Royal Academy Exhibition of 1879 was the hundred and eleventh annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts. It was held at Burlington House in London's Piccadilly from 5 May to 4 August 1879 and attracted 391,000 visitors. It featured submissions of paintings, sculpture, etchings and architectural drawings from leading artists and architects of the Victorian Era. It was the first to take place since Frederic Leighton had succeeded Francis Grant as President of the Royal Academy.https://chronicle250.com/1879#catalogue
Elizabeth Thompson displayed two scenes of military art Listed for the Connaught Rangers and Remnants of an Army, the latter depicting a scene from the Retreat from Kabul in 1842. The most talked-about of the portraits was John Everett Millais' Portrait of William Ewart Gladstone featuring the politician who served as Prime Minister four times. The Scottish artists John Pettie's history painting The Death Warrant was widely praised.https://chronicle250.com/1879#catalogue The landscape painting The Waning of the Year by Ernest Parton was acquired through the Chantrey Bequest and one critic suggested "if we go on in this manner we shall, in the international race, overtake France one of these days".https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/parton-the-waning-of-the-year-n01628 Despite the success of his Road to Ruin series the previous year, the veteran painter William Powell Frith did not exhibit any works that year.Green & Sellars p.179
Historical paintings of scenes from British history were on display. The Gordon Riots by John Seymour Lucas depicted the 1780 riots that hit London during the American War of Independence. Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux showed the life of Frederick Ponsonby being saved by a French officer at the Battle of Waterloo. While On the Evening of the Battle of Waterloo by Ernest Crofts shows Napoleon abandoning his carriage in the wake of his defeat.
Gallery
See also Salon of 1879, a contemporary art exhibition held in Paris
References
Bibliography Green, Richard & Sellars, Jane. William Powell Frith: The People's Painter. Bloomsbury, 2019.