The Tennant Room
Linking the ballroom and the main staircase, the Tennant Room was created by Ware for Lady Cavendish as a drawing room. Diminished in 1876 by EM Barry RA, who inserted a staircase to link the Front Hall to Smirke’s Diploma Galleries, the room has now been restored to its original three-bay arrangement. Although the fireplace that originally stood at the centre of the south wall has not been reinstated, a new ceiling has been created, based on an unexecuted design by Ware.
The Tennant Room. Installation view of ‘The Body Politic: Anatomical Drawings by Benjamin Robert Haydon’, 2007. © Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photograph: Marcus Leith
Used for the display of works on paper for which light levels must be carefully controlled, the Tennant Room contains a changing selection taken from Diploma Works and donations by Academicians.
Current exhibition
The Young Lion: Early Drawings by John Frederick Lewis RA (1804 – 1876)
The Saloon
The Lee and James C Slaughter Room
The General Assembly Room
The President's Corridor
The Reynolds Room
The Council Room
The Tennant Room
