Royal Academy Exhibition of 1856

The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1856 was the annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts, the eighty eighth to be held. It was staged at the National Gallery in London between 5 May and 26 July 1856 during the Victorian era.[1] Taking place the year the Crimean War ended with the Treaty of Paris, a number of paintings made reference to the recent conflict. Peace Concluded by John Everett Millais features a wounded army officer reading news of the peace. Other works displayed by Millais were Autumn Leaves, L'Enfant du Regiment and The Blind Girl.[2] His fellow Pre-Raphaelites were also prominent with William Holman Hunt displaying The Scapegoat, April Love by Arthur Hughes and The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis. The Illustrated London News commented on the absence of many established members of the academy, including the president Charles Lock Eastlake.[1]

John Phillip submitted genre scenes of Spanish life, while fellow members of The Clique William Powell Frith and Edward Matthew Ward were also represented. The cityscape Christmas Day at St Peter's, Rome by David Roberts was widely acclaimed by critics, even John Ruskin who as usually unsympathetic to the artist's works. One of the major hits of the exhibition was the marine painter Clarkson Stanfield's The Abandoned depicting an abandoned ship adrift in the ocean. Today its whereabouts are unknown.[1][3] Edwin Landseer submitted the sentimental animal genre scene Saved!. Francis Grant, a future president of the academy, displayed portraits of Lord Raglan and Lord Lucan, two of the commanders during the Crimean War. Dutch artist Ary Scheffer produced a Portrait of Charles Dickens. Charles-Édouard Boutibonne's companion portraits of the French Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie were acquired by Queen Victoria for the Royal Collection.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "1856 Critics at Odds". chronicle250.com.
  2. ↑ Prettlejohn p.142
  3. ↑ Van der Merwe & Took p.167-68
  4. ↑ https://www.rct.uk/collection/406011/napoleon-iii-1808-73-emperor-of-the-french

Bibliography

  • Prettlejohn, Elizabeth (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
  • Riding, Christine. John Everett Millais. Harry N. Abrams, 2006.
  • Van der Merwe, Pieter & Took, Roger. The Spectacular Career of Clarkson Stanfield. Tyne and Wear County Council Museums, 1979.
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