Simon Koene - Paintings and drawings

A still life
A plaster statue, an earthenware bowl, old rags, a piece of string, a stuffed duck and more, all beautifully illuminated. In short, a representation of a still life with old and sometimes rare objects, which students at the Royal Academy used as objects of study. Their usefulness is described in detail in the book The Drawing Class. Often these items were stored in the cupboard, only to be brought out again the next day to compose a new still life. This happened so often that the objects almost took on a life of their own and remained in the teacher's mind after retirement. Eventually, they were given a place in various paintings.

Etching, drawing and painting
Initially, the focus was on etchings. The first prints emerged in the second class of the academy, even before the subject was officially on the timetable.

This started with a small self-portrait, accidentally created on a thin copper plate, cut from the bottom sheet of an old tobacco set and printed with a hammer. A second etching followed a few days later. On a dirt road in the West Country, a mirror was attached to a tree, and amid falling snowflakes, the subject was captured. This was the second print in a series of 300, which was included in its entirety in the Rijksmuseum's collection in 2001.