Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855

Portrait of Edwin Landseer by Francis Grant

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855 was the eighty seventh annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts. It was held at the National Gallery in London between 7 May and 28 July 1855. Showcasing submissions from artists and architects of the Victorian era, it took place amidst the ongoing Crimean War. Critics generally considered the year's submissions to be an overall disappointment, including the absence of several established painters. Works that did attract praise included Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna by Frederic Leighton and The Rescue by John Everett Millais. Augustus Egg's The Life and Death of Buckingham also attracted notice, featuring two paintings based on the Restoration rake and politician the Duke of Buckingham.

Amongst other works on display were Frederick Richard Pickersgill's Britomart Unarming. George Jones exhibited depictions of the recent Battle of the Alma and Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean conflict. Francis Grant displayed his usual series of portraits including John Gibson Lockhart. His Portrait of Edwin Landseer depicted his fellow artist Edwin Landseer. William Powell Frith and other members of The Clique submitted a series of works with John Phillip's Spanish-set El Paseo commissioned by Queen Victoria.

The landscape and maritime painting tradition was carried on by figures such as Thomas Creswick, Edward William Cooke and William Havell. Clarkson Stanfield displayed The Siege of San Sebastian.

Gallery

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  The Rescue by John Everett Millais
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  Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna by Frederic Leighton
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  The Life of Buckingham by Augustus Egg
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  The Death of Buckingham by Augustus Egg
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  A North Sea Breeze on the Dutch Coast by Edward William Cooke
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  The Lovers by William Powell Frith
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  At the Opera by William Powell Frith
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  El Paseo by John Phillip
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  Collecting the Offering in a Scottish Kirk by John Phillip
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  Katherine and Petruchio by Robert Braithwaite Martineau
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  The Wrestling Scene in As You Like It by Daniel Maclise
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  The Royal Prisoners at Carisbrooke Castle by Charles West Cope
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  Il Penseroso by Charles West Cope
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  The Sylvan Spring by Richard Redgrave
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  The Conflict at the Guns, Balaclava by George Jones
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  The Battle of the Alma by George Jones
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  An Armenian Lady in Cairo by John Frederick Lewis
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  Christabel by William Dyce
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  Lord, Thy Will Be Done by Philip Hermogenes Calderon
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  Temptation by James Collinson
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  Sunset at the Bight of Exmouth by Francis Danby
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  Fern Cutting at Keswick, Cumbria by William Havell
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  Rome, Sunset from the Convent of Sant' Onofrio on the Janiculum by David Roberts
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  The Charger of Captain Nolan Bearing Back his Dead Master to the British Lines by Thomas Jones Barker
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  The Temple of Apollo at Bassae by Edward Lear
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  The Morning Grey by James Ward
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  The Almsdeeds of Dorcas by William Charles Thomas Dobson
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  The Good Harvest of 1854 by Charles Allston Collins
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  The Moorland by John William Inchbold
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  Othello and Iago by Solomon Hart
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  The Mitherless Bairn by Thomas Faed
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  Portrait of John Gibson Lockhart by Francis Grant
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  Edward Hawkins by Francis Grant
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  Lord Almeric Athelstan Spencer-Churchill and Lady Clementina Spencer-Churchill by James Sant
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  Lord Dunfermline by John Watson Gordon
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  Sir William Molesworth by John Watson Gordon
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  Robert McClure by Stephen Pearce
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  Edward Sabine by Stephen Pearce
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  John Bennet Hearsey by Edward Matthew Ward
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  George Selwyn by George Richmond
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  Richard Barrow by John Lucas
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  George Leith Roupell by Henry William Pickersgill
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  Llewelyn Llewellin by Henry William Pickersgill
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  John Bent by John Phillip
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  Thomas Carter by John Prescott Knight
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  Robert Inglis by George Richmond
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  Vincent Ryan by William Boxall
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  Portrait or Mrs Coleridge by William Boxall

See also

• Salon of 1855, a major art exhibition held in Paris the same year

Bibliography

• Murray, Peter. Daniel Maclise, 1806-1870: Romancing the Past. Crawford Art Gallery, 2009.
• Riding, Christine. John Everett Millais. Harry N. Abrams, 2006.
• Thomas Jane. Victorian Narrative Painting. Harry N. Abrams, 2000.
• Van der Merwe, Pieter & Took, Roger. The Spectacular Career of Clarkson Stanfield. Tyne and Wear County Council Museums, 1979.