Georgian Spectacle: Reynolds and Gainsborough

Friendly rivals Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough each had their own strategies to attract attention in the densely-packed Summer Exhibitions of the Academy’s early years.

Curator Mark Hallett explains how a direct gaze, a hint of scandal and some clever lighting effects helped draw the viewers in.

David Wilkie and the Summer Show’s first blockbuster

Genre paintings, or scenes from everyday life, were popular subjects in the Summer Exhibitions of the early nineteenth century. In 1822, huge crowds flocked to see Scottish painter David Wilkie’s depiction of Londoners hearing the news of Britain’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo.

What was it about this painting that so gripped the public imagination?

John Everett Millais and the arrival of the Pre-Raphaelites

In the mid-19th century, a group of rebellious young artists chose the Summer Exhibition to announce their arrival onto the art scene.

John Everett Millais would eventually be elected President of the Royal Academy and become a respected pillar of the establishment, but in his youth he was keen to break free of the constraints of academic history painting as prescribed by Sir Joshua Reynolds in his “Discourses”.

Breaking into the boys' club: Dame Laura Knight

Although the Academy had two female founder members in 1768, it took over a century before another woman – Laura Knight – was elected a full Academician. Curator Sarah Turner discusses Knight’s striking painting Lamorna Birch and his Daughters.

RB Kitaj: the artist's revenge

It wasn’t just the Pre-Raphaelites who used the Summer Exhibition to go head-to-head with their critics. In 1997, the artist RB Kitaj took aim at the reviewers who had slated his Tate exhibition several years earlier. For Kitaj, this critical savaging was inextricably linked with a devastating personal tragedy.