“For decades, Hale's admirers throughout America have hoped that his lectures on drawing and anatomy would become available in book form. I am delighted that this moment has come at last. For this book is not only a permanent record of Hale's teachings, but the growing achievement of a man who remains an unforgettable presence in the lives of artists throughout America.”—Philippe De Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Robert Beverly Hale is a beloved teacher. He is a tall, spare, somewhat rumpled patrician of seventy-six, with black-rimmed glasses and an El Greco face. He teaches two courses, Artistic Anatomy and Elements of Drawing, at the Art Students League on West Fifty-seventh Street, and his classes are a continual, almost legendary, celebration not only of the beauty and wonder of the human form but of Hale himself. Many people consider Hale the foremost teacher of artistic anatomy in the country, and perhaps the world. His classes are always oversubscribed, and students return year after year. When Hale enters a lecture hall or a studio, his students burst into applause.”—The New Yorker Profile, June 13, 1977

Robert Beverly Hale was Curator Emeritus of the American Painting and Sculpture Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For forty years, he was instructor of artistic anatomy at the Art Students League. He also served as Adjunct Professor of Drawing at Columbia University and Professor of Art at Cooper Union. Hale was the author of Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters and co-author of Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters. Terence Coyle teaches figure painting and drawing at the Art Students League of New York and is the lecturer in Artistic Anatomy at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts in New York City. Coyle's paintings have been highly acclaimed and are in important collections throughout the country including the Museum of the City of New York; the New York State Museum in Albany; the Museum of Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Collection; Fordham University; and, among other notables, in the collection of Ms. Helen Hayes. He co-authored with Robert Beverly Hale Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters and Albinus on Anatomy.