In the classroom: the human figure

Studying the human figure in art is more than figure or ‘life’ studies, in which students draw a posed human model – although these naturally make up a large part of it. Like Leonardo, Ambrose believed in getting to know the human body from the inside out, and he sought to teach his students the beauty that was inherent even in its humblest parts, as well as the grace of the body as form in its own right.

While at USM, he also tried to show the difference in human anatomy and proportions by posing child models alongside adults. I know: I was one of them, taken out of kindergarten, dressed in a leotard and posed back to back with a similarly clad adult model, made to sit still for what seemed like hours to me (probably all of 15–20 minutes each sitting).

There were also, of course, the usual figure drawing classes, in which students drew from posed models, sometimes clothed and sometimes nude – something that seemed perfectly normal to us Ambroses. Yet I remember my father telling us how, occasionally, he had to explain to a jittery new student that there was nothing ‘indecent’, ‘sinful’ or ‘dirty’ about drawing from life. ‘If they give it a try for just five or ten minutes,’ he would say, ‘they realize that drawing a human model is just the same as drawing a skull, a piece of cloth, a post. You’re not drawing a “naked person”; you’re drawing a subject.’ It’s true. Having been on both sides of this equation as an adult, I can state unequivocally: ‘the model’ is exactly that – a model, an anonymous subject, as impersonal to a class of art students as a tree trunk. So much so, in fact, that some art professors (though, to my knowledge, not my father) forget that their models are prone to cold, muscle cramps and hunger, and sometimes faint if made to stand for too long at a stretch…

All images and content are copyright © 2009 by Jamie E. Ambrose

Dry Bones. Watercolor. Unsigned; 1970s (?; I believe this was painted during the artist's tenure in Columbus). Dimensions: approx. 30 x 22 inches; 76 x 56cm. Skeletal studies were always part of the art student's curriculum. However, my father liked to challenge students’ ways of viewing the human body, inside and out. Here, a jumbled hanging arrangement of a human skeleton turns a straight anatomical study into a still life.



Study of the Knee. Pentel on newsprint. Signed; 1960s; matted; framed. Dimensions: approx. 12 x 17 inches; 30.5 x 43cm.



Two Students I. Ink. Signed; 1950–70; matted; framed. Dimensions: approx. 16.25 x 10 inches; 41 x 26cm. Figure studies were never confined to the indoor classroom; here, Ambrose captured two of his students while they were working outdoors.



Reclining Nude. Charcoal on newsprint. Unsigned; 1950s–early 60. Dimensions: approx. 18 x 24 inches; 46 x 61cm.