Royal Academy Exhibition of 1861

The Hunted Slaves by Richard Ansdell

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1861 was the ninety third annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts. It was held at the National Gallery in London between 6 May and 27 July 1861. It featured submissions from many of the leading artists and architects of the Victorian era. It was noted for the absence of several senior painters, including the Royal Academicians John Everett Millais, Daniel Maclise and William Powell Frith who did not submit works. Rising younger artists Frederic Leighton, Thomas Faed and Frederick Goodall made a significant impact. ^[1]

The exhibition was held shortly after the Battle of Fort Sumter in South Carolina that began the American Civil War. A number of the paintings on display featured pro-Abolitionism themes depicting the cruelty of slavery in the United States. Notable amongst these was Richard Ansdell's The Hunted Slaves and Slaves Waiting for the Sale by Eyre Crowe. ^{[2] [3]}

Henry Nelson O'Neil showed one work The Parting Cheer showing emigrants departing the River Thames for the British Empire. ^[4]

Gallery

• 
  The Parting Cheer by Henry Nelson O'Neil
• 
  The First Born by Frederick Goodall
• 
  The Lantern Maker's Daughter by William Holman Hunt
• 
  Whitehall During the Last Moments of Charles II by Edward Matthew Ward
• 
  The Mother of Sisera by Albert Joseph Moore

References

1. https://chronicle250.com/1861
2. https://chronicle250.com/1861
3. McInnis p.1
4. https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-266156

See also

• Salon of 1861, contemporary art exhibition held in Paris

Bibliography

• McInnis, Maurie D. Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade. University of Chicago Press, 2011.