1819: The Year’s Art

Fascinating exhibition looking at the year 1819 in art, a time when George III was close to death and Britain was struggling economically post Waterloo leading to the Peterloo Massacre in August.

All the works on show were produced or exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year and incorporated paintings, prints and illustrated books. The prints reflect the politics more than the paintings but the later reflect painters working for the growing middle classes incorporating comedy, visual spectacle, history and travel.

It was a lovely mix of familiar artists such as Turner (shown here) and Cruickshank prints but also artists who were well known at the time but have fallen out of fashion. There was a lovely Willian Etty of Mary Arabella Jay and an overblown Joseph Gandy, “Jupiter Pluvius”, which divided opinion at the time as to whether it was a dignified classical work or popular entertainment.

There was a sketch of the panorama of Venice which was shown on the Strand that year. I suspect I’d have been first in the queue for that! Also Henry Chalon’s painting marking the visit of the Persian Ambassador in the April showing the horses with their grooms which were presented to the king at Carlton House.

I loved the idea of giving an overview of the politics and art of a year. The display includes lines of poetry and text from the same year and some lovely archive material such as a copy of the Summer Exhibition catalogue and Turners notebook with his diagram of the position of the paintings.

Closing Autumn 2019