The Lincoln College of Art was an educational institution devoted to the arts, based in the English city of Lincoln with its origins in the mid-nineteenth century. The institution changed shape and name numerous times over its history before being absorbed into the University of Lincoln. Midway through the nineteenth century, the then British Government's Department of Science and Art, based in South Kensington, began establishing a network of art schools as a means of promoting and aiding manufacturing. One of the oldest institutions of its kind in Britain, it became one of Britain's leading art schools, and was one of the first to introduce the teaching of the techniques derived from the French School of Impressionism. Many of its students went on to exhibit at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy. Amongst its alumni are members of the Newlyn School and two Royal Academicians. It also popularised the art and crafts exhibitions in Lincolnshire that became important annual events in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founding and early years
The Lincoln School of Art has its origins in the art school movement that followed the 1851 Great Exhibition. The School was founded as a private venture, with the support of the Department of Science and Art, on Monday 2 February 1863, in a single room on the Corn Exchange, Lincoln. Its guiding light was John Somerville Gibney, a minor canon of Lincoln Cathedral, and its first headmaster was Edward R. Taylor, founder of Birmingham School of Art and inventor of Ruskin Pottery.
The courses on offer were arranged into three levels: Elementary, Advanced, and Special or Technical. These levels were divided into classes: Elementary: Practical Geometry, Model Drawing, Figure from the Flat, Linear Perspective Free-hand Drawing and Shading, and Elementary Colour; Advanced: Drawing the figure from Casts, Painting: Ornament, Flowers, Landscape, Still Life; Special or Technical: Design, Architectural and Mechanical Drawing, Artistic Anatomy, Modelling.
As a result of the school's success in its first year, new premises were sought for and acquired above the National School for Boys' on the south side of Silver Street. This new school room was opened 10 October 1864, and was of a size to allow its use as an exhibition space. A public exhibit was held in November of that year and proved so popular that the floor had to be re-enforced. With the growth of engineering in Lincoln, there was a need for draughtsmen to produce accurate drawings of machine and engineering parts, and to illustrate catalogues, and so the school offered courses on draughtsmanship. The Rev. Gibney himself became a student by studying the skill of engraving on to copper. He produced his own publication, 'Etchings of Lincoln Cathedral' (1870), using this method.
By 1868 and 1869, the school was ranked in 6th place by the Department of Science and Art, after schools such as Edinburgh and Nottingham. By 1873 there were some 130 schools of art in Britain, and Lincoln was rated in 9th place.
Death of Rev. Gibney
In 1875, the Rev. J. S. Gibney, the school's honorary secretary since its inception, died when he fell through a skylight. He had been inspecting the roof of the school with a joiner, George Allis, and in particular had been discussing with Allis alterations he wanted made to a skylight, when he began tapping the glass with his right foot, lost his balance, and fell through, down into the model room below. He was supposedly heard to cry out, 'My God', as he fell. The inquest into his death was held at the White Hart Hotel and the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Ironically, in a sermon he had delivered to his congregation a few days earlier on Sunday, 3 January, he had spoken of the need to be prepared for sudden death by having all of one's affairs in order. He died intestate.
Gibney Art Scholarship
In honour of the Rev. Gibney and his work, the school established a scholarship in his name. Awarded to students at the school, its purpose was to allow the successful student to devote his or her time wholly to the cultivation of art. Holders of the Gibney Scholarship have included William Logsdail, Frederick Hall, Frederick William Elwell, May Yeomans (who would go on to be principal at the school), and ceramics artist Robert Blatherwick.
Rules of the school
During its early years, the committee running the school drew up a list of rules, signed by the Rev. J. Mansell, the Honorary Secretary who succeeded the Rev. Gibney in 1875.
Controversy
By the late 1880s, the school was teaching Greek art and using classically based subject matter, as well as importing the then new idiom of Impressionism.