South Kensington to South Africa: Art Education in Government Elementary Schools and Schools of Art in South Africa 1800 - 1910

Abstract

This dissertation describes the origin and the development of a method of instruction in drawing which laid the foundation of art education in South Africa. The method was disseminated throughout England from the middle of the 19th century by the Science and Art Department at South Kensington, London, and became known as the 'South Kensington System'. The method evolved as an attempt to teach art to children of the working class in preparation for vocational training in an industrialised society. Working class children learned drawing, or 'hand-eye training', at school in order to equip them to become better workers or artisans. Schools of Art were also established to train working class adults to become teachers of art or designers for industry. Skill in outline drawing was attained through sequential sets of exercises which required the ability to reproduce outline diagrams and to make accurate copies of plaster casts. All the drawings had to meet rigidly stipulated standards of accuracy, and pencil was the only medium used. The South Kensington System was introduced into the Cape Colony in the 1860s. The curriculum transferred to a Colonial setting with little change and was introduced into government Schools of Art and elementary schools first in the Cape and later into Natal and the Boer Republics. Tuition in the Schools of Art was given by teachers trained in South Kensington methods and they in turn trained the local teachers. Private schools also taught according to this method which was indeed the only method accepted at this time. The South Kensington system of instruction in linear drawing pervaded South African art education at every level in the period prior to Union and well beyond this time. Some of its methods were still in use in teaching drawing in institutions of tertiary education as late as the middle of this century.