When, in the last century, machinery driven by steam-power took the place of hand labour in industry, the small independent workshops gradually disappeared, as the industrial centres increased in those localities where coal or raw material was most easily obtained; and, as the processes of each trade or craft became more and more subdivided and specialized, the old system of apprenticeship, which had become unnecessary, broke down. The teaching and tradition of the small independent craft workshops had no counterpart in the new centralized industrial systems. Even the painters of pictures needed no longer to prepare their own materials, for special industries arose, and mechanical processes were developed, for the work which formerly had been done in the artists' workshops by apprentices. The fine arts in this way suffered the loss of their old systems of teaching and instruction.
To meet the need for a revival of art teaching in the crafts and other industries, there arose a movement towards the centralization of teaching in schools of art during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Following the impulse given to that movement by the great exhibition in 1850, the British Government founded the schools of science and art in London and in most of the important provincial towns. Earlier in the century bodies of artists had founded national academies for the teaching of art; and the teaching of drawing was gradually adopted as a part of ordinary school education. Step by step training in schools of art or technical schools took the place of the teaching formerly given during apprenticeship in every craft workshop. The ancient guilds were replaced by the new trades unions, but these took no part in the maintenance of artistic standards nor of quality in workmanship.
At the present time the teaching of art begins with the early school lessons in drawing, and is carried on in special technical classes or schools of art, where teachers of the 'fine arts' and of the artistic crafts give instruction to students preparing for professional work. In a few of the artistic trades the system of apprenticeship still survives, but the teaching given by that means is usually supplemented by attendance at a school of art or technical school. Under the Education Act of 1918 attendance at technical classes in the daytime became compulsory for apprentices in all industrial trades.