Well artistic skills were a big part of education back then and until a very recent date. The other day I was browsing through a book of technical drawings from the early XIXth century, they were absolutely perfect and I was like "wow these people had been in their trade for a long time, maybe one day I'll draw like that too who knows". Then I saw it was just a comp of work made from a random class of 14yo students. Not 14yo who won a competition or something, just your average student.
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