Royal Academy

The Royal Academy is an art institution based in London, England.

History

\nIt was formed to rival the Society of Artists after an unseemly leadership dispute between two leading architects, Sir William Chambers and James Paine). Paine won, but Chambers vowed revenge and used his strong connections with the King to create a new artistic body, the Royal Academy, in 1768, formally launched the following year. Its 40 founder members, all admitted on 10 December 1768, included a father/daughter combination (George Michael Moser and Mary Moser) and two sets of brothers (George Dance the Younger and Nathaniel Dance-Holland, and \nPaul and Thomas Sandby). Sir Joshua Reynolds was its first president, and Benjamin West its second.

Activities

\nA Royal Academy summer exhibition is hosted at Burlington House annually, which is an opportunity for unknown artists to have their work viewed by the public at this prestigious venue. The Academy also runs a postgraduate art school and a research library. The Royal Academy does not receive financial support from the state or crown.

Location

\nUntil 1771, the Academy was based in Pall Mall. It then moved to Somerset House but when these premises were taken over by the government, the Academy moved first, in 1837, to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and then, in 1868, to its permanent home at Burlington House, designed by Charles Barry (junior), architect son of Sir Charles Barry.

Membership

\nFull membership of the academy is limited to 80 Academicians or "RAs", who must be professional painters, printmakers, sculptors or architects. Within the total, there must always be at least 14 sculptors, 12 architects and eight printmakers; the balance is made up of painters. New Academicians are elected by the existing RAs.

Academicians ("RAs") by year of election

\n(This list is not complete - please update as necessary)\n* Francesco Bartolozzi (1768)\n* Agostino Carlini (1768)\n* Mason Chamberlin (1768)\n* Sir William Chambers (1768)\n* Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1768)\n* Richard Cosway (1768)\n* Francis Cotes (1768)\n* George Dance the Younger (1768; Academy professor of architecture 1798-1805)\n* Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1768)\n* Thomas Gainsborough (1768)\n* John Gwynn (1768)\n* Francis Hayman (1768; 1st Academy librarian)\n* Nathaniel Hone (1768)\n* William Hunter (1768; 1st Academy professor of anatomy)\n* Angelica Kauffmann (1768)\n* George Michael Moser (1768; 1st Academy Keeper)\n* Mary Moser (1768)\n* Joseph Nollekens (1768)\n* Thomas Pingo (1768)\n* Sir Joshua Reynolds (1768; 1st President 1768-1792)\n* John Inigo Richards (1768; Academy secretary 1788-1810)\n* Paul Sandby (1768)\n* Thomas Sandby (1768; 1st Academy professor of architecture)\n* Dominic Serres (1768; Academy librarian 1792-1793)\n* Benjamin West (1768; 2nd President 1792-1820)\n* Richard Wilson (1768)\n* Joseph Wilton (1768; 3rd Academy Keeper)\n* Johann Zoffany (1768)\n* Francesco Zuccarelli (1768)\n* Joseph Wright (1784)\n* Thomas Banks (1785)\n* James Northcote (1787)\n* John Opie (1788)\n* John Russell (1788)\n* Henry Fuseli (1790; Academy professor of painting 1799-1803, 1810-1824; Academy Keeper 1803-1810?)\n* Ozias Humphrey (1791)\n* Thomas Kirk (1794)\n* Sir Thomas Lawrence (1794; 3rd President 1820-1830)\n* Richard Westall (1794)\n* Thomas Stothard (1794)\n* John Hoppner (1795)\n* John Flaxman (1800)\n* Martin Archer Shee (1800; 4th President 1830-?)\n* Sir John Soane (1802; Academy professor of architecture 1806-1837)\n* J. M. W. Turner (1802)\n* Thomas Phillips (1808; Academy professor of painting 1824-1832)\n* John Constable (1829)\n* Edwin Henry Landseer (1831)\n* William Clarkson Stanfield (1835)\n* Frederick Richard Lee (1838)\n* Daniel Maclise (1840)\n* David Roberts (1841)\n* William Powell Frith (1852)\n* John Everett Millais (1863)\n* Thomas Sidney Cooper (1867)\n* James Sant (1869)\n* Thomas Woolner (1875; professor of sculpture 1877-1879)\n* Edward Poynter (1876)\n* William Quiller Orchardson (1877)\n* Alfred Waterhouse (1885)\n* John William Waterhouse (1895)\n* George Frederick Watts (1897)\n* Benjamin Williams Leader (1898)\n* William Lionel Wyllie (1907)\n* James Jebusa Shannon (1909)\n* Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1921)\n* Sir William Russell Flint (1933)\n* Laura Knight (1936) \n* Harold Knight (1937)\n* Hugh Casson (1970)\n* Norman Adams (1972)\n* Fred Cuming (1974)\n* Elizabeth Blackadder (1976)\n* Peter Blake (1981)\n* Donald Hamilton Fraser (1985)\n* Michael Kenny (1986)\n* Norman Ackroyd (1988)\n* Craigie Aitchison (1988)\n* Ann Christopher (1989)\n* Gillian Ayres (1991)\n* Kenneth Draper (1991)\n* Bill Jacklin (1991)\n* Joe Tilson (1991)\n* Brendan Neiland (1992)\n* Christopher Orr (1995)\n* Eva Jiricna (1997)\n* Alison Wilding (1999)\n* Gary Hume (2001)

External links

• Royal Academy official site\n* Foundation of the Royal Academy\n* The Royal Academy of Arts

Category:British institutions\nCategory:Art history