Royal Academy of Arts London 1768

Benjamin WestSir Joshua Reynolds

Rigorous academic trainingPurpose - establish “official” style of British art through education and exhibitions.

• Initially lasted 6 years

• Classicism: study of antiquity, Old Masters, human figure

• Lectures in:

• Anatomy

• Perspective and Geometry

• Architecture

• Sculpture

• Painting

• Visitors – established, well known artist that served as mentors

Drawing from life at the Royal Academy from The Microcosm of London (1808-10)

Art was to “elevate and educate the viewer as to the proper moral state of mind.”

• Superiority of morally elevating history painting, the desirability of a “grand style,” and the precedence of design over color.

• Most valued subject included historical, mythological, and Biblical themes, followed by portraiture, genre paintings, landscape, and still life.

Annual Exhibitions

• First Royal Academy exhibition was in April 1769 showcasing over 130 works of art.

• Set conventions and created artistic elites

• Tradition continued to present day

The exhibition at the Royal Academy, Somerset Housefrom The Microcosm of London (1808-10)

• Benjamin West had a profound influence on the development of historical painting in Britain and especially American colonial art through his students:

Washington Allston, Gilbert Stuart, Charles W. Peale, and John Singleton Copley

Influence on art in Colonial America