Exhibition Room, Somerset House

Exhibition Room, Somerset House

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Founded in 1768, London's Royal Academy mounted exhibitions every summer from 1769. Recent works by the academicians were given pride of place and supplemented by submissions by non-members. In 1780, the institution moved from cramped quarters on Piccadilly into custom built galleries in Somerset House on the Strand. The Great Room of these new galleries is shown here densely hung from floor to ceiling. Visitors were admitted for a shilling and flocked to inspect the art and enjoy a glimpse of London society. Pugin and Rowlandson's print was published in 1808.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.