Study of Form for the South Kensington Examinations, 1888 (pencil & stump on paper)

The ESK stamp on these drawings indicates 'Examined South Kensington'. The South Kensington System was a syllabus for the teaching of art across the country and Empire. Women were included, although early on they participated in separate life drawing classes in which the male models, instead of disrobing, were dressed in suits of armour. By the 1880s the courses were administered and examined by the South Kensington Schools on the the site of what is now the V&A, until 1896 when they became the Royal College of Art. A student at Norwich School of Art and Design from a least 1884, when she was eighteen, Margaret Holmes dedicated herself to passing all stages of the South Kensington Course, winning a Silver Medal and three National Book Prizes before gaining her Art Class Teacher's Certificate and Art Mistress' Certificate, and eventually (after at least six years) becoming an art teacher in Norwich.