Standing écorché figure

RA Collection: Art

This cast is more of a mystery than the other écorchés at the Royal Academy as little is known of its history. It is thought to be the oldest of the RA’s anatomical casts and is likely to pre-date the founding of the institution in 1768.

It may have come from the St Martin’s Lane Academy, one of the forerunners of the RA Schools in London, as there is a reference to the transfer of some of this school’s ‘casts, anatomical figures… and other goods’ in 1767 to the rooms in Pall Mall where the RA Schools were first based.

There is a similar cast in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.