1760 exhibition of contemporary art
The
Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
held the first modern public
exhibition
on 21 April 1760 in
London
. It would be the first in a series of
fine art
exhibitions held by the institution later known as the Society of Arts. Prizes were offered for improvements in the manufacture of
tapestry
,
carpets
and
porcelain
, and winners were chosen from a competition of submitted articles. The show was open to society members and their friends.
Background
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The
Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
was founded in 1754 and soon attracted some of the leading artists in the country.
It was also known as the "Premium Society" because they offered cash premiums to encourage inventors and artists in their work. Its ten fellows included
Benjamin Franklin
,
Jonas Hanway
,
William Hogarth
,
Thomas Hollis
,
Samuel Johnson
, and
William Shipley
. They met at first at a coffee house in
Covent Garden
in 1754. The first awards given by the society were for discovering cobalt, raising and curing madder, and shipping breadfruit, and they had an emphasis on improving farming techniques.
By 1756 the need for an exhibition of fine art was recognised with
William Hogarth
presenting a paper entitled 'containing some Hints relating to the Premiums for Drawings for the Future'. By 1759 a 100-guinea premium for historical painting was established, and
Robert Edge Pine
proposed that the society hire a room to exhibit some works. Throughout the year many of the society's artists became involved.
Exhibition
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The exhibition ran from 21 April 1760, with the exhibitors styled just as "the present artists".
Admission to the event was free, but a catalogue was available for sixpence, with 6,582 catalogues being sold. It is estimated that 20,000 visitors attended the fortnight that the exhibition was open.
There were hundreds of paintings, statues and illustrations from 68 artists shown in the exhibition, including men such as
Joshua Reynolds
,
Benjamin Wilson
,
Richard Cosway
and
Louis-Francois Roubiliac
.
No visual record, no drawings or engravings, exists of the exhibition.
We know, however, that among the exhibits were works such as
Roubiliac
's
Statue of Shakespeare
and
Edward Edwards
's
David Garrick in the Character of Richard the Third
. Welsh landscape painter
Richard Wilson
used the exhibition to show, for the first time, one of his most significant paintings of his career,
The Destruction of the Children of Niobe
.
Although the exhibition was considered a success from a financial point of view, with artists being left with a balance of £100 from the sale of the catalogues, the exhibition was not widely covered in contemporary papers and journals, with the press not taking notice of the annual exhibitions until the 1770s.
[9]
The only review of the event was published shortly after the event in the
Imperial Magazine
.
Legacy
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Plans for a follow-up event, expected to take place the next year, caused difficulties when the suggestion of levelling a charge of one shilling to attend the event split the academy into two, the
Free Society of Artists
(FSA) and the
Society of Artists of Great Britain
(SAGB).
Both of these groups would go on to organise annual events on their own terms. However, most of the times leading artists would join the SAGB, which consequently would become the leading society of artists.
References
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Citations
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Bibliography
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Kingdom of Great Britain
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United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland
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- Exposition of British Society
- Exhibition of Industrial Arts and Manufacturers
(Birmingham, 1849)
- Great Exhibition
of the Works of Industry of All Nations (London, 1851)
- Irish Industrial Exhibition
(Cork, 1852)
- Great Industrial Exhibition (1853)
(Dublin)
- Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester 1857
- 1862 International Exhibition
(London)
- International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures
(Dublin, 1865)
- Annual International Exhibition
(London, 1871?1874)
- Dublin Exhibition of Arts, Industries and Manufactures
(1872)
- International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures (Dublin, 1874)
- International Fisheries Exhibition
(London, 1883)
- First International Forestry Exhibition
- International Inventions Exhibition
- Colonial and Indian Exhibition
(1886)
- International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art
- Royal Mining Engineering Jubilee Exhibition
- International Exhibition of Navigation, Commerce and Industry
- American Exhibition
(1887)
- International Agricultural Exhibition (Kilburn, 1879)
- Royal Jubilee Exhibition
- International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry
(Glasgow 1888)
- International Exhibition of Science, Art & Industry
(Edinburgh 1890)
- Greater Britain Exhibition
- Glasgow International Exhibition (1901)
- Cork International Exhibition
- Naval, Shipping and Fisheries Exhibition
- Imperial Austrian Exhibition
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- Bristol International Exhibition
- Universal Exhibition (Nottingham)
- International Rubber, Tropical Products and Allied Industries ExhibitionInternational Exhibition of Rubber and Other Tropical Products
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Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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