Society of Artists of Great Britain

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The Society of Artists of Great Britain was an English artists' association founded in London in 1760 . It should offer artists the opportunity to jointly present their works to a wide audience. The model was the Salon de Paris .

Founding members included Joshua Reynolds , Francis Hayman , Richard Wilson , Richard Dalton, and others. a. They organized a first exhibition in April 1760, which is considered to be one of the first collective exhibitions of contemporary artists in England, alongside the event held that year by the Royal Society of Arts, founded in 1754 . This was followed annually by a total of 23 joint exhibitions, for which catalogs were published that secured funding.

In recognition of the public exhibition successes , the Society received a Royal Charter on January 26, 1765 , and in the same year it already had 211 members. In 1767/68 there were disagreements between the members of the association and two factions emerged, led by the architects James Paine (1717–1789) and William Chambers . When James Paine won the argument, William Chambers then established the Royal Academy of Arts , which took place in 1768 and was active with its first exhibitions in 1769. In 1773 the Society published a list with the names of only 130 members. In 1776 the name Royal Incorporated first appeared in the catalog for the 17th exhibition in April 1776, for the new official name since 1765 as the Royal Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain .

The Society of Artists held exhibitions until 1791 before disbanding. The Society's archives were later transferred to the Royal Academy of Arts.

literature

  • Matthew Hargraves: Candidates for Fame: The Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1760-1791. Yale University Press 2005, ISBN 0-300-11004-9
  • Algernon Graves : The Society of Artists of Great Britain 1760–1791. The Free Society of Artists 1761-1783. A complete dictionary of contributors and their work from the foundation of the societies to 1791. George Bell and Sons, London 1907. ( digitized ).
    Contains a compilation of the exhibits from the Society's exhibition catalogs sorted by exhibiting artist, as well as an overview of the event dates.
  • The Papers of the Society of Artists of Great Britain. In: The Volume of the Walpole Society. Volume 6, 1917-1918, pp. 113-130. ( JSTOR Stable URL ).
    Contains transcripts of the meeting reports for the period of preparation for the foundation and first exhibitions from November 1759 to July 1761.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Algernon Graves: The Society of Artists of Great Britain 1760–1791. The Free Society of Artists 1761-1783. London 1907, pp. 307-310, 321-323.