Royal Academy Exhibition of 1824
1824 art exhibition in London
The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1824 was an art exhibition held at Somerset House in London. Running from 3 May to 10 July 1824 it was the fifty sixth annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy. Some critics expressed concern about they regarded as the poor quality of the works on display, and suggested this might signal a decline in British art. Ironically, this was the same year British artists enjoyed great success at the Salon of 1824 in Paris which was dubbed the "British Salon" because of the impact of the pictures.
J.M.W. Turner was noted for his absence. Thomas Lawrence, the President of the Royal Academy, submitted a series of portraits that includes his Portrait of the Duke of Devonshire and Portrait of the Duchess of Gloucester as well as The Calmady Children. A number of other noted portraitists who had emerged in the Regency era also displayed works including Martin Archer Shee, William Beechey and Margaret Sarah Carpenter. John Constable featured The Lock the latest of his "six-footers" which he had been displaying at the Academy since 1819. William Etty submitted Pandora Crowned by the Seasons, one of his characteristic nude scenes with a classical theme.
In genre painting David Wilkie displayed Smugglers as well as The Cottage Toilette, based on a scene from The Gentle Shepherd by Allan Ramsay.
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