The Royal Academicians. A Farce. As It Was Performed To the Astonishment of Mankind, by His Majesty's Servants, at the Stone House, in Utopia, in the Summer of 1786. -

John Williams [pen-name Anthony Pasquin]

RA Collection: Book

Record number

07/3567

Author

Imprint

London:: Printed by Denew and Grant, No. 91, Wardour-street; and sold by J. Bew, Paternoster Row; T. Hook-ham, Corner of Bruton Street, New Bond Street; and R. Jameson, No. 227, Strand, near Temple Bar. [Price One Shilling.], (1786)

Physical Description

44 p.; 209 mm. (Quarto.)

Contents

[T.p.] - Invocation To St. Luke ... (May 1st, 1786, by Anthony Pasquin) - Prologue - Dramatis Personæ - [Text]; [booksellers' advertisement].

Responsibility Note

The pen-name of 'Anthony Pasquin' was adopted in 1786 by the artist and writer, John Williams (1754-1818).

References

ESTC, T76349
ESTC, T76350 [2nd. ed.].
S.M. Bennett, 'Anthony Pasquin and the Function of Art Journalism in Late Eighteenth-Century England', in British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 8 (1985), p.197-207.

Summary Note

The date of 1786 is also given at the end of the Invocation.

This satire on the Royal Academy takes the form of a drama in one act.

The work is decorated with a title-page vignette showing a faun carrying a bow, and a large goose, crowned, wearing a medal marked 'Diploma' round its neck and stuck with two arrows.

A second edition was published in the same year, with a slightly re-set title-page. An expanded version was published in 1796 in the collection entitled 'An Authentic History Of The Professors Of Painting ... By Anthony Pasquin'.

Reproductions

An electronic reproduction was published in 2003 (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale). A microfilm version was published in 1983 (Woodbridge CT: Research Publications).

Name as Subject

Subject

Artists - Academies - Great Britain - London - History - 18th century
English drama - Art criticism - Satires - Great Britain - 18th century

Contributors

John Denew, printer
John Bew, bookseller
Thomas Hookham, bookseller
R. Jameson, bookseller
Denew and Grant (London), printer