Editing Figure drawing (section)

==History==
{{further information|History of the nude in art}}
[[Image:Carracci, Annibale - Studio di nudo.jpg|thumb|left|240px|alt=Drawing of a man sitting with crossed legs|Nude study by [[Annibale Carracci]]]]
The human figure has been the subject of drawings since prehistoric times. While the studio practices of the artists of antiquity are largely a matter of conjecture, that they often drew and modeled from nude models is suggested by the anatomical sophistication of their works. An anecdote related by [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] describes how [[Zeuxis (painter)|Zeuxis]] reviewed the young women of [[Agrigentum]] naked before selecting five whose features he would combine in order to paint an ideal image.<ref name="Strict6">''Strictly Academic'' 1974 p. 6.</ref> The use of nude models in the medieval artist's workshop is implied in the writings of [[Cennino Cennini]], and a manuscript of [[Villard de Honnecourt]] confirms that sketching from life was an established practice in the 13th century.<ref name="Strict6" /> [[The Carracci]], who opened their ''[[Accademia degli Incamminati]]'' in Bologna in the 1580s, set the pattern for later art schools by making life drawing the central discipline.<ref>''Strictly Academic'' 1974, p. 7.</ref> The course of training began with the copying of engravings, then proceeded to drawing from plaster casts, after which the students were trained in drawing from a live model.

In the late 18th century, students in [[Jacques-Louis David]]'s studio followed a rigorous program of instruction.  Mastery in drawing was considered a prerequisite to painting. For about six hours each day, students drew from a model who remained in the same pose for one week.<ref>''Strictly Academic'' 1974, p. 8.</ref> "Eighteenth-century drawings, like that attributed to Jacques-Louis David, were usually executed on tinted paper in red or black chalk with white highlights and a darkened ground.  The models' poses tended  to be active: standing figures seem about to stir and even seated figures gesticulate dramatically. Close observation of the model's body was secondary to the rendering of his gesture, and many drawings - consistent with academic theory - seem to present a representative figure rather than a specific body or face. In comparison, academies produced in the nineteenth century [...] were typically executed in black chalk or charcoal on white paper and are meticulous depictions of the particularities and idiosyncrasies of the body of the live model. Evidence of the artist's hand is minimized and, although reclining or seated poses are rare, even standing poses are comparatively static..."<ref>S. Waller, The Invention of the Model: Artists and Models in Paris, 1830-1870. 2016, P. 5.</ref> Before the late 19th century, women were generally not admitted to figure drawing classes.<ref>''Strictly Academic'' 1974, p. 9.</ref><ref name="Myers" />

===Academy figure===
{{further|Academic art}}
An '''academy figure''' is a carefully executed [[drawing]] or [[painting]] of the nude human body, typically at half life size, completed as an exercise in an art school or academy.<ref>{{cite book| editor-first=Ian |editor-last=Chilvers |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=2015}}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Michiel Sweerts - De tekenles (1660).jpg|''The drawing class'', [[Michiel Sweerts]], 1660
File:'Young Student Drawing', oil on panel by Jean Siméon Chardin, c. 1738, Kimbell Art Museum.jpg|''Young Student Drawing'', [[Jean Siméon Chardin]], {{Circa|1738}}
File:Drawing from Life at the Royal Academy, illustration to 'The Microcosm of London' (London, Ackermann, 1808-10) by Thomas Rowlandson.jpg|[[Thomas Rowlandson]], ''Drawing from Life at the Royal Academy'', c. 1808–1810
File:École des beaux-arts (from the live).jpg|''[[École des beaux-arts]]'', late 19th century
File:Academy4.jpg|Christian Krohg (1852–1925), seated center, lecturing a class at Statens kunstakademi in [[Oslo]]
File:'The Anatomy Class at the Ecole des Beaux Arts', oil on canvas painting by François Sallé, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales.jpg|''The Anatomy Class at the Ecole des Beaux Arts'', [[François Sallé]], 1888
File:Pedro Américo - Figura Masculina em Pé 2.jpg|[[Pedro Américo]], ''Academy'', c. 1870
</gallery>

===Women artists===
Historical accounts reveal that nude models for aspiring [[Women artists|female artists]] were largely unavailable. Women were barred from certain institutions because it was considered improper and possibly even dangerous for them to study from nude models.<ref name="Myers">{{cite web |last=Myers |first=Nicole |title=Women Artists in Nineteenth–Century France |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/19wa/hd_19wa.htm |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>  Though men were given access to both male and female nudes, women were confined to learning anatomy from casts and models. It was not until 1893 that female students were allowed access to life drawing at the Royal Academy in London,<ref>{{cite web |last=Levin |first=Kim |title=Top Ten ARTnews Stories: Exposing the Hidden 'He' |url=http://www.artnews.com/2007/11/01/top-ten-artnews-stories-exposing-the-hidden-he/ |work=ArtNews|date=November 2007 }}</ref> and even then the model was required to be partially draped.<ref name="Nochlin">{{cite web |last=Nochlin |first=Linda |title=Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? |url=http://art-history.concordia.ca/news-and-events/Nochlin.pdf |publisher = Department of Art History, [[Concordia University|University of Concordia]]}}</ref>

The limited access to nude figures impeded the careers and development of female artists. The most prestigious forms of painting required in-depth knowledge of anatomy that was systematically denied to women,<ref name="Nochlin"/> who were thereby relegated to less-regarded forms of painting such as [[genre art|genre]], [[still life]], [[landscape]], and [[portrait painting|portraiture]]. In [[Linda Nochlin]]’s essay, "Why have There Been No Great Women Artists" she identifies the restricted access that women had to nude figure drawing as a historically significant barrier to women's artistic development.<ref name="Nochlin"/>