Royal Academy of Arts: 250th Anniversary

Lord Crathorne Excerpts

Wednesday 12th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Crathorne (Con)]

It is so nice to take part in such a happy occasion. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, for winning this debate and making it possible. We are congratulating the Royal Academy, a remarkable institution, on its first 250 years. I would love to talk a little about the Arts and Heritage Group, which was founded by the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, in 1974. As he said, one of its first visits was to the Royal Academy, and we have visited every year since. The wonderful secretary, Charles Saumarez Smith, always welcomes us in the morning, and the curator of each show kindly introduces the exhibition, which greatly adds to our knowledge and pleasure. The group has visited the RA on average twice a year over the last 10 years, and has enjoyed some amazing exhibitions.

It was a triumph to get back all the items that Charles I originally purchased and which were then dispersed. It has just won the Apollo Exhibition of the Year award. There were two wonderful Hockney exhibitions in 2012 and 2016; the one in 2012 was the most visited show that year.

In the past 10 years, we have also been to some of the other exhibitions that the Academy has organised, including Van Gogh, Monet and Rubens, and lovely shows such as the modern garden exhibition, which was full of beautiful pictures. We went to an amazing exhibition called “Bronze”. I was so impressed by the enormous bronzes, and I remember thinking of the difficulties involved in bringing it all together—it was quite extraordinary.

Mention has been made of the annual summer exhibition, which has been held every year for the past 250 years. Alongside the 80 academicians—it is worth mentioning that one-third of them are women—who are allowed to put in six pictures, anyone else in the country, or indeed anywhere else, can enter pictures if they wish to. Every year, there are literally thousands of entries from professional and amateur artists. It is a great show, which I always thoroughly enjoy. The selection panel has quite a difficult job. This year, 300,000 people came, which is more than had visited any of the exhibitions since 1907.

My mother exhibited several times in the summer exhibition. With so many pictures to fit in, some have to be hung quite high up, and people like to be hung “on the line”—in other words, at eye level. One of my mother’s paintings was of a model called Zelda. My father received a telegram from my mother which simply said, “Zelda hung on the line”. It was delivered by a policeman, who demanded an explanation.

Another great contribution by the Royal Academy has been its school, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Luce, which now offers a degree course. I always enjoyed visiting the degree shows, trying to spot new talent. In 1971, I was greatly impressed by a student’s work, and I have kept in touch with her ever since. She works very slowly and so has a small output of lovely works. I am glad to say that two of her best works are now in the House of Lords collection, and one is reproduced in the guide to the Palace of Westminster. Her name is Diane Ibbotson. A few years ago, I and the academician Anthony Green, who admired her work, persuaded her to enter a picture to the summer exhibition. It was voted the people’s choice, which was very satisfactory.

The Academy collections are themselves superb. The first gift was from the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, of his fine and famous self-portrait. The pride of the collection is Michelangelo’s Tondo of 1504, “The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John”—the only marble by Michelangelo in England. It is now on fine display in the new collections gallery, which opened in May this year. As has been mentioned, this gallery has been a major development that has added massively to what the Royal Academy can do and show. Visitors can now walk from Burlington House through these newly opened spaces to Burlington Gardens. It has been a brilliantly successful project, masterminded by Charles Saumarez Smith. It is his lasting legacy, as he leaves the Royal Academy at the end of the month for pastures new.

I end with a big thank you to Charles—now Sir Charles, happily—and the Royal Academy for what, over 250 years, it has given this country for the great benefit of all of us.