American School
The American School covers the late 19th and early 20th century. This selection of academic drawings come mainly from the Art Students League of New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, institutions with links to the French Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. The drawings are done using natural charcoal sticks and are either smudged with a stump or finger on laid paper.
The Art Students League in particular boasted a number of American instructors that had studied in Paris and Munich. These included William Merritt Chase, Walter Shirlaw, William Sartain, Thomas Dewing, Kenyon Cox, and J. Carroll Beckwith. Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th century George Bridgman, the famous drawing instructor begins to show his influence in student work.
Later Bridgman student work starts to become more stylized according to the famous Bridgman abstractions with very sharp outlines blocky head construction. Work from the Pennsylvania Academy of Art is also included by Thomas Eakins, these are the close up bust charcoal drawings.
Further information can be found through the following websites:
https://theartstudentsleague.org/permanent-collection-old/
https://asllinea.org/life-drawing-art-students-league/
https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/browse
