| Trustees' Academy | |
| Established: | 1760 |
| Closed: | 1903 |
| Type: | Art school |
| City: | Edinburgh |
| Country: | Scotland |
The Trustees' Academy was an independent art and trade school in Edinburgh, Scotland, providing tertiary education in art and design. The Academy was founded in 1760, reduced in scope in 1892 by a schism, then became defunct in 1903.[1]
Initially the Academy was continental in outlook and training, but the fourth Master of the Academy David Allan also introduced a Scottish style. Latterly in 1858, English instruction was forced on the school and this initiated a schism. The art school side of the Academy split off separately in 1892 as the School of Applied Art and the Trustee Academy solely became a trade and design school. This lasted until 1903 when the Trustee Academy became the Architecture wing of the School of Applied Art. In 1907 the Scottish Education Department became responsible and founded the new Edinburgh College of Art under Scottish direction once again.[1]
Allan Ramsay founded the first 'Art School' in Scotland by opening the Academy of St. Luke in Edinburgh in 1729.[2]
A 'Foulis School' of Design was opened by the University of Glasgow in 1753. It boasted Pierre-Alexandre Aveline and Jean-Pierre Payen as the Masters of the School. A whole session of the college term cost students a guinea and a half.[3] [2]
A similar design school was founded in 1760 by the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Manufacturing in Scotland for Edinburgh. It was originally sited in Picardy Place.[1]
As a manufacturing board set up the design school the original intention was to found a trade school for pupils to learn the likes of house painting, carving, cabinet making, engraving and printing. It promoted art as a means to design patterns for the wool and cotton industries.[4]
The Master of the Academy was however always a fine artist; and this meant that painters as well as engravers and other designers were attracted to the Trustee's Academy as well as tradespeople.
The Fine Arts did become formally established in its own right at the Academy in 1798 when a separate Drawing Academy department was introduced.
Like the Academy of St. Luke and the Foulis School of Design before it, the Trustees Academy largely looked to the European continent for inspiration. The French artist William Delacour was the first Master of the Academy; and later the classical training of the Italians was adopted.[1]
The Trustees' Academy moved to the Royal Institution building in 1826.
It held onto that building until the Trustees' Academy became defunct in 1903; when it became an architecture wing of the School of Applied Art. Later when the new Edinburgh College of Art was founded in 1907, the Architecture wing moved there. The Royal Scottish Academy took over the old Royal Institution building in 1911.
The RSA had long sought the rooms and the teaching space of the Trustees' Academy. In 1858, they persuaded the Trustees that they begin teaching a 'Life School' in Art in the academy building, so that the Antique School became a more elementary Art course. Thus more advanced students took the RSA Life School courses.
In practice, the Trustees' Academy downgraded its art teaching and the Royal Scottish Academy got a foothold in the old Royal Institution building.
Another measure of the Trustees' Academy downgrade was the enforced measure of instruction by the Department of Science and Arts in south Kensington in London. The validation of instruction did help new Art Schools like the Stirling Art School; but the change of focus from Scotland and continental Europe to that of England only hindered the much older Trustees' Academy.[1] Its distinctive character was lost.[4]
This was to cause a schism. The Arts branch of the Academy split off and became its own separate school, the School of Applied Art, as Sir Robert Rowand Anderson was dissatisfied with the new teaching; and thus the new art school reverted back to traditional Scottish and European teachings.[5]
The Trustee' Academy was now solely a Trade and Design academy. It limped on under English instruction, before it finally became defunct in 1903. The recently founded School of Applied Art consumed the last of its old school as its architecture wing that year. In 1907 the Scottish Education Department became the responsible body, re-cementing the Scottish educational outlook. The SED founded a new art school that year, the former School of Applied Art including a new architecture wing, as the Edinburgh College of Art.[1]
The old Royal Institution building was given over to the Royal Scottish Academy by the National Galleries of Scotland Act in 1906.[6]
Each Master of the Academy was a fine artist that taught students. Each Master brought their own style to bear in their teachings.