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Royal Academy Exhibition of 1778

Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1778 was an art exhibition held in London from 24 April to 30 May 1778. It was the tenth annual Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts and was staged Pall Mall. It featured submissions from leading painters, sculptors and architects of the period. It was generally deemed a success, attracting a number of artists who had previously exhibited at the rival Society of Artists including George Stubbs, John Hamilton Mortimer, Joseph Wright of Derby and Francis Wheatley.[1] It took place against the backdrop of the American War of Independence taking place a few months after the Treaty of Alliance was signed that led to French's entry into the war against Britain later in the year.

One of the most celebrated works was the American artist John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark which depicted an incident that took place in Havana in which Brook Watson was attacked by a shark.[2] He also displayed a group portrait of the American loyalist William Pepperrell and his family.[3] Watson and the Shark was a public success and marked Singleton Copley's breakthrough. He was elected to full membership of the Academy the following year.[4] His fellow American Benjamin West displayed a history painting featuring a scene from the historian John Leland's Itinerary.[5] The painting, now destroyed, was commissioned by the Duke of Rutland who claimed descent from William De Albanac and chose to illustrate a probably apocryphal scene in which he presented his three daughters naked to the King of Mercia for him to choose one as his wife.[6] West also submitted a dual portrait of George, Princes of Wales and his younger brother Frederick, later Duke of York.

The Exhibition continued the ongoing rivalry between the President of the Royal Academy Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Gainsborough displayed two landscape paintings and eleven portraits. These included Portrait of James Christie, featuring the well-known auctioneer and Portrait of Philip James de Loutherbourg which depicted the French-born painter and set designer. He also displayed the Portrait of the Countess of Chesterfield as well as a companion piece featuring her husband.[7] Reynolds sent in fewer submissions but attracted particular attention for the large group portrait The Marlborough Family produced for Blenheim Palace. [8] John Hamilton Mortimer won praise for his painting of Sir Arthegal from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.[9]

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References

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  1. ^ https://chronicle250.com/1778#catalogue
  2. ^ Kamensky p.375-79
  3. ^ Kamensky p.79-80
  4. ^ Kamensky p.390
  5. ^ Alberts p.132
  6. ^ Smith p.122
  7. ^ Hamilton p.296
  8. ^ McIntrye p.339
  9. ^ https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mortimer-sir-arthegal-the-knight-of-justice-with-talus-the-iron-man-from-spensers-faerie-t02057

Bibliography

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  • Alberts, Robert C. Benjamin West: A Biography. Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
  • Hamilton, James. Gainsborough: A Portrait. Hachette UK, 2017.
  • Hargreaves, Matthew. Candidates for Fame: The Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1760-1791. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2005.
  • Kamensky, Jane. A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
  • McIntyre, Ian. Joshua Reynolds: The Life and Times of the First President of the Royal Academy. Allen Lane, 2003.
  • Smith, Anthony D. The Nation Made Real: Art and National Identity in Western Europe, 1600-1850. OUP Oxford, 2013.