Oil painting, 'Life Study', William Mainwaring Palin (1862-1947), ca.1885-90

Unfinished study of a nude male.

Purchased, 1890

Historical significance: William Mainwaring Palin (1862-1947) was born at Hanley, Staffordshire. He was apprenticed at the Wedgwood Etruria works for five years, and in 1881, at the age of 19, he won a two year scholarship to the National Art Training School, the central government-run school of art, based at the South Kensington Museum.

Before the end of his scholarship the Department of Science and Art sent Palin to Milan to copy Bernardino Luini's frescoes in the churches of San Maurizio and those in Sant'Eustorgio. He spent seven months there. In 1884, with the artist Alexander Fisher, Palin was again commissioned by the Department to travel to Rome in order to copy three of the tapestries after designs by Raphael in the Vatican. This was to complete the Museum's display of Raphael's original cartoons for the tapestries (on loan to the V&A from HM The Queen), of which three are missing.

Palin subsequently studied for two years at the Academie Julian in Paris, and then turned principally to portrait painting, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and elsewhere between 1889 and 1904. This oil painting is clearly a unfinished study made directly from a living model, and it is likely that it was made in Paris during his time there as a student. Unlike the British government-run art schools, French teaching revolved around study from the life model. Nonetheless, this life study was bought by the Museum in 1890 as an example for art students. For many years it was lent to government-run schools around the country.

S.EX.9-1890