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| Anonymous British Photographer Actor posed as Statue of a Gladiator ca. 1900-1910 photographic postcard Wellcome Collection, London |
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| Walter Sickert Woman reclining on a Bed ca. 1905-1907 drawing British Museum |
"After having absorbed the art of Whistler and the French Impressionists, Walter Sickert developed his own form of realism which reached a high point during the period between 1905 and 1913. In this period – usually referred to as his 'Camden Town' period – he developed a new class of subject-matter representing working-class subjects in 'real' surroundings. These include nudes in claustrophobic bedrooms with iron bedsteads [as above], . . . in accord with his desire, expressed in 1910 in his essay The Naked and the Nude, to paint figures from 'real life' rather than to construct conventional studio nudes."
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| Stanley Spencer Standing Model ca. 1908-1912 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"This appears to be a study made while Stanley Spencer was studying at the Slade between 1908 and 1912. It shows the kind of work carried out in the life class. . . . Spencer's gifts as a draughtsman were recognized early on, though he did not start winning prizes for figurative compositions [until his last year], as his interpretations were regarded as too eccentric."
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| William Strang Seated Model 1906 lithograph British Museum |
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| William Strang Standing Model, Half-Length 1906 lithograph British Museum |
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| David Comba Adamson Standing Model ca. 1900 oil on canvas Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee |
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| Louie Burrell Standing Model ca. 1900-1903 oil on canvas University of Hull Art Collection |
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| Hugh Cameron Seated Model 1909 oil on canvas Edinburgh College of Art |
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| William Orpen Anatomical Study of Torso ca. 1906 drawing Tate Britain |
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| William Orpen Anatomical Study of Torso ca. 1906 drawing Tate Britain |
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| William Orpen The Draughtsman and his Model 1910 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"Orpen had a fascination with the process of painting the model and returned to the subject many times. This is the only occasion, however, in which he recorded such a study being made in the open air. This watercolour was exhibited at the winter exhibition of the New English Art Club in 1910, where it attracted attention on account of the racy nature of the subject."
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| Alfred Munnings Standing Model (Julian's Atelier in Paris) ca. 1901 oil on canvas Munnings Art Museum, Colchester, Essex |
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| Maribel Rough Standing Model 1906 oil on canvas University College London Art Museum |
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| Albert Rutherston Standing Model 1901 oil on canvas University College London Art Museum |
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| Henry Tonks Head of a Girl ca. 1900 drawing British Museum |
"The model [for Tonks's Head of a Girl], although we cannot be certain, bears some resemblance to a young woman named Miss Edwards, who sat to the artist privately and at the Slade School, and who was, according to Tonks, the best model he ever had. Tonks worked extensively from models, notably the Kings, a working-class London family, whom he transported en masse from London to his retreat at Betteshanger. Tonks made his model studies in chalks and pastels, and he claimed never to use models while working on finished pictures, preferring to rely on his sketches. "If you paint from a living person (except perhaps as a study), you will make some idiotic change which will spoil everything. The great thing is to keep the drawings you do and turn to them when you want help."
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| Anonymous French Photographer Artist's Model ca. 1880 albumen print Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
– quoted passages from The Artist's Model from Etty to Spencer by Martin Postle and William Vaughan (London: Merrell Holberton, 1999)