LAYOUT OF 1793 EXHIBITION
Royal
Academy Exhibition Lists
From the list of Somerset House Exhibition Rooms and Exhibit Numbers
1788 - 1799 we see that, in 1793, 64 exhibits from No. 237 to No. 300 were
hung in the Anti-Room.
1793 Aritists and
Titles Exhibited in the Anti-Room
Although still incomplete there is sufficient data to work out the
position of the JMW Turner exhibit 263. The purpose of this list is to
locate the pictures so that we know their sizes and substrates. We have
used the orientations North/South/East/West as a rough guide only.
Paul Sandby's Drawings of the
Anti-Room in 1792
In 1792 Paul Sandby sketched the Great Room and the Anti-Room. The
exact layout of the Anti-Room is therefore known for 1792 and it is
therefore possible to deduce the layout for 1793.
Particular points in drawing up the 1793 Layout
The purpose of this exercise is to determine an approximate size for the JMW Turner exhibit.
With reference to the placing of the two John Rising portraits Nos.264 and 267, there must be 26 pictures to the left of 264 and 30 pictures to the right of 267. This places them roughly in the middle.Numbering begins (and ends) on the East Wall. The Risings are large portraits and to place them centrally and symmetrically they would hang on the West Wall. The position of the nearby pictures 261 and 262 must be on the South Wall because they are too big to move onto the West Wall and if allowed to displace the Rising No. 264 would crowd the remaining pictures to the right, putting the second John Rising on the North Wall and thus wrecking the symmetry. The only issue with the deduced West Wall arrangement is whether the Turner and the Cartwright should be placed above or below the Rising; this question can be answered by reference to Sandby's drawings where the larger pictures are generally placed above the smaller pictures.
Work to find the sizes of the 1793 pictures is ongoing but the West Wall arrangement seems to be consolidated. The space available for exhibit 263 would accommodate a picture in its frame of approximately 24"x 30".
1792 Sandby Drawings
1793 Approximation Based On Sandby
