ABSTRACT

This chapter examines a means of showing the complexity of an environment where the interests of art, ideology and education were competing elements within a training culture. Art education had been under intensive scrutiny as recently as 1863 when the Royal Commission on the Royal Academy investigated its schools as part of its remit. In 1868 Felix Slade bequeathed £45,000 to found professorships in Fine Art at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. Slade also stipulated that this money should be used to fund six scholarships for art students at University College. Therefore the University devised an element of practical training to augment the theoretical teaching provided by the professorship, and this created the impetus to establish what the Slade School of Fine Art became. On receiving news of the Slade bequest the Council of University College established a Slade Committee headed by Edwin Wilkins Field to formulate a plan to set up the School.