
 

Part of the mandate of the museum is continuing education, and when we visited last week, I spotted an evening class for grownups, and on impulse signed up the next day. It's a class of 8 people, with one instructor, and a chance to spend a couple of hours a week for 5 weeks refining drawing skills and practicing on the thousands of artifacts in the museum. Soane wanted it used to inspire students, and it's certainly an inspiring collection.

I haven't done drawing in a class since junior high, and I've never been very confident of my skills. Learning calligraphy was a revelation, because I always thought I 'wasn't artistic'; so I'm really quite excited to be doing this.

About half of the class are Soane Museum regulars, who knew the instructor well enough to chat about his newest commission (a show in London for the Indian high commission); the rest were wide-eyed newbies like me. One was a staff member and the ed coordinator dropped in towards the end.

Part of the fun was adventuring into the museum after closing time; all the staff seemed very excited at having permission to explore the house in the quiet and the dark. It gave the rooms a completely different feel, they said.

Another fun bit was trekking through all the back corridors from one part of the three joined buildings to the middle unit, to reach the museum, without tripping the door alarms - weaving through the old boot room, pantry, and kitchen (with newfangled top-of-the-line 19th c iron range in the fireplace) and up the stairs to the drawing room, painted a bright 'Turner yellow' (a lead oxychloride), which was apparently cutting edge when the house was furnished.

This week's lesson was in using pencils to develop an eye for shading and tones - when you look at an object, what is the darkest tone? the lightest? the inbetween ones? what can you draw in small units of shading to create a whole? It was about 'learning to look', a catchphrase that I've heard before, but that is hard to teach if you don't 'have' it. I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of 'it' over this course.