Summer Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Art

Since its foundation in 1768, London’s Royal Academy of Arts has hosted an annual Summer Exhibition in which examples by artists – both lesser-known and household names – are put on view (and on sale) to the general public. As the world’s oldest and largest open-submission show, the Summer Exhibition welcomes entries from all levels, and has, on occasion, been the making of artistic careers. Here are a few Summer Exhibition highlights from the 1700s through to the modern day.

The inaugural Summer Exhibition of 1769 featured over 130 works of art, mostly by Royal Academicians, and included paintings, sculptures, works on paper and even some architectural designs. Over the course of its run from 26th April to 27th May, the exhibition welcomed over 14,000 visitors, all of whom were charged an entry fee. Despite the institution’s status as a beneficiary of Royal Munificence at this time, it was decided levying a charge upon arrival would ‘prevent the Room from being filled by improper persons.’ Of the works on display, the most admired were a series of allegorical portraits by the Academy’s President, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 1792), including his work Hope Nursing Love (Miss Morris as Hope Nursing Cupid). The female sitter has been identified as the daughter of Valentine Morris of Piercefield, Monmouthshire who, as a somewhat unsuccessful actress, also worked as an artist’s model. Three studio appointments are recorded between Reynolds and Miss Morris in January 1769, with a fourth in February which was cancelled; Reynolds had, by this time, settled upon the composition, one that demonstrates his painterly skill through a soft, glowing depiction of maternal tenderness.

One hundred years later, on 30 April 1869, the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria, as was tradition. It was, however, the first time that she had done so at the Academy’s new home, the recently remodelled Burlington House on Piccadilly. Following the move from Trafalgar Square, it quickly became clear that there was insufficient space for the Academy’s annual exhibition, upon which it relied heavily for funds. Fortunately, the Academy was able to select a suitable candidate from amongst its own members to redress this problem. Sidney Smirke (1797 – 1877), Professor of Architecture, was promptly engaged to re-design the gallery spaces, and the renovation works were completed in time for the royal opening in April. The Summer Exhibition of 1869 opened to critical acclaim, not least because of its successfully remodelled setting. Amongst the works on display was The Birthday, painted by a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Holman Hunt (1827 – 1910). It depicts Hunt’s sister-in-law, Edith Waugh, on her twenty-first birthday. However, it is far from a celebratory scene; Waugh, dressed in black, is in mourning for her sister, Fanny (also the artist’s wife), who died in childbirth in 1866. Edith’s hands are laden with trinkets – perhaps birthday gifts – which include a cameo that had once belonged to Fanny; perhaps it is this that has brought the obvious sense of melancholy to the sitter’s face. Celebrated as a work of fine detail, vibrant colour, and emotional intensity, Hunt’s The Birthday perfectly typifies the aims and visual characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their work.

Another hundred years on, and, by 1969, the world was a different place entirely, one that saw the rise of televisions in households and even a moon landing. The Arts struggled somewhat to keep up at first, and most of the entries for the Royal Academy’s 1969 Summer Exhibition were relatively standard examples of flower paintings, bucolic landscapes and society portraiture. One such offering was a portrait of T.S. Eliot by a past President of the Academy, Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879 – 1972), dated 1962. The painting depicts Eliot in an interior, perhaps his study, sitting before a green-bazed card table on which he is playing a game of Patience. Behind him, shelves are lined with books, upon whose spines the names of famous poets, artists and writers can be discerned. Painted three years prior to his death, Eliot appears sedate, well-rounded, and entirely comfortable in what he considered the happiest phase of his life. Gerald Kelly was highly regarded as an artist and was greatly favoured by the Royal Family from whom he received a number of commissions, including the coronation portraits of George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1938, which he worked on from the safety of Windsor Castle during the early years of the Second World War. Kelly was well suited to his profession as a society portrait painter; his royal patronage made him popular amongst the aristocracy and he liked to move in artistic circles. This no doubt that it also made him an appropriate candidate for the position of President of the Royal Academy of Arts, a post which he held between 1949-54. Aside from Eliot, Kelly is known to have painted portraits of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, the choral conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, and the writer William Somerset Maugham, among others.

As a platform for both aspiring and established artists, Summer Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts are an institution in themselves, one that – as we have seen – charts the history of British art. As the next centenary steadily approaches, who knows what masterpieces we may see in 45 years’ time!