How Laura Herford fooled the Royal Academy [NO AI]

In 1860 the Royal Academy received an application to study at the RA Schools from 'A. L. Herford'. The candidate was well qualified and submitted drawings of a high standard, and so was duly offered a place. The RA's assumption was that the new student was male, but she wasn't, she was a woman. This film tells the story of how Laura Herford came to be admitted as the first female student at the Royal Academy Schools. Many thanks to Mrs ArtPasts for bringing the women's voices to life in this film. [2425] Published 27 June 2024. This is a reworked version of a video originally published on 22 September 2023. No AI was used in the production of this video. SOURCES & FURTHER READING Deborah Cherry, Painting Women: Victorian Women Artists (London: Routledge, 1993). Deborah Cherry, 'Women artists and the politics of feminism 1850-1900' in Clarissa Campbell Orr (ed.), Women in the Victorian Art World (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995). Deborah Cherry, Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850-1900 (London: Routledge, 2000). Ellen C. Clayton, English Female Artists (2 vols., London: Tinsley Brothers, 1876). Jo Devereux, 'The evolution of Victorian women's art education, 1858-1900', Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 50, no. 4 (winter 2017), pp. 752-768. Pam Hirsch, 'Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, artist and activist' in Clarissa Campbell Orr (ed.), Women in the Victorian Art World (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995). Pam Hirsch, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon 1827-1891: Feminist, Artist and Rebel (London: Pimlico, 1999). Sidney C. Hutchinson, The History of the Royal Academy 1768-1986 (London: Robert Royce, 1968, 2nd edn 1986). George Dunlop Leslie, The Inner Life of the Royal Academy, with an Account of its Schools and Exhibitions Principally in the Reign of Queen Victoria (London: John Murray, 1914). H. C. Morgan, A History of the Royal Academy Schools from 1837 to 1878 (PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 1968). H. C. Morgan, 'The lost opportunity of the Royal Academy: an assessment of its position in the nineteenth century', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 32 (1969), pp. 410-420. Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Victorian Women Artists (London: The Women's Press, 1987). Clarissa Campbell Orr (ed.), Women in the Victorian Art World (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995). William Sandby, The History of the Royal Academy of Arts from its Foundation in 1768 to the Present (2 vols., London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1862). Henrietta Ward, Memories of Ninety Years (London: Hutchinson, 1924). Charlotte Elizabeth Yeldham, Women Artists in Nineteenth Century France and England: Their Art Education, Exhibition Opportunities and Membership of Exhibiting Societies and Academies, with an Assessment of the Subject-Matter of their Work and Summary Biographies (PhD Thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1980; New York & London: Garland Publishing, 2 vols., 1984). The Times, 25 May 1857, p. 12 (New Society of Female Artists). The Times, 5 March 1859, p. 5 (Lord Lyndhurst's speech). The Daily News, 14 March 1859, p. 2 (letter from 'An Art Student'). The Edinburgh Review, April 1859, pp. 293-336 (Harriet Martineau's article on 'Female Industry'). The Athenaeum, 30 April 1859, p. 581 (women artists' petition). The Art-Journal, September 1860, p. 286 ('The Schools of the Royal Academy').