Royal Academy Exhibition of 1881

A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881 by William Powell Frith

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1881 was the hundred and thirteenth annual Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. It was held from 2 May to 1 August 1881 at Burlington House in Piccadilly, attracting 344,000 visitors during its run. ^[1]

The exhibition is best known through William Powell Frith's painting A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881 which was produced two years later and featured at the 1883 exhibition. It shows fashionable society figures mingling in front of the walls hung with that year's submissions.

Academic art was represented in a number of paintings. Edwin Long's Diana or Christ? featured a scene in Ancient Rome. ^[2] Also featured were A Roman Holiday by Briton Rivière, Winter Quarters by Frank Paton, The Symbol by Frank Dicksee and The Battle of Kandahar by Richard Caron Woodville. ^[3] James Tissot displayed Quiet and Goodbye on the Mersey. ^[4]

The exhibition faced completion elsewhere with the rival show at the Grosvenor Gallery featuring prominent works while Elizabeth Thompson's submission to the Royal Academy The Defence of Rorke's Drift was overshadowed by her Scotland Forever! on display at the nearby Egyptian Hall. ^[5]

Gallery

• 
  Diana or Christ? by Edwin Long
• 
  The Defence of Rorke's Drift by Elizabeth Thompson
• 
  Sappho and Alcaeus by Lawrence Alma-Tadema
• 
  For Better, For Worse by William Powell Frith
• 
  Swift and Vanessa by William Powell Frith
• 
  Alms Houses, Antwerp by William Logsdail
• 
  Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli by John Everett Millais
• 
  Cinderella by John Everett Millais
• 
  Portrait of James Fraser by John Everett Millais
• 
  A Roman Holiday by Briton Rivière
• 
  Envy, Hatred and Malice by Briton Rivière
• 
  The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson by John Collier
• 
  Winter Quarters, an engraving based on the work by Frank Paton
• 
  Collecting the Sheep by Richard Ansdell
• 
  Misplaced Affections by Richard Ansdell
• 
  The Lucky Dogs by Richard Ansdell
• 
  Home Again! by Frank Holl
• 
  Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush by William Frederick Yeames
• 
  Success! by Samuel Edmund Waller
• 
  A Cool Retreat by Henry Garland
• 
  Mother and Son by Henry William Banks Davis
• 
  The Symbol by Frank Dicksee
• 
  Yellow Marguerites by Albert Joseph Moore
• 
  Helen by Edward Poynter
• 
  Idyll by Frederic Leighton
• 
  Bianca by Frederic Leighton
• 
  Whispers by Frederic Leighton
• 
  Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunamite by Frederic Leighton
• 
  Self-portrait by Frederic Leighton
• 
  Portrait of John Caird by John Everett Millais
• 
  Portrait of Matthew Arnold by George Frederic Watts
• 
  Portrait of Constantine Alexander Ionides by George Frederic Watts
• 
  Portrait of Frederic Leighton by George Frederic Watts
• 
  Portrait of Joseph Dalton Hooker by John Collier
• 
  Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli by Pieter Van Havermaet
• 
  Portrait of Lord de Tabley by Frank Holl
• 
  Portrait of John Ballantyne by John Pettie
• 
  Portrait of Frederic Leighton by Phillipe Félix Dupuis
• 
  Portrait of Horatia Stopford by James Jebusa Shannon
• 
  The Misses Wilson by James Sant
• 
  Portrait of the Earl of Wharncliffe by Edward Poynter
• 
  Portrait of Garnet Wolseley by Paul-Albert Besnard
• 
  Portrait of David Dale by Walter William Ouless
• 
  The Old Wharf by James Campbell Noble
• 
  Roses and Rabbits by John MacWhirter
• 
  Miranda by Thomas Francis Dicksee
• 
  Dolly by Luke Fildes
• 
  Saint Jerome by Alphonse Legros
• 
  His First Offence by John Haynes-Williams
• 
  Boulders at Rest by John George Naish
• 
  Battle of Kandahar by Richard Caton Woodville
• 
  The Pied Piper of Hamelin by James Elder Christie
• 
  Milking Time by Mark Fisher
• 
  Sir Galahad by Herbert Gustave Schmalz
• 
  Rebecca at the Well by Frederick Goodall
• 
  Little Maud by Edwin Long
• 
  A Star in the East by Thomas Davidson
• 
  Fresh Flowers from the Country by Valentine Cameron Prinsep
• 
  Not of the Fold by Frederick Morgan
• 
  The Evening Star by Henry William Banks Davis
• 
  Quiet by James Tissot
• 
  Goodbye on the Mersey by James Tissot
• 
  Golden Prospects by John Brett
• 
  St Ives Bay by John Brett
• 
  Montrose at Kilsyth by Andrew Carrick Gow
• 
  Married for Love by Marcus Stone

References

1. https://chronicle250.com/1881#catalogue
2. Ravenscroft & Goldhill p.113
3. https://chronicle250.com/1881#catalogue
4. Marshall & Warner p.140
5. https://chronicle250.com/1881#catalogue

Bibliography

• Marshall, Nancy Rose & Warner, Malcolm. James Tissot: Victorian Life, Modern Love. Yale University Press, 1999.
• Ravenscroft, Ruth Jackson & Goldhill, Simon. Victorian Engagements with the Bible and Antiquity: The Shock of the Old. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
• Smith, Alison. The Victorian Nude: Sexuality, Morality, and Art. Manchester University Press, 1996.