Rubens to Sickert: The Study of Drawing

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.

Start Exploring now

Old Masters and the Body

Modern Masters

Drawing After Betts

Artist in Residence

Old Masters of the Future

Activites

Acknowledgements

Old Masters and the Body

Professor James Anthony Betts began collecting drawings for the University of Reading School of Art in June 1953. He believed in access to art and that drawings were one of the best ways to introduce students to great artists.

The first drawings that Betts purchased were all Old Masters (1500s-1800s). He looked for drawings that would teach his students about different historical movements and schools.

As had been the case for centuries, Betts saw learning to draw the human body as the focus of art education. The first studies he collected all feature the human figure. They also showcase the flexibility of drawing as a medium. Examples range from independent works of art, to sketchbook pages, to studies for multi-figure paintings. They each use different drawing materials and techniques.

View a selection of the artworks below or click here for more.

Sketch of a woman reclining on a sofa, with a knife in one hand and a bleeding wound between her breasts — Jost Amman, Lucretia, UAC/10548

Back view of a seated figure with bare legs and chest — 16th century Italian School, Seated Roman Soldier, UAC/10576

Woman with upraised hand addressing a crowd of people — Flaminio or Francesco Allegrini (attributed), St Catherine and the Philosophers, UAC/10540

Seven figures, in stereotypical ancient Greek/Roman garb. The four at the back are only visible as heads. Across the entire artwork is a square grid — Antoine Coypel, Study of Silvius Aeneas for ‘Aeneas in the Underworld’, UAC/10549

19th century French School, Study of a Head and Bandaged Arm, UAC/10543

Sheet of studies of horse and rider, several figures, a horse's head and the head and shoulder of a figure — 16th century Italian School, Sheet of Studies with a Rider on Horseback, UAC/10577

Crowd of figures surrounding a kneeling figure. All the figures are 'rough' and not complete — Giovanni Baglione, Conversion of Mary Magdalen, UAC/10578

Aurora and Pegasus sitting on a cloud with the sun in the top left corner and attended by Putti — 18th century French School, Aurora and Pegasus attended by Putti, UAC/10579

Study for the head of Marie de'Medici — Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait Sketch of Marie de’Medici, UAC/10539

Modern Drawing

Betts started his collection with Old Masters, however, most of the works he amassed were by modern artists working around his own lifetime. He combined an interest in the stories behind the drawings he collected with an emphasis on variety, focused on artists drawing the body.

Betts also formed his own sense of himself as a contemporary artist during his studies in the 1920s. He belonged to an up-and-coming group of ambitious young artists alongside Henry Moore (1898-1986) at the Royal College of Art and the Brook Green School of Drawing. Together, they were exposed to diverse approaches to figure drawing by experimental tutor, Leon Underwood (1890-1975).

It was the artist Walter Sickert (1860-1942) who most informed Betts teaching and collecting in Reading. The Betts Collection comprises 16 drawings by Sickert. They demonstrate principles that Betts adopted wholesale in his teaching, to the extent that he introduced an iron bedstead (a prop synonymous with Sickert) into the “life room” at Reading.

View a selection of the artworks below or click here for more.

Two women, with their hair in buns, reading from a large book — Albert de Belleroche, Two Women Reading (Étude de femme), UAC/10568

View of military officer from behind in minimal sketch style — Jean-Louis Forain, Military Officer, UAC/10581

Portrait of the upper half of Ronald Murrary Phillip. He has his head bent and is looking down — James Abbott McNeill Whistler, The Fellow Traveller (Study of Ronald Murray Phillip), UAC/10519

Study for the head of a soldier. The figure is wearing a helmet with a strap under the chin. — James Anthony Betts, Study for the Head of a Soldier, UAC/10852. © Estate of J. Anthony Betts

Leaping Figure drawn in minimal lines — Leon Underwood, Leaping Figure, Private Collection. © Estate of Leon Underwood

Standing Female Nude leaning on a tall plinth — James Anthony Betts, Standing Female Nude, UAC/10779. © Estate of J. Anthony Betts

Reclining female nude with back to the viewer on a 'metal' bed stead. A second nude figure, visible from bust to hips, is in the background — Walter Richard Sickert, The Little Bed, UAC/10520

Five figures dancing in a circle. — Charles Keene, Robert at Cook’s Little Swarry, UAC/10575

Two ballet dancers dancing. One wearing an orange dress and the other wearing a green outfit — Spencer Frederick Gore, Ballet at the Alhambra, UAC/10566

Drawing After Betts

Claude Rogers (1907-1979) took over the running of Reading School of Art from Betts in 1963. He summarised the school in which he arrived:

“The teaching is limited (only last year has any abstract painting been done) – Sickerty. The syllabus and examination requirements are odd, besides being old-fashioned.”

Abstract art (which does not attempt to represent visual reality) had been a growing influence in British art education for some time. Elsewhere students were already encouraged to experiment freely with line, form and colour. Rogers hired new tutors to introduce different ideas about drawing to the curriculum. New courses, like that overseen by Rita Donagh (b.1939), moved students away from drawing the figure.

View the artworks below or click here for more.

Abstract artwork by Rita Donagh. Featuring a pink, purple, blue and white line down the centre of the artwork with a circle to the left and a faint grid pattern across the artwork — Rita Donagh, Life Size, 1971. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Rita Donagh. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021.

Abstract artwork by Tom Cross, with honeycomb structure at the top — Tom Cross, San Andreas, 1967. Reading Museum: 2001.250.1. © Estate of Tom Cross.

Abstract drawing by Martin Froy in grey, black and white with figures made up of circles, squares and various lines around a 'table' — Martin Froy, At the table, 1982. Reading Museum: 1986.133.1. © Estate of Martin Froy.

Artist in Residence

The University of Reading Art Collection in partnership with Reading Museum are hosting artist-in-residence, Saranjit Birdi, in a project entitled Drawing Diversity.

This project uses the exhibition to pose questions around diversity in drawing practices and to produce a new commission for the University of Reading Art Collection.

For more about other artist residencies, click here.

Old Masters of the Future

We are looking for “old masters of the future” – pictures of drawings made by you in connection to the exhibition. This was a phrase used by Professor James Anthony Betts, who oversaw the School of Art at the University of Reading from 1933 – 1963. His drawing collection comprises a significant part of the exhibition.

Betts’ collection focused on the human body, a subject at the centre of art education for centuries. So we would love to receive pictures of your drawings of people – be they self-portraits or sketches of family and friends.

They can be as abstract or as realistic as you like. How has the eld of drawing expanded today? Show us! We seek digital entries from artists and amateurs alike, across all ages. We can all be “old masters of the future”.

Click here to see the gallery of other entries.

Activities

Why not try drawing activities inspired by the Betts Collection?

Check out tips and tricks from Jerome. and Sae-Yeoun, our Drawing Micro-Residency artists?

Explore our School Resource based around the exhibition?

Take a tour of the physical exhibition?

Acknowledgements

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 as part of their National Portfolio Organisation activities.

Special thanks also go to the following organisations and individuals for their generous support and assistance in the creation of the exhibition:

The Art Council Collection
The British Museum
The Henry Moore Foundation
HM Government Indemnity Scheme
The Henry Moore Foundation
The Royal College of Art
The family of Leon Underwood
The family of James Anthony Betts
Martin Andrews
Clive Ashwin
Anthony Harris
Sue Hourigan
Nigel Pilkington
Elizabeth Sobczynski
Michael Twyman
Studio Noon