Observations On The Present State Of The Royal Academy: With Characters Of Living Painters. By An Old Artist. - [Epigraph] -
RA Collection: Book
Record number
07/3574
Imprint
London:: Printed At The Logographic Press; And Sold By J. Walter, No. 169, Opposite Old Bond-Street, Piccadilly., M, DCC, XC. [Price Two Shillings.]
Physical Description
[2], 29, [1] p.; 258 mm. (Quarto.)
References
ESTC, T185639
H. Hoock, The King's Artists: The Royal Academy of Arts and the Politics of British Culture 1760-1840 (2003).
Summary Note
This anonymous pamphlet was published in the year in which the Royal Academy's president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, resigned in a fit of pique when his favoured candidate Joseph Bonomi ARA failed to win election as the Academy's Professor of Perspective. Although the author suggests that Benjamin West would make a better president than Reynolds, West was not elected until after Reynolds' death on 23 February 1792.
Provenance
The front pastedown carries the 19th-century bookplate of 'BO'. Purchased 1963 (Sydney Lee Fund, £10).
Copy Note
The front pastedown is inscribed in ink, 'DW / 2. Vol. [illegible] R.', and in pencil 'Very Scarce'.
Binding Note
Contemporary quarter red morocco, marbled-papered boards; spine lettered 'Observations On The Academy.'