The Exhibition Age 1760–1815

Sir David Wilkie, The Bag-Piper  1813, exhibited 1813

David Wilkie had already made his name in the London art world when he painted this small picture. It shows a bagpiper seemingly lost in thought, his fingers poised to play. One early biographer claimed this subject had been in Wilkie’s mind since boyhood and includes the old kirk (church) of his hometown, Cults, in the distance. While this is debatable, the explicitly Scottish subject is unusual in Wilkie’s work at this time. He exhibited this painting at the British Institution in 1813. While this may reflect his hope to raise the status of Scottish art, The Bag-Piper also appealed to a romanticised image of Scotland.

Gallery label, February 2024

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Garreteer’s Petition  exhibited 1809

The scene shows a young poet struggling for inspiration late at night in his garret, a cramped attic room. On the wall is an image of Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of the Greek Muses, indicating his high ambitions. Though the point of the image seems to be satirical, the picture was exhibited at a time when Turner was writing poetry himself so likely sympathised with the poet’s predicament. Turner rarely painted explicitly figurative works but may have been inspired to do so due to his rivalry with David Wilkie whose genre subjects were extremely popular in London’s exhibitions.

Gallery label, February 2024

John Opie, Portrait of a Lady in the Character of Cressida  exhibited 1800

We do not know the identity of this woman, but she is probably a celebrity or actress who contemporary viewers would have recognised. Opie was working at a time when fame was becoming an increasingly important part of artistic success. This painting appeared at the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition in 1800. Artists jostled to grab public attention, painting more flamboyant and dramatic pictures. Opie depicts his sitter as the heroine of Shakespeare’s tragedy Troilus and Cressida.

Gallery label, October 2019

Johan Zoffany, The Bradshaw Family  exhibited 1769

Small-scale group portraits like this, known as ‘conversation pieces’, projected an idealised vision of family life. This picture employs a pyramidal arrangement of the figures to express the structure of the family. Thomas Bradshaw (1733–74), a senior civil servant and politician, is shown at the apex of the pyramid. His family is arranged below him. The two women are Bradshaw’s wife, Elizabeth on the right, and, on the left, probably his sister. The two oldest sons are shown at the far left and right of the group. Their position in the composition serves to associate them both with the sheltered space of the family unit, and the outside world.

Gallery label, February 2016

John Russell, The Fortune-Teller  exhibited 1790

John Russell was the most successful pastelist of his day and regularly exhibited his work at the Royal Academy. This may have been the picture he exhibited as Artifice and Credulity in 1795. It shows an old fortune teller reading the palm of a smiling young girl. Russell takes the opportunity to show off his skill and varied technique in depicting both the aged seer and youthful beauty. He uses blue paper and a dark blue ground to offset the vivid, bright colours of the figures and their costumes.

Gallery label, June 2026

George Morland, Outside an Inn, Winter  c.1795

George Morland was known for painting rustic country life. Here, he depicts a man departing from an inn, watched by a child from the open doorway. The traveller’s thick coat and shiny top hat suggests his affluence, in contrast with the humble inn keeper, who keeps a pig for food. The scene’s stark surroundings underscore the hardship of rural life. However, Morland may have been appealing to the popular market for simple, picturesque country scenes. At this time Morland began working on a smaller scale and often recycled compositions in order to increase his output. This painting is similar to an earlier print, and doorway exchanges regularly feature in Morland’s work.

Gallery label, February 2024

Sir Henry Raeburn, Pringle Fraser  c.1804

Pringle Fraser was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1787. Here, he is around 17 years old. The dramatic lighting focusses attention on his face, illuminated against the dark, restrained background. This striking light effect and the fluid handling of paint suggests Henry Raeburn’s growing artistic confidence. By this time, Raeburn was celebrated as one of Scotland’s greatest portraitists. As an adult, Fraser travelled to India and joined the East India Company’s army, eventually becoming a Captain in the 7th Regiment in the Madras Native Infantry.

Gallery label, October 2023

Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Age of Innocence  ?1788

The identity of Joshua Reynolds’s young model is uncertain. It is perhaps Reynold’s great-niece Theophila Gwatkin, a Miss Anne Fletcher, or a Lady Anne Spencer (the youngest daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough). This painting is an example of a ‘fancy’ picture, a type of 18th century painting showing figures, particularly children, playing out various roles. It was painted over one of Reynolds’s existing paintings, titled A Strawberry Girl. He altered all elements of the girl’s figure except for her hands. The Age of Innocence was one of Reynolds’s most popular images – more than 323 full-scale copies were made of it between 1856 and 1893.

Gallery label, October 2023

George Romney, A Lady in a Brown Dress: ‘The Parson’s Daughter’  c.1785

George Romney was one of London’s most fashionable portraitists. He was particularly admired for the charm and simplicity of his female portraits. He chose not to exhibit his works publicly after 1772, instead relying on word of mouth for private commissions. Romney became known for his virtuoso ‘performances’ at sittings, quickly painting the sitters’ likeness directly onto the canvas. This painting demonstrates the artist’s loose, expressive brushwork. We do not know the identity of the sitter, but later, in the second half of the 19th century the work became widely known as ‘The Parson’s Daughter’.

Gallery label, February 2024

Thomas Stothard, Nymphs Discover the Narcissus  exhibited 1793

Thomas Stothard depicts a scene here from the Roman poet Ovid’s mythological narrative, Metamorphoses. The boy Narcissus, obsessed with his own reflection in the water, wastes away and turns into a flower. Here a group of nymphs discover the flower growing on the riverbank. The painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793. Stothard’s steadiest form of income was book illustration, but his reputation as a history painter was beginning to grow in the 1790s. It was on this basis that he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1794.

Gallery label, October 2023

Henry Robert Morland, A Laundry Maid Ironing  c.1765–82

This painting of a maid ironing is typical for Morland, who specialised in such ‘fancy pictures’ - subjects drawn from everyday life but with imaginative elements. He repeatedly painted and exhibited idealised pictures of young women in working-class roles, as ballad singers, oyster sellers and laundry maids. Here, the woman is shown passively gazing down, serene as she works, her tools and appearance pristine. There is little indication of her individuality, or of the real hardship of such domestic labour. Instead, she represents a contrived ‘type’, made attractive for contemporary middle and upper-class viewers and saleable for the print market.

Gallery label, June 2022

Thomas Whitcombe, The Battle of Camperdown  1798

This painting shows the naval battle that took place on 11 October 1797 near Camperduin, off the coast of North-Holland in the Netherlands. Whitcombe depicts the dramatic moments shortly after the British ship Venerable fired at its Dutch opponent Vrijheid. Just behind Venerable, to the right, is the Dutch ship Alkmaar in flames. The battle resulted in a resounding victory for the British fleet midway through the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802). Thomas Whitcombe specialised in maritime pictures, including of naval battles. Images like this, celebrating Britain’s naval power and victories, helped create a sense of national identity.

Gallery label, October 2023

Sir Henry Raeburn, Mrs H.W. Lauzun  ?1796

This painting depicts Anne Neale Lauzun (1776–1861), née Tucker. Born in Bermuda, her family were part of the British colonial administration. She spent her youth in Bermuda before moving to Edinburgh in 1792. Henry Raeburn painted this portrait in Edinburgh, possibly to commemorate Tucker’s marriage to Lieutenant Henry William Lauzun in 1796. The strong central light source and loose brushwork in this painting, reflect Raeburn’s cultivation of his own unique style as his career progressed.

Gallery label, October 2023

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mrs Hartley as a Nymph with a Young Bacchus  exhibited 1773

Elizabeth Hartley (1751-1824) is depicted here as a mythological figure. She holds a young Bacchus, the ancient Greco-Roman god of wine and festivity. By the time this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1773, Hartley was one of the most celebrated actresses on the London stage. Reynolds exhibited this painting with the title ‘A Nymph with Young Bacchus’. It was not presented as a portrait of Mrs Hartley, but as a subject or ‘fancy’ picture. Such pictures incorporated imagined elements into a scene, particularly of women and children.

Gallery label, October 2023

John Hoppner, A Gale of Wind  c.1794

John Hoppner was one of the leading portraitists of his day. When he exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1794, it would have stood out to exhibition-goers as a highly unusual subject for the artist. Indeed, this is the only work Hoppner is known to have exhibited that wasn’t a portrait. We think the stormy seascape is set just off St Catherine’s Point in the Isle of Wight, an area known for its dangerous waters. The painting gave Hoppner an opportunity to show off his expressive brushwork and his ability to convey drama and narrative. Capturing a sense of the artistic competition of the time, one critic remarked: ‘The present aggression is incontestably bold, and well executed, and should be rewarded with a booty of reputation.’

Gallery label, February 2024

Henry Walton, Plucking the Turkey  exhibited 1776

This painting was exhibited in London in 1776, during the early stages of the war with revolutionary America. Walton’s image of a cookmaid plucking a turkey is an example of the kind of lowly subject-matter denigrated by Sir Joshua Reynolds and the new Royal Academy.

But it may also make a coded political reference. The turkey was very closely associated with America: Benjamin Franklin even proposed that it should become the symbol of independent America, instead of the eagle. The painting may, therefore, be a pro-British comment on the anticipated fate of the rebellious colonists.

Gallery label, September 2004

Julius Caesar Ibbetson, Sand Quarry at Alum Bay  ?exhibited 1792

Julius Caesar Ibbetson visited the Isle of Wight in 1791, which inspired him to paint many views of the coves and cliffs. This picture shows the local scenery at Alum Bay, with a group of men quarrying sand in the foreground. The famous Needles – a row of chalk stacks in the sea – are visible in the distance. This is probably one of the several coastal scenes of the Isle of Wight that Ibbetson exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1792 and 1796. Throughout his career, Ibbetson travelled widely, including to China and the island of Java in Indonesia (then a Dutch colony). Many of his landscape paintings were inspired by the places he visited.

Gallery label, October 2023

John Hoppner, Miss Harriet Cholmondeley  exhibited 1804

Francis Cotes, Portrait of a Lady  1768

This elegant and ornamental portrait

is a fine example of Cotes's style, which emphasises fashion rather than character. The sitter, whose identity is uncertain, sits on a garden bench in an artificial yet striking pose. Her gown and its lace are arranged decoratively about her, the pink and white colouring echoed by the foxgloves behind her, and the roses on the left. The portrait was painted in 1768, the same year as the foundation of the Royal Academy. Cotes was one of its founder members, which his prominent signature on the tree trunk, 'F Cotes RA px', proudly announces.

Gallery label, February 2010

Maria Spilsbury, The Schoolmistress  c.1803

A young woman in white is shown teaching the children gathered around her. One boy sits absorbed in reading A Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan. The Christian message of this book is reinforced by the church seen in the distance. Maria Spilsbury often portrayed women in such nurturing roles, reflecting the importance of women educators at this time. Women were especially active in the growing Sunday School movement, which aimed to educate working-class children on Sundays, their one day off. Spilsbury also painted a larger version of this picture (with more overt Christian symbolism) and probably exhibited one of these at the Royal Academy in 1804. At that time, her work was reputedly so popular that carriages would queue outside her London studio.

Gallery label, October 2023

Henry Fuseli, Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma  exhibited 1783

Waking from an enchanted sleep, Percival is shown raising his sword to strike the wizard Urma. Meanwhile, his lover, Belisane, clings to his side. Although Henry Fuseli claimed this story was from the ‘Provencal Tales of Kyot’, it was actually his own invention. At first glance, this painting seems to depict the kind of heroic scene associated with grand manner painting. However, it disregards the noble themes and moral lessons such painting usually demanded. Instead, Fuseli’s strange and supernatural imagery emphasises emotional drama and spectacle. This played into Fuseli’s persona as a wild eccentric, equally admired and reviled by contemporaries.

Gallery label, February 2024

John Hoppner, Mrs Williams  c.1790

Little is known about the woman in this painting. She is thought to have been the wife of a Captain Williams. John Hoppner portrays her in her youth, possibly before her marriage. Hoppner was a skilled colourist, demonstrated in Mrs William’s rosy cheeks and the blue trimmings of her bonnet and blouse. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780. While he was initially interested in landscape painting, Hoppner soon turned to portraiture which provided a steadier source of income. He achieved considerable success, receiving commissions from numerous aristocrats and members of the royal family.

Gallery label, October 2023

Richard Wilson, Llyn-y-Cau, Cader Idris  ?exhibited 1774

Richard Wilson paints Llyn Cau, a lake near the summit of Cadair Idris in North Wales. He heightened the precipice and included imagined landscape features to create a balanced, more ordered composition. The tiny people underscore the monumental scale of the scenery. Wilson suggests we are looking at an untouched paradise, ideal for contemplating nature. The figure with a telescope may reflect the fashionable enthusiasm for such remote scenery. The Welsh countryside particularly appealed to Wilson’s contemporaries because of the new taste for sublime awe-inspiring landscapes and the growing interest in Welsh history and culture.

Gallery label, February 2024

George Morland, The Tea Garden  engraved 1790

This small painting shows an affluent family taking tea in a pleasure garden, a popular leisure activity in the 18th century. It perhaps shows Bagnigge Wells or Ranelagh Gardens, both on the outskirts of London. Through the slightly stiff, unsmiling appearance of the adults, George Morland may have been playing upon current humour about keeping up public appearances. Morland likely painted it with the print trade in mind: the image was first engraved in 1790, to considerable success. Morland’s work was widely reproduced in print, providing the artist with a steady income and raising his public profile.

Gallery label, February 2024

Richard Westall, The Reconciliation of Helen and Paris after his Defeat by Menelaus  exhibited 1805

This painting is inspired by Greek legend: Helen was married to Menelaus, king of Sparta. Her affair with the Trojan prince, Paris, led to the Trojan War. Richard Westall painted this scene for Thomas Hope, a wealthy collector. His London home had rooms designed and furnished in the different styles of the ancient world – Egypt, India, Greece and Rome. Westall modelled the figure of Helen on a Greek statue in Hope’s collection. In the 1790s Westall’s Royal Academy exhibits were the talk of the town. His flashy paint effects divided opinion, however, and many thought his work was too stylised and unnatural.

Gallery label, February 2024

George Stubbs, Mares and Foals in a River Landscape  c.1763–8

This painting seems to have been used as an ‘overdoor’, hung with two other pictures by Stubbs above the doors in the dining room of George Brodrick, 3rd Viscount Midleton, MP (1730–65). Reflecting the ornamental use to which this painting was to be put, it seems that Stubbs, the premier animal painter of his day, did not set out to be especially original. The figures of the horses are the same as those appearing in another painting, a commission for Lord Rockingham representing specific horses owned by him, although the colour of one has been changed from brown to grey.

Gallery label, February 2016

Edward Penny, The Gossiping Blacksmith  exhibited 1769

Edward Penny was the first Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy (founded in 1768). This painting was displayed in the Academy’s first exhibition the following year. It illustrates lines from Shakespeare’s King John, which were also printed in the exhibition catalogue: ‘I saw a smith stand with his hammer thus, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallow a taylor’s news.’ Paintings with Shakesperian themes were increasingly popular in the 18th Century. They appealed to a sense of national pride for many of the people who flocked to attend art exhibitions.

Gallery label, October 2023

George Dawe, Imogen Found in the Cave of Belarius  exhibited 1809

George Dawe depicts a scene from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline. Imogen – the heroine and daughter of Cymbeline, the ancient king of Britain – escapes court and disguises herself as a young man. Here, Dawe shows the moment when the character Belarius (left) and Imogen’s two long-lost brothers (right) discover her in a cave. They believe she is dead, but she has actually just drunk a sleeping potion. Dawe mainly painted portraits, but here ventures into ‘history painting’ (images of biblical, mythological, literary or historical subjects). This was regarded as the highest genre of painting at the time and indicates Dawe’s ambitions as an artist. With its high-minded literary theme and dramatic lighting, this painting was meant to stand out when it was first exhibited at the British Institution in 1809.

Gallery label, October 2023

William Mulready, The Rattle  exhibited 1808

William Mulready’s painting is quietly intimate and domestic, showing a young boy playing with a baby. This subject may reflect debates at the time about infant education, sparked by the numbers of children seen on the streets. Here, Mulready presents the family home as a place for learning, security and happiness. He exhibited the work at the British Institution in 1808. This was the first genre painting (scenes of everyday life) that he showed to the public and it marked a shift in his art, likely influenced by the popularity of similar narrative subjects by his friend, David Wilkie.

Gallery label, February 2024

Richard Cosway, Portrait of a Gentleman, his Wife and Sister, in the Character of Fortitude introducing Hope as the Companion to Distress (‘The Witts Family Group’)  1770

Although principally a portrait miniaturist (see cabinet 2: The Portrait Miniature in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries), Richard Cosway also produced some larger-scale works in oil. This allegorical portrait was painted following the death of a young London linen draper, Broome Witts, in 1769. Witts is shown here in the role of Fortitude, introducing his sister Sarah in the guise of Hope (left) to his wife Elizabeth, depicted as Distress. This memorial image was presumably commissioned by one or both of these ladies.

Gallery label, August 2004