Life drawing of a male 1893

Sketched in a live model class while Pemberton studied at the Westminster School of Art in London, this head and shoulders work reveals her superior handling of the charcoal medium with fine draftsmanship, shading, conveyance of volume and features, and tonal range. It is one of many works she completed while in art school and demonstrates that, after only a few terms of formal training, she had acquired both technical ability and confidence in her execution. Earlier that year she sat for three South Kensington Schools of Art examinations—life drawing, antique drawing, and still life—and received a first-class designation in each category.

This sketch confirms that she had worked through the earlier phases of study which stipulated that students understand basic physiology and musculature even as they learned to draw. They began using studio props and drawing “in outline from casts of head, hands, feet, and the whole figure… mak[ing] outline drawings of the human skeleton and the anatomical figure, with names ascribed to the bones and muscles.”  The drawing master decided when they could progress to the life studio where models—clothed, draped, or undraped—would pose for a set time.

When Pemberton enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1898, she and the other students followed the traditional academic course of instruction, as can be seen in an earlier photograph from a life class with a row of charcoal sketches on the wall. Both male and female clothed models are displayed, but drawing from the nude was also available.