Royal Academy of Arts Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Academy of Arts ( RA ) British national academy of the arts, founded by George III in 1768 , and based in London. Members aim to raise the status of the arts by establishing high standards of training and organizing annual summer exhibitions. The first president was Sir Joshua Reynolds...
Royal Academy of Arts Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
... Academy of Arts , established by royal charter when George III signed its Instrument of Foundation on 10 December 1768 . It was originally housed in Pall Mall, then Somerset House, and in 1837 moved into the *National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. While the precursors of the Royal Academy date back much further than 1768 , its foundation was tardy in comparison to the academies of Florence ( 1563 ), Rome ( 1593 ), and Paris ( 1648 ). Like its continental precursors, the Academy aimed to raise the status of the fine arts and foster a national school ...
Royal Academy of Arts Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2 ed.)
... Academy of Arts Founded in London in 1768 with Sir Joshua Reynolds ( 1723–92 ) as its first President, the Academy was intended to be the national school of art in England. The members had to be professional artists and were entitled to use the initials RA (Royal Academician) after their name. In 1769 the category of Associate (ARA) was also established. The Academy's aims were to raise the professional status of artists and to encourage public awareness of the visual arts. Reynolds's fifteen Discourses , the most important text on the visual arts to...
Royal Academy of Arts Quick reference
A Dictionary of British History (3 ed.)
... Academy of Arts (London) In 1768 the artist Benjamin West , with the architect William Chambers , approached George III for his approval of a national academy to foster a school of art, set standards of good taste, and provide for the free exhibition of works of excellence. The first president was Sir Joshua Reynolds , whose famous Discourses laid down the basic concepts of the Academy...
Royal Academy of Arts Reference library
Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope
... Academy of Arts . The Royal Academy was the summit of the artistic establishment and never more influential than in the mid-Victorian period. Its self-elected members, mostly painters, were the arbiters of popular taste. Attending its summer exhibition, especially the exclusive Private View, which Trollope did regularly, was an essential ritual of the season. W. P. Frith 's painting The Private View of the Royal Academy, 1881 superbly captures its ambience, depicting a group of eminent Victorians including Browning , Gladstone , and Huxley , with ...
Royal Academy of Arts Reference library
June Cochrane
The Oxford Companion to British History (2 ed.)
... Academy of Arts (London) . In 1768 the artist Benjamin West , with the architect William Chambers , approached George III for his approval of a national academy to foster a school of art, set standards of good taste, and provide for the free exhibition of works of excellence. The first president was Sir Joshua Reynolds , whose famous Discourses , delivered over a period of 20 years, laid down the basic concepts of the academy which was to form ‘a repository for the great examples of the Art’, an important function before the establishment of the...
Royal Academy of Arts (London) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (3 ed.)
... Academy of Arts ( RA ) , London . The national art academy of England, founded in 1768 . It was first based in Pall Mall, and after moving to Somerset House ( 1780 ) and then to the National Gallery's premises in Trafalgar Square ( 1837 ), it transferred to its present home in Burlington House, Piccadilly, in 1869 . The artists who founded the RA aimed to raise the status of their profession by establishing a sound system of training and expert judgement in the arts and to arrange for the exhibition of works attaining an appropriate standard of...
Royal Academy of Arts Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Art (3 ed.)
... Academy of Arts ( RA ) , London. The national art academy of England, founded in 1768 with George III ( see Royal Collection ) as its ‘patron, protector and supporter’. Its main—interlinked—aims were to raise the status of British artists, to provide a venue for regular exhibitions (which have indeed been held every year since 1769 ), and to establish a sound system of training for students. The Society of Artists was a forerunner in these aims, but it was soon eclipsed by the RA. Reynolds was the first president and other foundation members...
Royal Academy of Arts Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (5 ed.)
... Academy of Arts ( RA ) , London . The national art academy of England, founded in 1768 with George III as its ‘patron, protector and supporter’. Its main—interlinked—aims were to raise the status of British artists, to provide a venue for regular exhibitions (which have indeed been held every year since 1769 ), and to establish a sound system of training for students. The Society of Artists was a forerunner in these aims, but it was soon eclipsed by the RA. Reynolds was the first president and other foundation members included the architect ...
Royal Academy of Arts Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Brontes
...Royal Academy of Arts ( RA ) , established in London in 1768 by Royal Charter , with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president. Like its Continental precursors, the RA aimed to raise the status of the fine arts and foster a national school of art through the instruction of young artists, the provision of objective criteria for the arts (articulated in part through Reynolds's Discourses 1769–1790 ), and the establishment of an annual exhibition of new art. By the time Branwell Brontë considered entering the Academy schools in 1835 , the RA was housed...
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Reference library
Charles C. Hill
The Oxford Companion to Canadian History
... Canadian Academy of Arts . A national art society established to enhance the status of artists, to unite artists in various regions through the organization of annual exhibitions, to further art education, and to establish a national gallery. At the request of artists and art societies and with the support of Governors General the Earl of Dufferin and the Marquess of Lorne, the Canadian Academy was established in 1880 . Membership consisted of associates and 40 full academicians and included painters, sculptors, designers, and architects. The first...
London, Royal Academy of Arts Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Western Art
...Royal Academy of Arts . The RA was founded in 1768 under the patronage of George III , who had been approached by Benjamin West and Sir William Chambers ( 1723–96 ), for his support. Membership comprised 40 Academicians (increased to 50 in 1972 ) and, after 1769 , 20 Associates, increased to 30 in 1876 . The founders' intentions were to raise the status of their profession by providing a thorough academic training, the free exhibition of works chosen by a jury of Academicians, and the promotion of a national school of art. Teaching, based on...
Royal Academy of Arts
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Painting Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
...examples of this phenomenon are James *Barry and William *Blake . In 1777 , Barry, an Irish-born painter who had regularly exhibited at the Academy, won a commission to paint a narrative of The Progress of Human Culture on the walls of the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts in the Strand. He planned to turn this huge series, which he had agreed to execute for free, into a commercial loss-leader, which would be financially redeemed after its completion by a one-man exhibition of the finished paintings, and by the sale of engravings after them. The...
Viewing Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
...artists leaving to form the inner circle of the Royal Academy of Arts. The Royal Academy initially seemed to answer the vexed questions of how best to promote British art, fix the status of the artist, and locate the viewer. An Act of Institution, ratified by George III in December 1768 , made provision for the appointment of 40 Academicians and 6 associates, for the conduct of the schools, and for the organization of an annual exhibition. In the words of its first President, Joshua *Reynolds , the Academy was ‘to furnish able men to direct the Student’ and...
Architecture Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
...did, however, have one weakness. It was usually understood to be a theory of surface style, therefore failing to engage the full, three-dimensional reality of architecture. Few theorists of the period essayed a conceptualization of architecture in depth, perhaps because of the obsession with style of the dominant lay criticism and the incomplete education of architects themselves. Soane was an exception. In his Royal Academy lectures he argued that the total design of every building—from its plan and façade down to the smallest ornamental...
