a scrap of history

sitting behind Laetitia and Jeffrey at a lecture by Sir Lawrence Gowing, UCL, 1975

Today I accidentally knocked over a jar of methylated spirit that soaked through a doodle which I have kept in the studio for over half a century. It's just a scrap of notepaper - nothing really except for the memory it brings back whenever I look at it.

It takes me back to my first year at the Slade School of Art when I attended lectures in art history given by Sir Lawrence Gowing. Gowing had just been appointed Slade Professor and staff and students were encouraged to attend a weekly series of lectures after painting classes had finished at around 5 or 6pm. Laetitia Yhap and Jeffrey Camp were often there, Laetitia habitually dressed in a white Aran cardigan and Jeffrey seated alongside her in a roll-neck and jacket. For some reason Jeffrey always dressed as if he had just stepped off a yacht. One week Jeffrey invited ex-Slade student Peter Schlesinger to draw from the model in the downstairs studio. Peter had told Jeffrey that he was interested in attending one of Gowing's lectures. But hearing that he was at the Slade, David Hockney unexpectedly turned up with some friends and whisked Peter away, so he never did attend the lecture. I can't remember what the lecture was about except that there is a caricature of the Mona Lisa on the reverse of the sheet of paper. In fact, the drawing of Laetitia and Jeffrey is not much more than a cartoon really and testimony to my naivety and inexperience. I wasn't long out of school after all, and Jack Hazan's film A Bigger Splash, released in 1973 was still being advertised on posters in the London underground. The film's trailer asks "whatever happened to the swinging-sixties?". I was too young to know.

I remember that Peter arrived at the Slade that day exquisitely dressed in a lambswool pullover and a pair of handmade brogue leather shoes. He drew on his lap and, as the custom was to leave your drawing out during the tea breaks, were were able to see that he had drawn the model with disproportionately tiny feet. "He draws well ... in an American sort of way", Jeffery commented. Some years before my arrival when David Hockney had been invited to the Slade to draw for the day he had brought with him his own model. During the break someone stole his drawings and he vowed never to come to the Slade again.

Class of 1975. I'm standing at centre. The photo was taken mainly so that the tutors could put names to faces. The back of the photo has an annotated key with names. There were just 24 of us. By Christmas at least two had left.