Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract The Royal Academy of Arts has remained a national institution, though the scope and power of that notion have perhaps never been greater than they were in its formative period. By1820 the Academy had educated some 1,200 students free of charge: the very best rose to international fame; those lacking sufficient talent for the higher branches worked as drawing masters and in the applied arts and manufacturing design across the country. The income generated by the national showcase for British art had allowed the Academy to dispense more money in relief of artists than any other society. At least for the short period between the 1790s and 18rns, the Academy, Reynolds, his concept of art, and his followers were widely recognized as pivotal to an emerging native artistic tradition. Art institutions in England’s provincial towns, her sister kingdoms, and her former North American colonies had benefited from Academicians’ resources, advice, and prestige. As the national pool of artistic and aesthetic expertise with a genteel residence at Somerset House, the Academy had raised the prestige of the fine arts and its professors at home and abroad. Drawing on its royal connections and lobbying government and Parliament with consider able success, it had helped shape the professional identity of artists, spread the notion of the arts as a national resource, and made substantial contributions to the creation of the St Paul’s pantheon, the acquisition of the Elgin Marbles, and the movement towards a National Gallery.