The Artist's repository; or, Encyclopedia of the fine arts
An 1813 London art encyclopedia compiled by Charles Taylor, written for artists and students of drawing. Its plates show anatomical and proportional studies: a back view with measurement lines, a front-facing head with a guide grid, a profile of a head marked for age and nativity, and a comparative profile of a monkey and a head labelled as a Negro, all in fine pen outline on pale paper. A designer might take from them the grid-and-measurement method of constructing figures and faces, though the comparative plate reflects the racialised pseudoscience of its era and should be read critically.
