Preparatory drawing for The Council of the Royal Academy, April 1907

Sir Hubert von Herkomer RA (1849 - 1914)

RA Collection: Art

This detailed black chalk drawing is a study for the whole composition of Herkomer's painting The Council of the Royal Academy (1908; Tate Britain https://www.tate-images.com/N02481-The-Council-of-the-Royal-Academy.html). Herkomer presented the finished oil painting to Tate in 1909. It was also published as a print by Franz Hanfstaengl in Munich, London and New York.

The finished work and this study are part of a tradition of group portraits of Royal Academicians, beginning with Johan Zoffany's The Royal Academicians of the Royal Academy (1771-72, Royal Collection Trust). More specifically, it is one of a number of 19th and 20th century depictions of the Academy's Council, the earliest and best-known being C. W. Cope's The Council of the Royal Academy Selecting Pictures for the Exhibition 1875 https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/the-council-of-the-royal-academy-selecting-pictures-for-the-exhibition-1875