Collections

Interior of the Edinburgh School of Art [Trustees' Academy] Cast Gallery in the Royal Institution Building, looking South, before its refurbishment as the Royal Scottish Academy Building

Photographer: Young, William Drummond · 1854-1924

Interior of the Edinburgh School of Art [Trustees' Academy] Cast Gallery in the Royal Institution Building, looking South, before its refurbishment as the Royal Scottish Academy Building

An important photographic record showing the interior of the Cast Gallery of the former Trustees' Academy on the top floor of the Royal Institution…

An important photographic record showing the interior of the Cast Gallery of the former Trustees' Academy on the top floor of the Royal Institution Building on The Mound in Edinburgh.

By the date of this photograph the Trustees' Academy, founded in 1760, had become the Edinburgh School of Art. It catered for both male and female students and this image shows an all female class, under the supervision of a middle aged gentleman who stands in his suit at the left hand side.

The cast collection was commenced in 1798 coinciding with the appointment of John Graham and John Wood as joint masters (Wood left two years later) and what survives of it remains an important feature of the collections of the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh College of Art).

The collection was renowned for the somewhat haphazard manner in which it was "displayed" and although pieces were allocated a reference number there does not appear to have been any consistent or systematic attempt to arrange the casts by historical period order.

The photograph clearly shows the arrangement of the collection in which specific pieces can be readily identified, most obviously the cast of the Venus de Milo at the far end of the gallery. It also shows the heating and lighting arrangements in place.

But most interesting are the female students, all formally dressed in blouses, long skirts and boater hats. Some are stood at wooden A-frame easels working on large sheets of paper, whilst others (two can be seen at centre right) are seated on wooden blocks at wooden trestle tables. Vacant examples of these can be seen neatly lined up at foreground right.

The work produced followed a curriculum laid down by the central Government Schools of Design at South Kensington in London, and the students' course involved passing different levels for which certificates were issued on passing. Each school could then submit entries for the national competition for which prizes in the form of books, bursaries and medals were awarded.

There is a similar view, showing a male only class and possibly of slightly later date, a copy of which is held in the University of Edinburgh Archives and was reproduced on p.1 of the University's 2012 publication 'The Edinburgh College of Art Cast Collection and Architecture.'

Edinburgh School of Art operated in these rooms from 1858 until the opening in 1908 of the new Edinburgh College of Art. The top students were then encouraged to apply for admission to the RSA Life School to complete the training considered necessary for those wishing to become fine artists.

Unfortunately and disappointingly the RSA Life School only accepted applications from male students, despite several attempts to lobby for a change.

This photograph was taken in circumstances as yet untraced, prior to the refurbishment of the building in 1910 as the Royal Scottish Academy Building, which completely did away with the physical space occupied by the Cast Gallery.

The RSA Collections holds two further interior shots taken slightly later showing the entrance foyer and the upper landing of the stairwell (2025.0127) as well as one of the wooden A-frame easels featured in this image (2023.0006).