SASS ART SCHOOL
The most famous of the London art-schools was Sass’s. This was regarded as an elite institution which set out to prepare (male) students for The Royal Academy just as Eton prepared its pupils for entry into Oxbridge. Set up by Henry Sass (1788–1844) in 1813, it moved in 1820 to 6 Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury. It was the first school to teach its students in any methodical way, and it occupies a prominent place in the development of Victorian art. Its list of alumni is certainly impressive including Millais, Cope, Frith, Corbould and Deverell. Sass had initially established his school because he was unable to make a living as a painter, producing works of only limited appeal but was an astute educator, his college developed a reputation for excellence. A selective, fee-paying public school only taking a maximum of eighteen students, some of whom were boarders. Under the management of Stephen Carey, and changing its name in 1842 to Carey’s, the school also trained Rossetti, Edward Lear, Simeon and Abraham Solomon, Henry Wallis, and Braithwaite Martineau.