Editing Figure drawing (section)

===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"/>