| GB/0397 Royal Academy of Arts Archive. |
| | RAA Royal Academy of Arts, official archive 1768-2001 |
| | RAA/SEC Records of the Secretary 1769-1968 |
| | >RAA/SEC/24 Records of loan exhibitions 1870-1968 |
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| Reference Code | RAA/SEC/24 |
| Level | Series |
| Title | Records of loan exhibitions |
| Date | 1870-1968 |
| Extent & Medium | X |
| Historical Background | Beginning in 1805 the British Institution had held a series of exhibitions of works by old masters. This established a tradition for the temporary public display of old masters and laid some of the groundwork for the establishment of a National Gallery. The Institution held its last exhibition in 1867, which coincided happily with the Academy receiving its new premises in Burlington House. The Academy had sole charge of some of the greatest galleries in Europe and the urge to make full use of them must have been impossible to resist. The annual report for 1869 lays out the official position,
"The relinquishment by the Directors of the British Institution of the Annual Exhibition of Works of the Old Masters, was regarded not only as a great deprivation to all lovers of Art, but more especially as a serious loss to Students in the prosecution of their Art studies."
This, it could be said, provides the gloss to a typical Academy debate on the merit of taking on this additional function. Eventually the Royal Academy initiated its own series of loan exhibitions in 1870, with an exhibition of works mainly by two recently-deceased artists, C. R. Leslie, RA and Clarkson Stanfield, RA, but also including some old masters. The exhibitions continued thereafter on an annual basis, under the general description of winter exhibitions. These early shows, almost random in content, are the direct antecedents of the Academy's current loan exhibition programme. |
| Provenance | Administration for the new exhibitions was undertaken by the clerks subordinated to the office of the Secretary. This continued until the establishment of an autonomous Exhibitions Office in 1970. |
| Content Description | All records generated by the negotiation, administration, promotion and interpretation on the Academy's temporary loan exhibition programme. |
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