The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787

This print is part of the 'British School II' album, which originally contained 170 prints published between around 1713 and 1810. A significant number (around 15-20) have since been removed.

The album begins with a two-page prefatory text, written after 1837 (it refers to the RA’s move to Trafalgar Square that year). This text starts with two paragaphs about British art in the early eighteenth century (framed by Walpole’s remark that at the accession of George I "the arts in Britain were sunk to their lowest state"). The author continues by describing the origins of the Royal Academy and emphasising the role played by Academicians in the development of British art. A list of useful published sources for the study of British art in the eighteenth century is appended. There is no reference in this introduction to the prints included in the album, and little correlation between the prefatory text and the contents of the album. For instance, while the text emphasises the primacy of the RA in the development of British art during the eighteenth century, the album contains the work of no more than around fifteen full academicians, with artists such as Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Henry Fuseli, Thomas Lawrence and Thomas Gainsborough not represented at all.