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Royal Academy Of London
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. History The origin of the Royal Academy of Arts lies in an attempt in 1755 by members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, principally the sculptor Henry Cheere, to found an autonomous academy of arts. Prior to this a number of artists were members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, including Cheere and William Hogarth, or were involved in small-scale private art academies, such as the St Martin's Lane Academy. Although Cheere's attempt failed, the eventual charter, called an 'Instrument', used to establish the Royal Academy of Arts over a dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, Heathrow Airport and the M4 motorway westward. St James's is to the south of the eastern section, while the western section is built up only on the northern side. Piccadilly is just under in length, and it is one of the widest and straightest streets in central London. The street has been a main thoroughfare since at least medieval times, and in the Middle Ages was known as "the road to Reading" or "the way from Colnbrook". Around 1611 or 1612, a Robert Baker acquired land in the area, and prospered by making and selling piccadills. Shortly after purchasing the land, he enclosed it and erected several dwellings, including his home, Pikadilly Hall. What is now Piccadilly was named Portugal Street in 1663 after Catherine of Braganza, wif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Early life Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School in the town. His father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer (1716–1794), seven years his senior, author of ''Devonshire Dialogue'', whose fondness for drawing is said to have had much influence on him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshua's pupilage, and nine years later a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Hayman
Francis Hayman (1708 – 2 February 1776) was an English painter and illustrator who became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and later its first librarian. Life and works Born in Exeter, Devon, Hayman begun his artistic career as a scene painter in London's Drury Lane theatre (where he also appeared in minor roles) before establishing a studio in St Martin's Lane. A versatile artist influenced by the French Rococo style, he achieved some note during the 1740s through decorative paintings executed for the supper boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London. Hayman was also a successful portraitist and history painter. Combining some of these, he contributed 31 pictures to a 1744 edition of Shakespeare's plays by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and later portrayed many leading contemporary actors in Shakespearean roles, including David Garrick as Richard III (1760). He also illustrated Pamela, a novel by Samuel Richardson, Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' and ''Paradis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gwynn (architect)
John Gwynn (1713 – 28 February 1786) was an English architect and civil engineer, who became one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. He advocated greater control over planning in London, for which he produced detailed suggestions. His buildings include Magdalen Bridge and the Covered Market in Oxford, and several bridges over the River Severn. Life Gwynn was born and died in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He worked initially as a carpenter, but then decided to practice as a (largely self-taught) architect and town planner, moving to London, where he became a friend of Samuel Johnson. In 1749, when Sir Christopher Wren's drawings were sold, Gwynn obtained Wren's plan for the rebuilding of the City of London, and published it, adding some comments of his own. Seventeen years later, in 1766, he published ''London and Westminster Improved'', It was passed in June of the same year. in which he criticised the loose control over building in the West End, sayi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of the second half of the 18th century. He painted quickly, and the works of his maturity are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. Despite being a prolific portrait painter, Gainsborough gained greater satisfaction from his landscapes. He is credited (with Richard Wilson) as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Gainsborough was a founding member of the Royal Academy. Youth and training He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woollen goods, and his wife Mary, the sister of the Reverend Humphry Burroughs. One of Gainsborough's brothers, Humphrey, had a faculty for mechanics and was said to have invented the method of condensing steam in a separate ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet (8 May 1735 – 15 October 1811) was an English portrait painter and later a politician. Early life The third son of architect George Dance the Elder, Dance (he added the 'Holland' suffix later in life) studied art under Francis Hayman, and like many contemporaries also studied in Italy. There he met Angelica Kauffman, and painted several historic and classical paintings. Career On his return to England, he became a successful portrait painter. With Hayman and his architect brother George Dance the Younger, he was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. He was commissioned to paint King George III and his queen, plus Captain James Cook and actor David Garrick. His group portrait ''The Pybus Family'' (1769) is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. In 1790, he gave up his artistic career and became Member of Parliament for East Grinstead in Sussex. He served this seat until 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Dance The Younger
George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist. The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists and dramatists. He was described by Sir John Summerson as "among the few really outstanding architects of the century", but few of his buildings remain. Life Background and education The architect George Dance the elder married Elizabeth Gould in 1719. Their fifth son, George, was born 1 April 1741 at the family home in Chiswell Street, London and was educated at St Paul's School.page 16, Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the younger (1741–1825) and of George Dance the elder (1695–1768) from the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum, Jill Lever, 2003, Azimuth Editions, Dance spent the six years between 1759 and 1765 studying architecture and draughtsmanship in Rome. Aged 17, he set off on his Grand Tour, sailing from Gravese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Cotes
Francis Cotes (20 May 1726 – 16 July 1770) was an English painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life and work He was born in London, the eldest son of Robert Cotes, an apothecary (Francis's younger brother Samuel Cotes (1734–1818) also became an artist, specialising in miniatures). Cotes trained with portrait painter George Knapton (1698–1778) before setting up his own business in his father's business premises in London's Cork Street—learning, incidentally, much about chemistry to inform his making of pastels. An admirer of the pastel drawings of Rosalba Carriera, Cotes concentrated on works in pastel and crayon (some of which became well known as engravings). After pushing crayon to its limit as a medium—although he was never to abandon it entirely—Cotes turned to oil painting as a means of developing his style in larger-scale works. In his most successful paintings, particularly those of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mason Chamberlin
Mason Chamberlin (1727–1787) was an English portrait painter, who was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. He was a student of Francis Hayman. He is perhaps best remembered for his portrait of Benjamin Franklin. Life Chamberlin was a pupil of Francis Hayman. In 1768 he was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy. He exhibited 50 works at the academy between 1769 and 1786. All were portraits. The subjects of most of them are unnamed in the catalogues but in 1771 he showed a full-length painting of Prince Edward and Princess Augusta and in 1774 one of Catharine Macaulay. He also showed 22 works at the Society of Artists and two at the Free Society of Artists. His address is given as 7, Stuart Street, Spitalfields in the Academy catalogues and from 1785 as 10, Bartlett's Buildings. Franklin portrait He is perhaps best known for a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, commissioned by wealthy Virginian landowner and friend of Franklin's in London, Colone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Catton
Charles Catton RA (1728 in Norwich – 28 August 1798, in London), sometimes referred to as Charles Catton the elder, was a notable English coach painter, landscape, animal and figure painter of the late 18th century, and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy of Arts. Life and work Catton was born in Norwich, Norfolk, in 1728, and said to be one of 35 children that his father had from his two marriages. He was apprenticed to a London coach painter, or, according to some sources, a carpenter by the name of Maxwell, and studied drawing at the St. Martin's Lane Academy. He was mainly known as a landscape and animal painter, but also had a good knowledge of the figure, and a talent for humorous design. In 1781, he published an etching called ''The Margate Packet''. He became a member of the Society of Artists, and exhibited various pictures in its galleries in 1760–1764. He was outstanding as a coach painter, producing ornamental panels for carriages, floral embellish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agostino Carlini
Augostino Carlini or Agostino Carlini (c. 1718 – 15 August 1790) was an Italian sculptor and painter, who was born in Genoa but settled in England. He was also one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life He features in a group portrait, by Johann Zoffany, of the founders, and is one of three sitters (with Francesco Bartolozzi and Giovanni Battista Cipriani) in a 1777 portrait displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in London. He was Keeper of the Royal Academy from 1783 until his death in 1790. He exhibited a portrait in oil in 1776. He worked, with fellow Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi at Somerset House, and on statues at Custom House in Dublin. He is particularly noted for various church monuments, including a memorial to Lady Sophia Petty at All Saints' Parish Church, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and one commissioned by Joseph Damer in 1775 to commemorate his wife Caroline, which stands in the north transept of Milton Abbey in Dorset. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Battista Cipriani
Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727 – 14 December 1785) was an Italian painter and engraver, who lived in England from 1755. He is also called Giuseppe Cipriani by some authors. Much of his work consisted of designs for prints, many of which were engraved by his friend Francesco Bartolozzi. Life Cipriani was born in Florence. His family were originally from Pistoia. He first studied with Ignatius Hugford, a Florentine artist of English descent, and then under Anton Domenico Gabbiani. He spent the years 1750–53 in Rome, where he became acquainted with the architect, Sir William Chambers, and the sculptor, Joseph Wilton whom he accompanied to England in August 1755. He had already painted two pictures, a ''St Tesauro'' and ''St Peter Igneo'' for the abbey of San Michele in Pelago, Pistoia, which had brought him a favorable reputation. He also painted one of the canvases of the organ of the church of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi in Florence and the main altarpiece of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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