Volume 49, Number 10 · June 13, 2002
The Great Room of Art
By Richard Dorment
Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House, 1780–1836
edited by David H. Solkin
Yale University Press, 278 pp., $65.00
In a famous letter to the committee of artists responsible for hanging the Royal Academy's annual summer exhibition in 1784, Thomas Gainsborough announced that he could not possibly allow his full-length group por- trait of the three eldest daughters of George III to be hung at a height 'higher than five feet & a half.' By attempting to dictate to the Royal Academy in this way, Gainsborough was asking for a radical dispensation from the rule that full-length or three-quarter- length portraits were hung above the 'line,' a projecting wooden molding running around the walls of the main exhibition space at a level of eight feet from the floor. Gainsborough, who was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, was well aware of this regulation.
Review, 4847 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |