The exhibition Genius and Ambition: The Royal Academy of Arts, London 1768-1918 charts the history of the Academy from its foundation in 1768 up to the end of the First World War in 1918.

Divided into sections covering key periods in the institution’s development, the exhibition features masterworks from the Academy’s own Collection by celebrated artists including Sir Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, John Everett Millais and John Singer Sargent.

Following the very successful run at Bendigo Art Gallery in Australia, the exhibition is now touring Japan. Comprising of almost 100 objects representing the breadth of the Royal Academy’s own collection, it includes paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs and historic books.

After visiting the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, we oversaw its move to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum.

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is located in Hachioji which is about 40 km west of central Tokyo. Founded in 1983, it has a collection of approximately 30,000 Japanese, Eastern and Western objects, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armour, swords and medallions of various periods and cultures. Its collection of Western oil paintings from the Renaissance to Impressionists is particularly fine.

For more information on the exhibition, please visit www.fujibi.or.jp.

Edwina Mulvany is the Registrar of the Royal Academy and Helen Valentine is Senior Curator of the exhibition.