Rubens to Sickert: The Study of Drawing

Landing page for the Rubens to Sickert: The Study of Drawing online exhibition. It has five images: Rubens' sketch of Marie de Medici, Sickert's drawing of Marie sitting on a bed, an Old Master of the Future submission of two female nudes, an artwork by Saranjit Birdi of a standing figure with head tilted back and facing up, and Rita Donagh's abstract artwork with purple-pink line and a grid pattern. There is also a red box in which reads "Take a pen, pencil or medium of your choice. Get a friend/family member to pose in a chair. Or pose in a chair yourself and take a photo, or look into a mirror. Draw their/your figure as much as you can in 5 minutes. What did you notice about your drawing style? Where did you start drawing from on the body?"

James Anthony Betts (1897 – 1980) led the School of Art at the University of Reading from 1933 – 1963. His most important legacy is the little-known collection of master drawings he assembled for the University in the 1950s. Much of this is now on public display for the first time.

Throughout Betts’ career, drawing the model from life was at the centre of the British art school curriculum. The works exhibited here reflect this focus and show how approaches to drawing shifted over time.

Betts’ lifetime was a period of great change in drawing practices. Accurate drawings of perfect bodies were increasingly abandoned. Life drawing was soon overshadowed by abstract experiments in line, form and colour.

This exhibition was made possible with a grant from the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund and funding from Arts Council England awarded to Museums Partnership Reading via their National Portfolio Organisation programme.