How to Draw the Features of the Face - Art Recreations by Prof. Henry Day and Madame L.B. Urbino

A strangely inclusive book on making art with entries ranging from drawing to painting and color mixing, varnishing, and gilding, to making decorative art from seeds and shells has examples of how drawing was taught in the mid nineteenth century.


The book is called Art Recreations and was authored by Levina Buoncuore Urbino and Henry Day. You can see a copy of it at Google books or order a reprint from Amazon.com: Art Recreations: Being A Complete Guide To Pencil Drawing, Oil Painting, Watercolor Painting, Grecian Painting And Many Others.




This is an example on one of the instruction pages:



Art Recreations









A progressive drawing book published before Art Recreations was Rembrandt Peale's Graphics: a manual of drawing and writing, for the use of schools and families


The kind of drawing lessons shown in this book were greatly expanded upon to make a series of lessons later turned into a complete book by J. G. Chapman, The American Drawing-Book: A manual for the amateur, and basis of study for the professional artist ; especially adapted to the use of public and private schools, as well as home instruction.



Portions of Chapman's American Drawing Book are reprinted to show their influence on the drawing journal of a young Yale student named Harry Cook in How Harry Cook Learned to Draw. Download a copy at Figure-Drawings.com.














A digital edition of Chapman's American Drawing Book for viewing on the web is at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

Here is a link to a blog at Princeton University about an exhibition of drawing books published around the time as these two were which was the same time that legislatures around the country were making the study of drawing a mandatory subject in response to the dawning of the industrial age.

Legislating Mandatory Drawing Classes in the United States.

Books similar to the progressive drawing book shown in the post can be seen at:

A Course of Sepia Painting

A Course of Painting in Neutral Tint

A Course of Water Colour Painting

Another progressive drawing book: A Progressive Drawing Book for Beginners
By Philip Henry Delamotte

1762 Drawing Book - The artist's vade-mecum: Being the Whole Art of Drawing

How to draw the head in perspective.
Proportions of the head.


The artist's vade-mecum: being the whole art of drawing, taught in a new work, elegantly engraved on one hundred folio copper-plates, To which is prefixed, an essay on drawing.

R. SAYERS, AT THE GOLDEN BUCK, IN FLEET STREET, MDCCLXII.

Click here to see the 1762 prints for sale on Ebay.

Vade-mecum means a book for ready reference. This book is a compilation of prints designed for the student of art.

How to draw the nose, eyes and mouth.

How to draw the nose and eyes.








How to draw eyes.







The folio was influential to other publishers of drawing instruction books including Chapman's American Drawing Book.

How to draw hands and arms.
How to draw the hand holding objects.



































How to draw clasping hands.

How to draw feet.









How to draw feet.
How to draw the arm.












How to draw feet.

How to draw the leg.












How to draw feet and legs.

How to draw hands.












How to draw the arm and hand.




How to draw hands.

The artist's vade-mecum; being the whole art of drawing, taught in a new work, elegantly engraved on one hundred folio copper-plates; ... To which is ... third edition, with considerable additions.

The Art of Figure Drawing By Thomas Herbert Maguire

This engraving is from The Art of Figure Drawing by Thomas Herbert Maguire, published in 1869 by Winsor & Newton.

It was a well known and authoritative book of the time cited often in the literature including; A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature, Catalogue of Books Added to the Library of Congress, Supplement to the Universal Catalogue of Books on Art: Compiled for the use of the National Art Library and the Schools of Art in the United Kingdom.

It contained 30 lithographic plates, some tinted.  I don't know, but from appearances it could have been influenced by Chapman's American Drawing Book (see the post below How Harry Cook Learned to Draw).

I found one reference to Mr. Maguire which listed him as a  historical and portrait painter, and also as a designer of music title drawing, which would explain his evident skill at engraved illustration.  Examples of his portraits can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery Website.

A short article is available at Wikipedia.

Some more examples of how to draw facial features are at these links: eyes, nose, mouth, ears.

Two more posts showing the work of Thomas Maguire:

How to Draw a Hand
How to Draw a Foot