![]() |
The London Sketch Club |
The London Sketch Club was founded in the late 19th century as a club for professional artists and illustrators. Today the London Sketch Club is still going strong and open to both professional and amateur artists with members, and non-members, enjoying weekly life drawing and portraiture classes at the club’s historic studio in Chelsea. In 1957, the Club moved to its current home in Dilke Street , with its magnificent studio which was built for Victorian portrait painter John Collier. The studio walls are decorated with silhouettes, some brought from the two previous premises, of Club presidents dating back to the early years which demonstrate its rich and illustrious history.
They also run regular concerts in the studio space, and on the last Sunday of the month The Sketch Club hosts a performance by young musicians, including students and alumni of the Royal College of Music.
On 15 June, they welcome emerging young American-Russian pianist, historical keyboardist and collaborative pianist/répétiteur Paul Mnatsakanov, an alumnus of the Royal College of Music, to perform Schumann’s Carnaval. Further concerts include further alumni of the RCM including cellist Carys Underwood in Bach’s Cello Suite No. 4 and music by Malcolm Arnold and Edmund Finnis, Italian pianist Antonio Morabito in Scarlatti, Respighi, Chopin and Liszt including Sonetto del Petrarca Op.104 and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15, and baritone Peter Edge with pianist John Whittaker in music by Whittaker alongside poetry by Anthony Pinching, a retired clinical immunologist (and poet).
Full details from the Sketch Club’s website.