RWA Bristol art gallery exhibition to celebrate one hundred years of royal patronage
RWA Bristol art gallery exhibition to celebrate one hundred years of royal patronage08 August 2013
Description:
RWA Bristol art gallery exhibition to celebrate one hundred years of royal patronage
An exhibition being held at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) this autumn will celebrate the centenary of when it received royal patronage from King George V in 1913 and will commemorate the Academy’s long relationship with royalty.
One Hundred Years: The RWA and Royal Patronage will feature key pieces from the Academy’s own collection as well as prints, drawings and watercolours generously lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection. Work by academicians past and present will be on display, demonstrating the unique legacy of its members to British art over the past 100 years.
The RWA was formed in 1844 and is affectionately known as “Bristol’s first art gallery”. Since then it has gone on to establish a significant artistic community, its permanent collection bearing testimony to that and to its ongoing dialogue with other international artistic hubs such as Newlyn in Cornwall and Charleston, the bohemian Sussex home of the Bloomsbury Group.
The exhibition will make use of works by later nineteenth and twentieth century British artists, pairing items from the permanent collection of the RWA with others from the Royal Collection to find intriguing connections between them and also providing a unique insight into the collecting habits of the monarchy over the last century. It will include gifts to the Royal Family such as a selection of miniature works created for Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House; and commissioned works including a selection of portrait drawings of members of the Order of Merit.
Past presidents of the RWA, Paul Ayshford, Lord Methuen, Bernard Dunstan and Leonard Manasseh will be among the featured artists and a life-sized bust in marble of Honorary Academician HRH The Prince of Wales by sculptor Richard Mossman will illustrate the Academy’s continuing relationship with the Royal Family.
Accompanying the twenty-two pairings will be photographs and archive material which documents the awarding of royal patronage.
The exhibition will open on 05 September and will run until 05 November. For further information, including opening times, admission charges and details of how to become a Friend or Patron of the RWA, visit www.rwa.org.uk.
