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Royal Academy

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:''This article refers to an art institution in London. For other meanings of '''Royal Academy''' see Royal Academy (disambiguation).'' Image:Burlington House ILN 1874.jpg thumb|250px|right|The Royal Academy, from an 1874 engraving The '''Royal Academy''' is an art institution based in Piccadilly, London.

History
The Royal Academy 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. It was formally launched the following year. Its forty 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 Paul Sandby Paul and Thomas Sandby). Sir Joshua Reynolds was its first president, and Benjamin West its second.

Activities
The Royal Academy does not receive financial support from the state or crown. One of its principal sources of revenue is hosting temporary public art exhibitions. These are of the highest quality, comparable to those at the National Gallery, London National Gallery, Tate Gallery the Tate Gallery and leading art galleries outside the United Kingdom. In 2004 the highlights of the Academy's permanent collection went on display in the newly restored reception rooms of the original section of Burlington House, which are now known as the "John Madejski Fine Rooms". Under the Direction of the Exhibitions Secretary Norman Rosenthal the Academy has hosted ambitious exhibitions of contemporary art including in 1997 "Sensation exhibition Sensation" the collection of work by young British Artists owned by Charles Saatchi. The show created controversy for including a painting of Myra Hindley that was vandalised while on display. The Academy also hosts an annual Royal Academy summer exhibition of new art, which is a well known event on the London Season (society) social calendar. It is not as fashionable as was the case in earlier centuries, and has been largely ignored by the trendy Young British Artists Brit Artists and their patrons; however Tracey Emin exhibited in the 2005 show. Anyone who wishes may submit pictures for inclusion and those which are selected are displayed alongside the works of the Academicians. Many of the works are available for purchase. In 2004 the Academy attracted press and media attention for a series of financial scandals and reports of a feud between Rosenthal and other senior staff that resulted in the cancellation of what would have been profitable exhibitions.

Royal Academy Schools
The Academy runs a postgraduate art school and a research library. The Royal Academy Schools, the country's oldest art school, is based in Burlington House. There are generally two exhibitions every year of work by Academy students.

Location
Until 1771, the Academy was based in Pall Mall, London Pall Mall. Shortly afterwards, it was able to move into premises at the new Somerset House, a government building which had been designed by Sir William Chambers, and was intended to provide accommodation for a number of learned societies. In 1837, the Academy moved to the recently constructed National Gallery, London National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and then, in 1868, to its present home at Burlington House in Piccadilly. Major extensions were made to the building to designs by Charles Barry (junior), architect son of Sir Charles Barry.

Membership
Full membership of the academy is limited to 80 Academicians or "RAs", who may be painters, printmakers, sculpture sculptors, or architects, and must be "professionally active in Britain". The Academy's rules are that there must always be at least 14 sculptors, 12 architects, and eight printmakers; the balance being made up of painters. New Academicians are elected by the existing RAs. Apart from ''kudos'' of being elected, full members of the Academy may expect to serve for a time on the governing council of the Academy, and to take part in various committees. Each room in the Summer Exhibition is generally hung by a different R.A. A larger number of Associates of the Royal Academy (designated "A.R.A.") are also elected, but being an A.R.A. is not a prerequisite to full membership. Members of the public can also join the Royal Academy as "Friends" by making a financial donation; outside of public exhibitions, this is one of the RA's main sources of income.

Academicians ("RAs") by year of election
(incomplete list) * Francesco Bartolozzi (1768) * Agostino Carlini (1768) * Mason Chamberlin (1768) * Sir William Chambers (1768) * Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1768) * Richard Cosway (1768) * Francis Cotes (1768) * George Dance the Younger (1768; Academy professor of architecture 1798-1805) * Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1768) * Thomas Gainsborough (1768) * John Gwynn (1768) * Francis Hayman (1768; 1st Academy librarian) * Nathaniel Hone (1768) * William Hunter (anatomist) William Hunter (1768; 1st Academy professor of anatomy) * Angelica Kauffmann (1768) * George Michael Moser (1768; 1st Academy Keeper) * Mary Moser (1768) * Joseph Nollekens (1768) * Thomas Pingo (1768) * Sir Joshua Reynolds (1768; President 1768-1792) * John Inigo Richards (1768; Academy secretary 1788-1810) * Paul Sandby (1768) * Thomas Sandby (1768; 1st Academy professor of architecture) * Dominic Serres (1768; Academy librarian 1792-1793) * Benjamin West (1768; President 1792-1805, 1806-1820) * Richard Wilson (painter) Richard Wilson (1768) * Joseph Wilton (1768; 3rd Academy Keeper) * Johann Zoffany (1768) * Francesco Zuccarelli (1768) * Philip James de Loutherbourg (1781) * Joseph Wright of Derby Joseph Wright (1784) * Thomas Banks (1785) * James Northcote (1787) * John Opie (1788) * John Russell (painter) John Russell (1788) * Henry Fuseli (1790; Academy professor of painting 1799-1803, 1810-1824; Academy Keeper 1803-1810?) * Ozias Humphrey (1791) * Robert Smirke (painter) Robert Smirke (1793) * Thomas Kirk (1794) * Sir Thomas Lawrence (1794; President 1820-1830) * Richard Westall (1794) * Thomas Stothard (1794) * John Hoppner (1795) * John Flaxman (1800; Professor of Sculpture 1810-1826) * Martin Archer Shee (1800; President 1830-1850) * Sir John Soane (1802; Academy professor of architecture 1806-1837) * J. M. W. Turner (1802) * Thomas Phillips (1808; Academy professor of painting 1824-1832) * David Wilkie (artist) David Wilkie (1811) * Sir Richard Westmacott (1811; Professor of Sculpture 1827-1856) * Robert Smirke (architect) Robert Smirke (1811) * Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1827; President 1850-1865) * John Constable (1829) * Edwin Henry Landseer (1831) * William Clarkson Stanfield (1835) * Frederick Richard Lee (1838) * Daniel Maclise (1840) * David Roberts (1841) * William Dyce (1848) * Richard Westmacott (the younger) (1849; Professor of Sculpture 1857-1872) * Sir Francis Grant (1851) * William Powell Frith (1852) * Sydney Smirke (1859; Academy professor of architecture 1860-1865) * John Everett Millais (1863; President 1896) * Thomas Sidney Cooper (1867) * James Sant (1869) * Thomas Woolner (1875; professor of sculpture 1877-1879) * Edward Poynter (1876; President 1896-1918) * William Quiller Orchardson (1877) * Alfred Waterhouse (1885) * Sir Thomas Graham Jackson (1892) architect * John William Waterhouse (1895) * George Frederic Watts (1897) * Benjamin Williams Leader (1898) * Albert Chevallier Tayler (1899?) * Sir Aston Webb (1903) * William Lionel Wyllie (1907) * James Jebusa Shannon (1909) * Edwin Lutyens Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1921) * Augustus John (1928) * Sir William Reid Dick (1928) * Sir William Russell Flint (1933) * Laura Knight (1936) * Harold Knight (1937) * Eric Schilsky (1968) * William Roberts (painter) William Roberts (1966) * Hugh Casson (1970) * Norman Adams (1972) * Fred Cuming (1974) * Olwyn Bowey (1975) * Elizabeth Blackadder (1976) * Anthony Green (painter) Anthony Green (1977) * Peter Blake (1981) * Tom Phillips (artist) Tom Phillips (1984) * Donald Hamilton Fraser (1985) * Michael Kenny (1986) * Norman Ackroyd (1988) * Craigie Aitchison (1988) * Ann Christopher (1989) * Gillian Ayres (1991) * Kenneth Draper (1991) * David Hockney (1991) * Bill Jacklin (1991) * R B Kitaj (1991) * Joe Tilson (1991) * Brendan Neiland (1992) * Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (1994) * Christopher Orr (1995) * Eva Jiricna (1997) * Alison Wilding (1999) * Gary Hume (2001)

Presidents
{| class="wikitable" |- !President !Served |- |Sir Joshua Reynolds||1768–1792 |- |Benjamin West||1792–1805 |- |James Wyatt||1805–1806 |- |Benjamin West||1806–1820 |- |Sir Thomas Lawrence||1820–1830 |- |Sir Martin Archer Shee||1830–1850 |- |Sir Charles Lock Eastlake||1850–1865 |- |Sir Francis Grant||1866–1878 |- |Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton Lord Leighton||1878–1896 |- |Sir John Everett Millais||February–August 1896 |- |Sir Edward Poynter||1896–1918 |- |Sir Aston Webb||1919–1924 |- |Sir Frank Dicksee||1924–1928 |- |Sir William Llewellyn||1928–1938 |- |Sir Edwin Lutyens||1938–1944 |- |Sir Alfred Munnings||1944–1949 |- |Sir Gerald Kelly||1949–1954 |- |Sir Albert Richardson||1954–1956 |- |Sir Charles Wheeler (painter) Charles Wheeler||1956–1966 |- |Sir Thomas Monnington||1966–1976 |- |Sir Hugh Casson||1976–1984 |- |Sir Roger de Grey||1984–1993 |- |Sir Philip Dowson||1993–1999 |- |Phillip King||1999–2004 |- |Sir Nicholas Grimshaw||2004–present |}

See also
*The Arts Club

External links

- Royal Academy official website
- Foundation of the Royal Academy
- The Royal Academy of Arts {{London museums}} Category:Art museums and galleries in London Category:Art schools in London Category:Art schools in the United Kingdom Category:British art Category:Learned societies of the United Kingdom Category:Visitor attractions in London Category:Westminster de:Royal Academy of Arts pt:Academia Real Inglesa

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