Slade Archive Reader

'Slade School Archive Reader' ts. by Stephen Chaplin, finding aids, appendices and chapters 1 to 10, 1998.

In 1868, Felix Slade, a notable collector of glass, engravings, books and bindings, bequeathed endowments for the founding of three Slade Professorships of Fine Arts, at Oxford, Cambridge and University College London. At UCL it was decided to take the opportunity to raise further funds and establish a new School of Fine Art for the teaching of professional artists. In 1871 the Slade School was founded, with scholarships, a professorship and the construction of suitable buildings. It opened in October 1871, its first Professor of Fine Art being Edward Poynter. The School grew rapidly under his direction, the number of students reaching 220 by 1875. It was he who set the Slade tradition of working from living models. The Slade played a key part in the introduction of women to UCL, having mixed classes of men and women. Its work became even more important after the appointment of Alphonse Legros in 1876. In 1893, Frederick Brown succeeded Legros as Professor, and Henry Tonks and Wilson Steer were his assistants. The study of sculpture was added to the activities of the School in 1893. During World War Two, the Slade School was amalgamated with the Ruskin Drawing School, Oxford, under the joint direction of Randolph Schwabe as Slade Professor and Albert Rutherston, the Ruskin Master of Drawing. The School's work broadened under Sir William Coldstream, Slade Professor from 1949 to 1975, and included postgraduate work in many areas, film studies, the facilities for wood, metal, and photographic work and the extension of a full range of print-making facilities.

Open

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Deposited 19 Mar 1998 by S Chaplin.

Collection level record