The Making of an Artist: The Great Tradition
Collection Gallery, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
1 Jan — 31 Dec 2022
The Making of an Artist: The Great Tradition
Does great art begin with studying nature, or studying the great art of the past? Decide for yourself in this gallery, bringing together highlights from the RA Collection.
You don’t need a ticket to visit this free display.
What makes great art? Our first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, believed that the art of the past was an important source of inspiration.
In his Discourses on Art, he encouraged aspiring artists in the RA Schools to: “Study the works of the great masters, for ever. […] Study nature attentively, but always with those masters in your company; consider them as your models which you are to imitate, and at the same time as rivals with whom you are to contend.”
The Making of an Artist: The Great Tradition presents work by leading early Academicians, together with many of the RA’s examples of earlier art, including Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, an almost full-size sixteenth-century copy of Leonardo’s Last Supper and casts of key classical sculptures, notably the Belvedere Torso.
1 January 2021 — 31 December 2022
Tues–Sun: 10am–6pm
Free, no booking required
Collection Gallery, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
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Take a virtual tour of the Collection Gallery
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Gallery
![Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, Self-portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA]()
![Mary Moser RA, Spring]()
![, Cast of Belvedere Torso]()
![Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John, known as the Taddei Tondo]()
Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John, known as the Taddei Tondo, c.1504–05.
![Giampietrino and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Copy of Leonardo's The Last Supper]()
Giampietrino and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Copy of Leonardo's The Last Supper, c.1515-20.
![Mary Moser RA, Summer]()
![Henry Singleton, The Royal Academicians in General Assembly]()
![Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, Studio Experiments in Colour and Media]()
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![Basil Beattie RA, Never Before]()
Explorations in Paint
Collection Gallery
Drop into our new free display in the Collections Gallery: Explorations in Paint.
The Founding President of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, was fascinated by the physical properties of paint and often experimented with different mixtures in his studio.
Taking a lead from Reynolds’s Studio Experiments, this display features contemporary artworks by seven current Royal Academicians, all investigating the material qualities and expressive potential of paint. Discover works by Basil Beattie RA, Sir Frank Bowling RA, Sir Christopher Le Brun PPRA, Ian McKeever RA, Fiona Rae RA, Sean Scully RA, and Terry Setch RA.
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![Ron Arad RA, Early Sketch for the UK National Holocaust Memorial 01-04]()
Memory and Modern Life
Collections Gallery Cabinet
This display features recent ‘Diploma works’ by RA architects and designers that engage with heritage sites and urban redevelopments. These include designs for museums and memorials as well as offices and apartments in London, Paris, Washington D.C. and elsewhere. Some of the projects have been realised, including David Chipperfield’s Neues Museum in Berlin, while others are early ideas and suggestions for specific projects.
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Try Smartify in the galleries
Learn more about each work, or take a tour
During your visit, you can use the Smartify app app with your smartphone or tablet camera to “scan” the artworks in The Great Tradition and discover the stories behind them.
Look out for Mary Beard’s mythology trail in Smartify too: the historian tells the stories behind key classical works around the RA. Works included in the trail are marked on labels on the walls.
Smartify is available to download for free through the Android and Apple app stores.
![Smartify in use in the Collection Gallery]()
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![Angelica Kauffman RA, Design (detail)]()
The Making of an Artist
The Making of an Artist encompasses three new displays of the RA Collection, exploring ideas about what makes great art and art training. In addition to The Great Tradition, you’ll find:
Learning to Draw
The Julia and Hans Rausing Hall
The RA has always had an art school. This display illustrates how art has been taught here over the past 250 years and gives a glimpse of what happens now.Learning about Architecture
Dorfman Architecture Court
Aspiring architects in the 18th-century RA Schools honed their craft by copying casts taken from classical buildings. This display brings those casts together, revealing another aspect of traditional artistic training.
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Donate to the RA
The RA is a charity, run by artists and funded by art-lovers. Your donation supports our future, to continue to create, debate and exhibit great works of art and to champion art and artists.
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Large-print guide
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Start exploring the RA Collection
read more- Explore art works, paint-smeared palettes, scribbled letters and more...
- Artists and architects have run the RA for 250 years.
Our Collection is a record of them.