The Hall at the Royal Academy, Somerset House

Object Type
This print is an etching, which uses the action of acid to create lines on a metal printing plate. After it was printed another person coloured it by hand. It was published in a periodical called The Repository of Arts in May 1810 to illustrate an article on the Royal Academy of Arts.

Subjects Depicted
This print shows the entrance hall at Somerset House on London's Strand, which in 1810 housed the Royal Academy. The hall contains plaster casts of antique sculptures that include the famous Apollo Belvedere, the Farnese Hercules and the Furietti Centaurs. A student, probably from the Royal Academy Schools, is shown drawing one of the sculptures.

From its foundation in 1768, the Royal Academy offered the most prestigious exhibition space in London. It held an Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, and Designs, which it decreed 'shall be open to all Artists of distinguished merit'. Aspiring artists submitted their works, and a selection was chosen by the exhibition committee. So many pictures were submitted, they had to be hung almost from floor to ceiling and with the frames touching each other.

There was great interest also in visiting the Annual Exhibitions at the Royal Academy. The Exhibition became an event in the social calendar and invitations to the Private View were in great demand.