The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1771 was an art exhibition staged at Pall Mall between 24 April and 28 May 1771. It was the third annual exhibition to be organised by the Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition attracted more than twenty thousand visitors and featured 276 works from painting, sculpture, architecture and prints. [1] Today it is best remembered for Benjamin West's history painting The Death of General Wolfe . [2]
Joshua Reynolds, President of the Royal Academy submitted his usual portraits as well as a couple of history paintings. [3] Nathaniel Dance exhibited David Garrick as Richard III at Bosworth , a portrait of the celebrated actor in one of his Shakespearian roles. [4] The German-born artist Johann Zoffany exhibited his Portrait of George III. [5] Thomas Gainsborough featured two landscapes along with several portraits, the latter including full-length pictures of Lord Ligonier and his wife as well as William Wade, the Master of Ceremonies at the fashionable Assembly Rooms in Bath where he was at that time based. [6]
Benjamin West submitted nine works including The Death of General Wolfe , a modern history painting depicting the death in battle of James Wolfe during the taking of Quebec in 1759. Another neoclassical history painting The Oath of Hannibal featuring a scene from the Punic Wars also received acclaim. Angelica Kauffman showed several neoclassical history paintings including Interview of Edgar and Elfrida drawn from British history. [7] The painter Richard Wilson submitted three landscape paintings two of which View near Wynnstay and View of Crow Castle portrayed scenes in his native Wales and a third depicting Houghton House in Bedfordshire. William Pars exhibited eight watercolours he had produced after accompanying Viscount Palmerston on a Grand Tour. [8]
The exhibition is portrayed in a mezzotint by Richard Earlom based on a watercolour by Michel Vincent Brandoin [9] It was followed by the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1772. The rival Society of Artists of Great Britain, from which the Royal Academy had split in 1768, held their own exhibition at Spring Gardens from 26 April to 8 June 1771. [10]
