Council minutes, vol. 22
Volume of minutes of the Council, including the following selected entries: the doubts of
Sir Hubert von Herkomer, Professor of Painting, as to whether he could continue to deliver his course of lectures in the Schools, as they contained strictures on the work of living artists in contravention of the Royal Academy’s rule and the Council’s encouragement to him to proceed without mentioning any names, 10 January 1907; report of the Surveyor recommending an examination of the main front of Old Burlington House after small portions of stonework had fallen through the glass skylight over the portico, 29 January 1907; transcript of a letter of the President,
Sir Edward Poynter, to the private Secretary of
King Edward VII, explaining why the Chantrey Fund could not be used to purchase
William Holman Hunt’s painting, ‘The Lady of Shallott’ for the nation, with related entries, 29 January 1907; recommendations of the sub-committee appointed to consider the question of the placing of glass over oil paintings at the summer exhibition, 17 December 1907; suggestion of the
Prince of Wales that the day of the annual dinner should be changed from Saturday to Thursday or Friday, because so many people were then leaving London for the weekend and the hour from 6.30 - 7.30 pm, 25 February 1908; the decision, at the instigation of the President, Sir Edward Poynter, to write to
Alfred Gilbert to suggest that he resign his membership of the Royal Academy, following the report of a number of commissions for which he had received full payment but not produced any work, 12 May 1908 and further, 17 and 24 November 1908; copy of a letter from HM Office of Works setting out the arrangements for the use of the gates and the roadway running along the west side of Burlington House, 26 May 1908, and further 9 July 1908 and 23 February 1909; memorial submitted by nine principal members of the daily press requesting a restoration of previous arrangements for the press view of the summer exhibition, 16 June 1908; request from the chairman of the London County Council for the free admission of teachers and students of the London Schools of art to the winter exhibition, 26 January 1909; the resolution to accept certain proposals of members of the committee of the Royal Institute of British Architects [RIBA] for a winter exhibition on architecture and the decorative arts, with the active involvement of members of the RIBA, subject to the approval of the General Assembly, 25 May 1909; further entries relating to the proposed winter exhibition on architecture, 15 June 1909 - 6 January 1910 and the conclusion that there was insufficient time to arrange the exhibition before the following winter and that the organisation of the scheme would be better if it were to remain entirely in the hands of the Royal Academy, 8 February 1910; arrangements to carry out the General Assembly’s decision to sink an artesian well, 3 August 1909, successful completion of the boring, 14 December 1909 and the decision to place a wall around the well enclosure, 8 February 1910; suggestion of
Francis Bernard Dicksee that a list of outside artists of acknowledged standing and of artists who had made a mark in previous summer exhibitions should be drawn up for the guidance of Council and the Hanging Committees in the selection and arrangement of future summer exhibitions, 14 June 1910; action taken over the “impertinent and insubordinate” complaints of five painter students over nineteen years of age who had been placed in the lower school, 9 November 1910 and permission granted to some of them to re-enter the Schools, 29 November 1910; report of the Special Finance Committee on the need for reductions in ordinary expenditure and accompanying memorandum of the Council for submission to the General Assembly, 22 November 1910; the decision to appoint Messrs Price Waterhouse & Co as professional auditors, 7 February 1911; note of correspondence with the Metropolitan Water Board for a standby water supply, 21 February 1911; reasons for the refusal of a request from the National Gallery for the loan of the cartoon of ‘The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist’, by
Leonardo da Vinci, 23 May 1911; the choice of representatives of the Royal Academy on the council of the new British School at Rome, 23 May 1911; the resolution that the office of Keeper remain for the present in abeyance following the receipt from the Treasurer,
T.G. Jackson, of a very serious account of the Royal Academy’s finances, 20 June 1911; the decision to close the winter exhibition following threats against museums and galleries by suffragettes, 4 March 1912; consideration of the report of the Ways and Means Committee dated 5 March 1912, on ways to augment the annual revenue of the Royal Academy, including a copy of the report itself, 26 March 1912; the decision of the President, Sir Edward Poynter, to place before the Council correspondence with
Sir Reginald Blomfield relating to a proposal made by Blomfield to the Board of Education suggesting the amalgamation of the school of architecture of the Royal College of Art with the Royal Academy’s Schools, on the grounds that such schemes should not be proposed without the consent of the Royal Academy, 1 April 1912; the exemption of a part of the Royal Academy premises from income tax and inhabited house duty, following negotiations between Price Waterhouse and the Inland Revenue, 4 July 1912; and a note of further discussion on the report of the Ways and Means Committee dated 5 March 1912, including a letter from Walter Judd Ltd, London, dated 30 July 1912, making an amended offer for advertising rights in the summer exhibition catalogue, 6 July 1912.