This is a collection of invitations and responses to Royal Academy exhibitions and dinners of the early nineteenth century. They show that many prominent members of late Georgian society were invited to these dinners which were used to celebrate and display new artwork by academicians and students alike.
Royal Academy dinners were exclusive affairs. A letter by the artist and diarist Joseph Farington (1747-1821) to William Wilberforce (RCIN 1145451) dated 23rd April 1816, stated that only twenty invitations were sent to non-academicians and that no further invitations were sent if (as witnessed in some replies) a guest was unable to attend. The invitees were selected by agreement of the President & Council of the Academy further adding to its exclusivity. By analysing the papers of Joseph Farington, it appears that he held considerable influence in these decisions. This is particularly apparent in 1793 when Farington recounts the voting for the committee to decide the guest list for the Academy's 25th Anniversary dinner. In this vote Farington received more votes than Benjamin West, the President of the Academy, and therefore took on a dominant role in the committee, drafting addresses to George III and weilding significant influence over the guest list.