Hale's Anatomy Lessons
YouTube videos of the famous artist at Art Students League
Robert Beverly Hale (1901-1985) was an anatomy instructor at the Art Students League. He was a student of George Bridgman. Like Bridgman, he drew his demos very large, using a piece of charcoal on the end of a long stick.
In the first video, there’s a long intro, so if you want to watch him drawing, skip ahead to 3:50.
In these two excerpts, he sketches a horse (with a rather long neck), while making comparisons to the human skeleton that dangles nearby.
What do you think of his presentation style? Are you familiar with his books and teaching? Let me know in the comments.
Robert Beverly Hale on Wikipedia
Book: Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by Robert B. Hale
I appreciate all this diverse and impassioned feedback to Hale's teaching. I checked out his "Drawing Lessons from the Old Masters" book out from the library a few times, and learned a lot from it. The only thing that was missing for me in his analysis of Old Master drawings is that he never acknowledged that these drawings were a means to an end, the end being telling a STORY, like Daniel in the Lion's Den or Icarus, etc.
I know, he's operating on a different track, and it's good to apprehend the abstract elements of a pose. But what's important (to me at least) about those old figure drawings is how the artists made decisions based on a driving narrative.
Anne, you're right that he was part of a noble Boston family of artists. Other famous Hale artists include:
Ellen Day Hale (1855-1940): American Impressionist painter, printmaker, and mentor
Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931): Painter, teacher, and art critic.
Lilian Westcott Hale (1881-1940): Impressionist painter of the Boston School.
Susan Hale (1834-1910): Watercolorist and Philip Leslie Hale's aunt.
....and the contemporary painter Phil Hale, too.