Royal Academy Exhibition of 1851

The Monarch of the Glen by Edwin Landseer

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1851 was the eighty third annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy. It was held at the National Gallery in London between 5 May and 16 August 1851 during the Victorian era. It faced strong competition in public interest from the Great Exhibition being held in Hyde Park at the same time. ^[1]

The exhibition marked the high point of critical attacks on the young artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, although they were staunchly defended by the art historian John Ruskin. J.M.W. Turner, who had first appeared at the Exhibition of 1790, was too ill to produce any paintings but attended the varnishing day where he was sketched by John Everett Millais. He died in December 1851. ^[1]

Amongst the several works submitted by Edwin Landseer was The Monarch of the Glen featuring a stag, which became one of the iconic images of the Scottish Highlands ^[2] Daniel Maclise displayed the history painting Caxton Showing the First Specimen of His Printing to King Edward IV depicting a scene from the fifteenth century. ^[3]

Francis Grant who had established himself as a leading portraitist of the early Victorian period submitted several pictures of High society figures. Clarkson Stanfield displayed the landscape Trajan's Arch, Ancona as well as the battle painting The Battle of Roveredo depicting a scene from the French Revolutionary Wars. ^[4]

Amongst Pre-Raphaelite paintings on display were Millaias' The Woodman's Daughter, The Return of the Dove to the Ark and Mariana as well as William Holman Hunt's Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus . ^[1]

Gallery

• 
  The Highland Lassie by Edwin Landseer
• 
  A Midsummer Night's Dream by Edwin Landseer
• 
  Caxton Showing the First Specimen of His Printing to King Edward IV by Daniel Maclise
• 
  Cromwell at the Battle of Naseby by Charles Landseer
• 
  The Woodman's Daughter by John Everett Millais
• 
  Trajan's Arch, Ancona by Clarkson Stanfield
• 
  The Battle of Roveredo by Clarkson Stanfield
• 
  Mariana by John Everett Millais
• 
  The Return of the Dove to the Ark
• 
  Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus by Holman Hunt
• 
  Convent Thoughts by Charles Allston Collins
• 
  Chaucer at the Court of Edward III by Ford Madox Brown
• 
  King Lear and the Fool in the Storm by William Dyce
• 
  Charles Barry by John Prescott Knight
• 
  Portrait of William Wordsworth by Henry William Pickersgill

References

1. Barringer, Tim. "1851 Ruskin to the Rescue". Royal Academy Chronicle.
2. Baetjer 2009, p. 268.
3. Huckvale 2015, p. 155.
4. Stanfield 1979, pp. 133, 162.

Bibliography

• Baetjer, Katharine (2009). British Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575-1875. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN   978-1-58839-348-7.
• Huckvale, David (11 December 2015). A Dark and Stormy Oeuvre: Crime, Magic and Power in the Novels of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. McFarland. ISBN   978-1-4766-2279-8.

• Stanfield, Clarkson (1979). The Spectacular Career of Clarkson Stanfield, 1793-1867: Seaman, Scene-painter, Royal Academician. Tyne and Wear County Council Museums. ISBN   978-0-905974-03-3.