The Council of the Royal Academy selecting Pictures for the Exhibition, 1875

Every year since 1769, the Royal Academy has put on an open-submission art show, called ‘The Exhibition’ in earlier days but now known as the Summer Exhibition. The works on show are selected and arranged by Royal Academicians, who also enter their works into the exhibition, creating an eclectic mix of work by established artists alongside emerging talent and first-time exhibitors. This painting depicts artists behind the scenes, choosing from entrants’ works that have been sent to the Royal Academy for consideration.

From right to left the artists shown are: J.E. Millais (seated in foreground), G. Richmond, F. Leighton, J.F. Lewis, E.M. Ward (standing), F. Grant, T. Faed, R. Redgrave (sitting behind Faed), E. Armitage (standing), J.C. Horsley, P.H. Calderon with J.C. Hook leaning over him. Sir F. Eaton, the Secretary is writing at the desk. C.W. Cope stands behind Armitage.

Cope attended the Royal Academy Schools from 1828 and afterwards studied in Paris and Italy for three years. On his return he was successful in the competition to decorate the newly-built Houses of Parliament and worked on many commissions throughout the 1850s and 1860s. Outside this work he only had time for small domestic pictures, often of a mother and child. In this work, Cope harnessed his long experience of designing paintings with complex arrangements of people.