LONDON.- This summer, as Britain celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Royal Academy of Arts marks the occasion with a series of displays and events. Peter Greenham’s Study for a Portrait of Her Majesty the Queen (1964) has gone on show in the RA’s entrance hall, while displays in the John Madejski Fine Rooms celebrate the long-standing connection between the monarchy and the Royal Academy from its foundation in 1768 to the present day.

THE QUEEN’S ARTISTS
THE JOHN MADEJSKI FINE ROOMS
25 May – 12 August 2012
The Queen’s Artists features a selection of paintings, drawn from the Royal Academy’s Collection, by Royal Academicians elected during the early part of the Queen’s reign. The display in the Reynolds Room and Council Room includes works by Jean Cooke, Frederick Gore and Ruskin Spear. Subjects range from Richard Eurich’s fanciful reminiscence of a summer spent in Whitby in 1911 to Carel Weight’s depiction of people observing the two minute silence on Remembrance Sunday.

The Saloon house a fascinating selection of sculptures, paintings and drawings prepared by Royal Academicians for the nation’s coinage and royal seals, on loan from the Royal Mint Museum. Portraits of the Queen by Edward Bawden and Sir Charles Wheeler, never before shown in public, are exhibited alongside designs by current Royal Academicians James Butler, Tom Phillips and Christopher Le Brun PRA. Sir Anthony Caro’s new coin design for the London 2012 Games is also on show. This display is supported by the Royal Mint Museum.

THE KING’S ARTISTS: GEORGE III’S ACADEMY
TENNANT GALLERY
THE JOHN MADEJSKI FINE ROOMS
25 May – 21 October 2012
The King’s Artists: George III’s Academy in the Tennant Gallery brings to light George III’s instrumental role in the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768 and his influence upon the choice of artists invited to form its original membership. Dominating the exhibition are the imposing portraits of George and Queen Charlotte, painted by the Royal Academy’s first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds. These served as reminders of the RA’s great patrons, presiding over the institution in its resplendent, purpose-built, new apartments in Somerset House.

A newly discovered pencil study by Reynolds for his grand portrait of the monarch is being shown for the first time alongside the finished oil painting. On loan from a private collection, this sketch was hurriedly taken in one of the brief sittings that the king allowed and is a poignant reminder of how George and Joshua were obliged to put aside mutual antipathy for the sake of their Academy.