On 1 May 1780, England's Royal Academy of Arts opened its twelfth annual exhibition, the first to be held in the magnificent rooms of William Chambers's newly built Somerset House. For the next fifty-seven years, the Great Room of Somerset House effectively defined the centre of the London art world - the place where viewers had to see and be seen, and where artists fiercely vied for the attention of potential buyers. Such great exhibition performers as Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner and David Wilkie sharpened their skills during these stimulating decades. In this extensively illustrated book, seventeen renowned experts revisit and assess the Somerset House years, a period of great achievement and central importance in the history of British art. The book's contributors view the Somerset House phenomenon from a broad range of perspectives. They deal with the physical nature of the exhibitions, the audience, the role of the press, the Royal Academy's place within the larger world of urban entertainments, and how the conditions of display shaped and even transformed patterns of art production. In addition, they explore such topics as the tactics of exhibitors in different genres of painting, the exhibition histories of works in other media and the impact on foreign artists and observers of an increasingly self-confident national school of British art.

Francis Bacon is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th century. A major exhibition of his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2020 explores the role of animals in his work - not least the human animal. Having often painted dogs and horses, in 1969 Bacon first depicted bullfights. In this powerful series of works, the interaction between man and beast is dangerous and cruel, but also disturbingly intimate. Both are contorted in their anguished struggle and the erotic lurks not far away: "Bullfighting is like boxing," Bacon once said. "A marvellous aperitif to sex." 0Twenty-two years later, a lone bull was to be the subject of his final painting. In this fascinating publication - a significant addition to the literature on Bacon - expert authors discuss Bacon's approach to animals and identify his varied sources of inspiration, which included surrealist literature and the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge. They contend that, by depicting animals in states of vulnerability, anger and unease, Bacon sought to delve into the human condition.00Exhibition: Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (22.01-12.04.2021).

During his reign, King Charles I (1600-1649) assembled one of Europe's most extraordinary art collections. Indeed, by the time of his death, it contained some 2,000 paintings and sculptures. Charles I: King and Collector explores the origins of the collection, the way it was assembled and what it came to represent. Authoritative essays provide a revealing historical context for the formation of the King's taste. They analyse key areas of the collection, such as the Italian Renaissance, and how the paintings that Charles collected influenced the contemporary artists he commissioned. Following Charles's execution, his collection was sold. This book, which accompanies the exhibition, reunites its most important works in sumptuous detail. Featuring paintings by such masters as Van Dyck, Rubens and Raphael, this striking publication offers a unique insight into this fabled collection. AUTHORS: Desmond Shawe-Taylor is Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Per Rumberg is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. David Ekserdjian is Professor of Film and Art History at the University of Leicester. Dr Barbara Furlotti is Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Gregory Martin, formerly Curator of Baroque Paintings and Assistant Keeper of the National Gallery, London, is Editor of the Corpus Rubenianum. Guido Rebecchini is Lecturer and Head of the Renaissance Section at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Vanessa Remington is Senior Curator of Paintings at The Royal Collection. Dr Karen Serres is the Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld Gallery, London. Lucy Whitaker is Assistant Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Jeremy Wood is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Nottingham. Helen Wyld is Curator at National Museums Scotland. SELLING POINTS: * The compelling story of the British monarch who created one of the most stupendous art collections ever assembled * Accompanies the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition that brings together astonishing works by Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Holbein, Mantegna and Rembrandt, among many others * A major BBC TV series on the Royal Collection and a documentary on Charles I is planned 200 colour illustrations

Catalogues of three concurrent exhibitions in London galleries, 2018.

"Exhibition organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London."

"Vincent van Gogh is one of the greatest figures in Western art. Revered for his bold, expressive paintings, he is also admired as a prodigious and eloquent letter writer. His correspondence displays a remarkable literary gift and an ability to communicate his ideas and feelings about nature, art and life in direct, emotive language." "Illustrated with works of art and letters that demonstrate Van Gogh's abiding preoccupations - the role of colour in painting, portraiture and the cycles of nature, for example - this fascinating book explores the correspondence as a self-portrait of the artist and the man. The letter-sketches that he used to describe completed works or those in progress are reproduced alongside the paintings or drawings on which they are based, providing a unique insight into his artistic development. Drawing on new and extensive research, leading authorities on Van Gogh reveal how the letters enhance and shape our view of this modern master." --Book Jacket.