in 1769) and less official or hierarchic public displays of art. Churches and civic buildings
accommodated the display of some paintings and sculptures. Popular leisure sites incorporating the
exhibition of artworks included Vauxhall Gardens, which had been recently improved by the art patron
Jonathan Tyers (1702–1767), and public rooms at the Foundling Hospital, founded by Captain Thomas
Coram as a charitable institution for abandoned children that attracted the patronage of the great and the
good (Hallett, 2014, 61–65). Westminster Abbey and Saint Bartholomew’s hospital also provided
opportunities for public display, the former for sculpture (Hargraves, 2005, 6). Apart from these venues,
there were relatively few public exhibitions held prior to the establishment of the Society of Arts and the
Royal Academy, but even in the early years of the century, coffee houses, artists’ studios, shop windows
and auction rooms provided viewing opportunities, as did personal invitations to view private
collections. The latter often celebrated their old master paintings, also promoted by dealers until the
Royal Academy brought greater status to the “British School” (Hargraves, 2005, 7). It was rare to exhibit
contemporary British works alongside old masters until the early nineteenth century: before that, they
were normally relegated to staircases, dining rooms and parlors (Solkin, 1993, 221–222). Specifically
British collections of paintings were rare until the 1790s. As in France, an expanding artistic culture
became more diverse and fostered educated commentary or, for more populist venues, advertisements or
reviews in the popular or fashionable press. Dealers, printsellers and art fairs had existed in Britain
from the Renaissance (Brewer, 1997, xviii), but rapid urbanization in the eighteenth century increased the
number of exhibitions held. The success of exhibitions held by the Society of Arts and the Royal Academy
encouraged later in the century the growth of commercial galleries such as those focusing on prints
(Brewer, 1997, 64).
Vauxhall Gardens, where music and art were the “pleasurable” pastimes on offer, enjoyed a reputation as
a den of illicit assignations. They became more respectable and began to attract a wide range of social
classes to their concerts, firework displays and exhibitions. Hogarth initiated a custom there of exhibiting
paintings in sheltered outdoor supper boxes and in the rotunda. These included more frivolous rococo
works as well as serious history paintings; the latter were also exhibited at the Foundling Hospital, and
Hogarth’s early works formed part of the display. The display of history paintings at Vauxhall Gardens
brought them to the attention of a wider public and the opportunity was taken to exhibit there paintings on
themes of common national interest such as scenes from Shakespeare and some emotionally rousing
patriotic works by Francis Hayman on the Seven Years War, colonial battles and other national events
(Solkin, 1993, 190–195; Crowley, 2011, 6–7). Hayman’s works ranged from the historical to the
decorative, the contemporary and the anecdotal (Allen, 1987, 48–73).
There were other large public exhibitions of art in Britain outside those launched by the Royal Academy.
These included those held at Glasgow (1761), Dublin (the Society of Artists set up there in 1765
exhibited until 1780 and again after 1800) and exhibitions held in Liverpool in 1774, 1784 and 1787.
Additionally, it was common for private collectors to open up their homes, by arrangement, to an
educated, polite public. Country houses provided semipublic display spaces; their collections
established and publicized their credentials of power and lineage through, for example, the display of
family portraits (Retford, Perry and Vibert, 2013, 3–8, 12).
In 1760 the Society of Arts (see Chapter 1) was asked by a group of contemporary British artists calling
themselves the “present Artists,” many from outside its own ranks, to host at its premises in the Strand an
exhibition with the aims of raising funds for ailing artists unable to support themselves and of advancing
the reputation of the arts in Britain, in the face of foreign criticism (Hargraves, 2005, 16–26; Hallett,
2014, 145–156). The exhibits included paintings, sculptures, models, handicrafts, needlework and
engravings. Visitor entry was free, leading to subsequent complaints about the unrefined spectators who
had attended. Money was raised through the sale of catalogues that were optional for those attending. By