The Government School of Design, predecessor to the Royal College of Art, was founded in 1837. Its goal, in its earliest years, was to train students in techniques vital to improving industrial and everyday products in England; this mission would evolve in various ways under ensuing directors, and per the demands of the students themselves. By 1896, when the school was renamed the Royal College of Art, the school had assimilated the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement and embraced a broader vision of art and design.

During the first few decades of the twentieth century, new leadership brought ever more shifts in the mission of the RCA. The painter William Rothenstein became Principal in 1920 and began to shift the school's emphasis towards the study of fine art, and the training of designers, rather than teachers. In the words of sculptor Henry Moore: "he changed the college completely." In 1935, painter Percy Jowett succeeded Rothenstein as head of the RCA, continuing an approach more interested in the cultivation of new artistic styles and methods, rather than preserving traditional techniques. It was under the post-war reorganization of Robin Darwin, however, that the RCA fully embraced fine art and became a driving force in British post-war art.

During the 1930s, The Royal College of Art Students' Group, or Sketch Club, held annual exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum, displaying students' work and awarding prizes for different genres and themes. The secretaries of the group included Frank B. Mason; J. Anthony Denney, later a fashion photographer for British Vogue; Margaret Kaye, an artist who worked in textiles and stained-glass; and Evelyn Hunt, a painter.