Top Floor

This is a drawing I did from a copy book as a way of practising skills. In the second half of the 19th century this type of activity formed part of many art school courses where students would copy first from old engravings, then plaster casts before working with live models. They were also trained to draw from memory at each stage.

Van Gogh taught himself to draw by using these copy books that were popular at the time.

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As an illustration of this system there is a great quote from Edgar Degas:

"If I were to run an art school I should take a tall house, and I should put the model and the beginners in the top story; and as a student's work improved I should send him down a floor, until at last he would work at the level of the street, and would have to run up six flights of steps every time he wanted to look at the model"

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I'm still on the top floor!