In addition to introducing students to artists' manuals, some School of the Art Institute faculty used their experience in the classroom to compose their own manuals.
John Vanderpoel (1857-1911) taught life drawing at the School of the Art Institute from 1880 to 1906. As this Circular of Instruction for the year 1893-1894 shows, he taught drawing and painting, and led a popular series of lectures on the human figure. In these lectures, Vanderpoel would instruct students on how to divide the figure, using planes and geometry as a basis for depicting the body, while demonstrating his method on a large drawing board.
By 1907, Vanderpoel had composed and illustrated a manual on figure drawing that was, as the promotional text in an advertisement states, “the most complete illustrated work on the subject now extant, and more than any other book serves the purpose of a model.” Vanderpoel's careful sketching and thoughtful crafting of his text are evident in his manuscript for the book. The work proved popular immediately, with six editions published by 1915, and it continued to be used as a textbook through the 1960s.
Vanderpoel had a lasting influence at the School of the Art Institute, which was renowned for the strength of its program in drawing and illustration in the early twentieth century. As late as 1925, the School of the Art Institute yearbook showcased student figure studies that were reminiscent of the work Vanderpoel expected of his students. His training proved valuable even to artists who are not known for depictions of the human form; one of his more prominent students, Georgia O'Keeffe, would later claim “ [Vanderpoel]'s clear emphasis on line remained beneath the clever brushwork and summary form of [her] later teachers.” (Rich, Daniel Catton. Georgia O'Keeffe. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1943. Pages 9-10.)
- Vanderpoel, John. The Human Figure. Chicago: Inland Printer Company, 1907.
- Art Institute of Chicago. Memorial Collection of Works by John H. Vanderpoel. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1912.
- Art Institute of Chicago. “Arrangement of Classes.” Circular of Instruction, 1893-1894. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1893. page 7.
- Vanderpoel, John. The Human Figure. Manuscript. 1907.
- Vanderpoel, John. The Human Figure. Chicago: Inland Printer Company, 1907.
- The Art Student. (Oct. 1915) page 35.
- Art Institute of Chicago. The Bronze Lion: A Yearbook. Chicago: Students of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1925.