An introduction to the RA Collection

At the opening of the Royal Academy in 1769, its first President (Joshua Reynolds) announced: “The principal advantage of an academy is, that, besides furnishing able men to direct the student, it will be a repository for the great examples of the art. These are the materials on which genius is to work, and without which the strongest intellect may be fruitlessly or deviously employed.”

When the Royal Academy was established by 34 artists and architects, and with the blessing of King George III in 1768, the commitment to build a collection of works of art was written into its founding document. At the time the country didn’t have a national collection of either Old Master or British paintings that artists could study.

...and this 'écorché': a plaster cast of a human body with the skin stripped off to reveal musculature. The corpse used to make this was a person executed when found guilty of being a smuggler-turned-murderer. It was collected fresh from the gallows by the sculptor Carlini, commissioned by the first Professor of Anatomy at the RA Schools.

Helen Valentine, Senior Curator of the RA Collection, explains: “The artist or collectors or patrons were giving works of art that they thought would inspire students. One of the most important examples is Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo (details), given to the Collection not just for the students but also to inspire Academicians.”

A memory of artists’ lives
The Collection also includes paraphernalia from the lives of artists – many donated by the artists or their relatives. For example, here's the painter JMW Turner’s fishing rod…

...and Queen Victoria’s satchel of art equipment.

A record of the Academy’s members

The Royal Academy’s founding document also decreed that along with collecting historical works, each artist and architect should give one of their own artworks to the Collection when they became a member of the institution.

These donations are known as 'Diploma Works', and together they chart the development of British art-making over more than 250 years.

Here's part of that founding document, which states that “[The elected artist] shall not receive his Letter of Admission, till he hath deposited in the Royal Academy, to remain there, a Picture, Bas relief or other Specimen of his Abilities approved of by the then sitting Council of the Royal Academy.”

Valentine says, “We’re still working with Academicians giving their Diploma Works, as well as other artists who come along and want to give us their work. Sometimes you meet direct relatives of deceased artists who want to give their prized works to us. I like the variety of the RA Collection, and I like that it’s contemporary. It’s a living collection, always growing in a small way.”

The growing Collection continues to fulfil its original remits, holding some 940 paintings, 1,180 sculptures, over 8,000 prints and 10,000 drawings, 2,000 architectural design drawings and 5,000 early photographs.

Let’s hear more from Helen about what it’s like to look after all those things...

“As the curator of a collection, you’re a caretaker in many ways. The job attracts a very particular type of person who really enjoys looking after something. It’s about making sure it’s in as good condition as it can be, it’s properly documented, it’s accessible, it has information provided. You’re taking care of objects so that they can be shared with the wider world.”

“I love working with real objects. It never fails to be interesting and engaging. There will always be something you haven’t seen before. I think leaving something better than you found it is incredibly rewarding – you know that it’s there for the future.”

“In the mid-20th century people would say why aren’t Henry Moore or Barbara Hepworth part of the Academy? And that’s because they didn’t want to be. It was felt there was this split between the RA’s more traditional art and the art world’s modernist movements. Sometimes the RA is right in the middle of the British art world, electing cutting-edge artists, and sometimes it’s out of sync with what’s happening more broadly – but that’s still telling us something about British art."

Here are five of Helen’s highlights from the RA Collection…

1. Lamia by George Frampton RA (details)

“I’ve often travelled with this sculpture when it goes to other exhibitions, because it’s very delicate. It’s made partly with ivory, which means it’s very difficult to travel with because of so many regulations surrounding the material. The sculpture was made over a century ago, and of course you wouldn’t promote making art with ivory now, but I do think it’s an extraordinary, non-traditional use of the material. I love the impact it has; it’s wonderful when you take something out of its box in front of a group of people and they just go 'wow'.”

2. Our collection of casts from classical architecture

We have an amazing collection of casts taken from ancient buildings in Rome in the 1780s and 1790s. Those buildings have changed now – from pollution or restoration or just time passing – but these casts are an exact record of what that part of the building looked like.

3. Our copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper (learn more)

"This copy is interesting because it’s telling us quite a lot that we can’t get from the original work. We recently took it to Milan for some conservation work and so many people wanted the chance to look at it more closely. You can dismiss things as being just a copy, but when this one was bought for the Academy they recognised that it recorded exactly what Leonardo had done, and that was really valuable."

4. A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse RA (details)

I love this painting for the amazing response it gets from visitors. People really love it; I think it’s that combination of magic and realism.

5. The Leaping Horse by John Constable RA

"This painting is certainly a highlight. Constable had a difficult relationship with the Academy, but there’s something about him pushing himself to do this six-foot canvas, pouring his heart and soul into it because he wanted to be better-known. I’ve worked with The Leaping Horse for years, and it’s really wonderful to get to know a painting, find different things in it, talk about it with so many different people."