Richard Earlom’s mezzotint celebrates The Royal Academy of Arts, an institution that was founded by King George III in 1768. Here the academicians are preparing for a life-drawing class with two nude models, one of which is being given a rope to help him hold his assigned pose. The presence of these models as well as the plaster casts of famous sculptures in the background underscores the importance of studying the human figure in eighteenth-century artistic practice. Women artists, however, were not allowed to draw from nude male models for reasons of propriety. Accordingly, the two female members of the Royal Academy—Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser—are represented by bust-length portraits on the wall at right.