The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787

Location

Country: Switzerland
City: Berne
Place: British Embassy

This print after a painting by Johann Heinrich Ramberg shows a well-dressed crowd attending the private view of the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1787. The President of the Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds (seen in the centre of the crowd with one arm raised), is guiding George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) around the exhibition. 13 of the works on display are by Sir Joshua himself, including a full-length portrait of the Prince of Wales. While the prince carries a catalogue of the exhibition, Sir Joshua holds his ear-trumpet. Following the pair is a grave-looking clergyman in full clerical robes.

Before moving to Somerset House in 1780, the Royal Academy operated from two sites, holding summer exhibitions in a disused warehouse in Pall Mall, while operating classes for students from dilapidated rooms within the Old Somerset House. After building work was completed on the new Somerset House, designed by architect William Chambers, it became home to the Royal Academy for over 56 years. Chambers housed the Royal Academy directly behind the façade facing the Strand, in a suit of rooms which now form part of the Courtauld Galleries. The main exhibiting room, known as the ‘Great Room’ (depicted in this engraving), was approached through an anteroom on the top floor. Over the entrance to the room was the Greek inscription: ‘No one uninspired by the Muses may enter’, which is still visible within the Courtauld Galleries today. 

Ramberg made three drawings of the Royal Academy exhibition in 1784, which are now in the British Museum collection. He also drew the exhibitions of 1787 and 1788. Three of his Royal Academy drawings from different years were engraved by Pietro Antonio Martini. The works are now important records of how Academy exhibitions were presented in the Great Room at Somerset House. In this example 'The Murder of Rizzio', by portrait and history painter John Opie (1761–1807), features prominently on the left wall, while in the top row, just left of centre, is a 'View of a Mosque at Raj Mahal, India', by William Hodges which, precisely 200 years after its Royal Academy exhibition, was purchased for the Government Art Collection. 

Places

England, London

Subjects

Materials & Techniques

etching

Artist

Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763 - 1840)
Pietro Antonio Martini (1739 - 1797)

Title

The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787

Date

1 July 1787

Medium

Etching

Dimensions

height: 39.5 cm, width: 56 cm

Acquisition

Transferred from HM Revenue and Customs, 2017

Provenance

Probably old Ministry of Works acquisition, before 1945

GAC number

0/200