Sarah Simblet (born 1972) is a graphic artist, writer and broadcaster, who teaches anatomical drawing at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art and at the University of Oxford.
Sarah earned a doctorate in drawing at Bristol University in 1998 [1] on European art history and the social history of human dissection. She was awarded the Richard Ford Award travelling scholarship to Spain while an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford between 1991 and 1994, and spent three months working in Madrid from November 1994 to January 1995.
Sarah started drawing at a very young age. [2] Besides tutoring at Oxford, she is a guest lecturer at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, teaching morphological anatomy and physiology from an art perspective to medical students. She also works with youth offenders at Feltham Prison and children in care in Oxfordshire. She also works from a studio in Oxford. Besides taking part in group exhibitions, she has exhibited in one-artist shows such as "Sarah Simblet-Drawings" at the Pitville Gallery in Cheltenham (1999), "Theaters of the Body" at Chris Church Picture Gallery in Oxford (1998), and "Five New Drawings" at the Long Room, New College, Oxford (1993).
She has written three books which were published by Dorling Kindersley - ‘Anatomy for the Artist, ‘The Drawing Book’ and ‘Botany for the Artist. Her drawings are to be found in national and private collections including the Royal Academy of Art in London, and the Ashmolean in Oxford. She is a regular contributor to BBC radio and television programmes on natural history and art. [3]
In collaboration with Gabriel Hemery, she co-wrote "The New Sylva - a discourse of forest and orchard trees in the 21st century" published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2014 to mark the 350th anniversary of John Evelyn's work "Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber". The 200 illustrations for this book necessitated lengthy trips to the native haunts of the trees and drawing them in situ or returning with specimens to her studio in Wootton, West Oxfordshire. [4]
The work of art by Leonardo Da Vinci titled La Bella Principessa was submitted to her for making a master copy in a PBS programme broadcast in 2012, in which Simblet appeared and was interviewed. Leonardo work of art was studied on the PBS program NOVA in 2012 in a programme titled “Mystery of a Masterpiece,” from NOVA/National Geographic/PBS, broadcast on 25 January 2012.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.
John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark was an English art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts during the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the Civilisation series in 1969.
Pauline Diana Baynes was an English illustrator, author, and commercial artist. She contributed drawings and paintings to more than 200 books, mostly in the children's genre. She was the first illustrator of some of J. R. R. Tolkien's minor works and of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.
Cliff Wright is an artist, book illustrator and advertising artist.
Wendy Mary Beckett, better known as Sister Wendy, was a British religious sister and art historian who became known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art. Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. In 1997 she made her debut on US public television, with The New York Times describing her as "a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television."
Alice May Roberts is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022. She is now a vice president of the organisation.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath, regarded as the epitome of the "Renaissance Man", displaying skills in numerous diverse areas of study. While most famous for his paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, Leonardo is also renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geology, geometry, hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics, pyrotechnics, and zoology.
An écorché is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin, normally as a figure study for another work or as an exercise for a student artist. The Renaissance-era architect, theorist and all-around Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti recommended that when painters intend to depict a nude, they should first arrange the muscles and bones, then depict the overlying skin.
Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions by the English writer John Evelyn was first presented in 1662 as a paper to the Royal Society. It was published as a book two years later in 1664, and is recognised as one of the most influential texts on forestry ever published.
Susan Dorothea White is an Australian artist and author. She is a narrative artist and her work concerns the natural world and human situation, increasingly incorporating satire and irony to convey her concern for human rights and equality. She is the author of Draw Like da Vinci (2006).
Dr Gabriel Hemery is an English forest scientist (silvologist) and author. He co-founded the Sylva Foundation with Sir Martin Wood, a tree and forestry charity established in 2009.
George C. McGavin is a British entomologist, author, academic, television presenter and explorer.
Sarah Angelina "Angie" Acland was an English amateur photographer, known for her portraiture and as a pioneer of colour photography. She was credited by her contemporaries with inaugurating colour photography "as a process for the travelling amateur", by virtue of the photographs she took during two visits to Gibraltar in 1903 and 1904.
Abigail Reynolds is a British artist who lives in St Just, Cornwall, and has a studio at Porthmeor in St Ives.
Angela Palmer is a Scottish artist and former journalist. Before becoming an artist, Palmer had a career as a journalist: she was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph, Diary Editor of The Times, News Editor of The Observer, Magazine Editor of The Observer and Editor-in-chief of ELLE magazine.
Robert Alexander Cumming is professor of the history of art at Boston University. He worked for the Tate Gallery, London, before moving to Christie's auction house where he founded the education department. After he retired from Christie's he joined Boston University. Cumming is a prolific author of art history books aimed at young people and beginners. His edited edition of the letters between Bernard Berenson and Kenneth Clark is published by Yale University Press.
Katrina van Grouw is a British science author, illustrator, and fine artist, best known for her illustrated natural science books The Unfeathered Bird and Unnatural Selection published by Princeton University Press. She has degrees in Fine Art and Natural History Illustration. Van Grouw is a self-taught ornithologist with an interest in comparative anatomy, evolution, and the history of the natural sciences.
Sarah Brown is an English food writer and television cook. She presented the first vegetarian cookery show on British television.
Ray Smith (1949–2018) was an English sculptor, painter, illustrator and writer. He exhibited his work widely, and received a number awards, including an award by the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1973, and the Royal Society of Arts Architecture Award in 1993. Smith also wrote several books on art for the publisher Dorling Kindersley and designed a selection of record sleeves.