The

Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, founded in 1754, was the precursor of The ''Royal'' Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce now more usually known as the RSA. The original Society gaine ...

held the first modern public

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

on 21 April 1760 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. It would be the first in a series of

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

exhibitions held by the institution later known as the Society of Arts. Prizes were offered for improvements in the manufacture of

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

carpets A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of Pile (textile), pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fiber, synthetic fibres such as polyprop ...

and

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

, and winners were chosen from a competition of submitted articles. The show was open to society members and their friends.

Background

The

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 Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

Jonas Hanway Jonas Hanway Royal Society of Arts, FRSA (12 August 1712 – 5 September 1786), was a British philanthropist, polemicist, merchant and Explorer, traveller. He was the first male Londoner to carry an umbrella and was a noted opponent of tea drinki ...

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

, Thomas Hollis,

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

, and

William Shipley William Shipley (baptised: 2 June 1715 – 28 December 1803) was an English drawing master, social reformer and inventor who, in 1754, founded Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, an arts society in London that be ...

. They met at first at a coffee house in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

in 1754. The first awards given by the society were for discovering

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

, raising and curing

madder ''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains ''Coffea'' (coffee). It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and it ...

, and shipping

breadfruit Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family ( Moraceae) believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut ('' Artocarpus camansi''). Breadfruit was spread into ...

, and they had an emphasis on improving farming techniques. By 1756 the need for an exhibition of fine art was recognised, with

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 Robert Edge Pine (1730, London – November 18, 1788, Philadelphia) was an English people, English portrait and historical painter, born in London. He was the son of John Pine, the engraver and designer. Career He painted portraits, including of G ...

proposed that the society hire a room to exhibit some works. Throughout the year many of the society's artists became involved.

Exhibition

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 Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

, Benjamin Wilson,

Richard Cosway Richard Cosway (5 November 1742 – 4 July 1821) was a leading English portrait painter of the Georgian and Regency era, noted for his miniatures. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Cross ...

and

Louis-François Roubiliac Louis-François Roubiliac (or Roubilliac, or Roubillac) (31 August 1702 – 11 January 1762) was a French sculpture, sculptor who worked in England. One of the four most prominent sculptors in London working in the rococo style, he was described ...

. 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 ''The Destruction of the Children of Niobe'' is a painting by Richard Wilson, created in 1760. It depicts the Greek myth of the murder of Niobe's daughters by the goddess Artemis and her sons by Apollo. The painting won acclaim for Wilson, who ...

''. 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. The only review of the event was published shortly after the event in the '' Imperial Magazine''.

Legacy

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, leading artists would usually join the SAGB, which consequently would become the leading society of artists.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{List of world's fairs in Ireland and Great Britain Arts in the United Kingdom Social history of London 1760s in London 1760 in England Royal Society of Arts