File:Study of a pair of feet crossed at the ankles RMG PY5986.tiff

This 'study of a pair of feet crossed at the ankles' was done by Louisa Herschel when she was 12 years old; it is signed and dated. While its possible that she or one of her sisters posed for this, it is more likely that the feet would in fact have been a plaster model owned by their drawing tutor. Plaster casts of statues and parts of statues would have been the standard tools of such a tutor.

Louisa, as she was known to the family, was John and Margaret's 4th child (3rd daughter) and was considered by the rest of the family to be their most accomplished artist. This is one of a series of drawings she, alongside her brothers and sisters, would have done as part of her artistic education.

The Herschel daughters, and the sons before they went away to school, recieved a very intensive education at home with lessons from their mother, their father, a series of governesses and a number of specialist external tutors.

While we do not have records for every year of their childhood, there does exist (in a private collection) Louisa's diary for the year 1844 and from this we can see that in 1844 those children still at home had lessons in drawing with a tutor named Mr de la Cours who came to the house every Monday.