File:The secret councel of the heads. (BM Cc,3.151).jpg
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Summary
The secret councel of the heads.
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| Title |
The secret councel of the heads. |
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| Description |
English: Satire on the founding of the Royal Academy showing a meeting at the Turk's Head tavern, Gerrard Street, Soho, with artists conversing in several groups. On the left, three men look on from a booth disapprovingly, one of them describing what is taking place in the centre of the print, "... these aspiring heads have got hold of the A[dress to the King] which was signed by the rest of the Corps and are pasting a new one to their names, you see the door is shut & they are afraid of being detected". Next, a pair of men discuss the possibility of knighthoods, one of them stating that fees will be paid with "the exhibition money" (see BM Satires 4216); a collecting box, "Exhbiition Bank for sundry Uses", is fixed on the wall above them. A group of four men at a table consider the situation: "should not we sent to the rest to come & consent to this", "No D[amn] their B-s let them alone & be Quiet", "Be Gar dis will be de fair bite we be de only Artists of Appollo", "I cannot hear what they say on the other side." (this last perhaps intended for the deaf Joshua Reynolds, first President of the Royal Academy). A large armchair marked "Sede Vacante" is being grasped by a man saying, "I hate a luke warm Chairman. Ill' mount the Rosturm & give new spirit ato the Cause, which shall not fall with the Chair, reach me down the hammer"; a chairman's gavel hangs on the wall above his head. Above a fireplace behind hangs a scroll with "A List of Knights which have been & will be Vizt / Sr P Paul Reubens / Sr A Vandyke / Sr Peter Lely / Sr Godfry Kneller / Sr Js Thornhill / Sr Fra ... / Sr William ... / Sr Tho ... / Sr Rich ... / Sr Jame ... / Sr ... / Sr ... / Sr ..." (those named in full being deceased artists who were knighted, the others those hoping to be knighted); on the left of the scroll Hogarth's "Line of Beauty" forms the first letter of the word "Sir". In front of the chair an artist is pasting an additional list of names to the Address to the King, saying "They'l not see the joining"; his paste pot, scissors and ink pot are on the table before him and a note hangs from his pocket lettered "200 pr ann exhibition money". Further to the foreground is a large book, "Dictionary of hard words" from which the head of Samuel Johnson emerges saying, "Sirs I have givn you as fine words as your plan woud admit of, and when you are all ready I will unite you & from you shall spring a Tale a Tale which (like the Tail of the Rattle snake) shall jingle in evry ear from Pole to Pole." On the right, at another table, is a group of men confident that their ambitions will be fulfilled: one, standing, says, "They on the other side are plotting who shall go first but by G[od] Ill' fling em' for Ill' be there before any of them: I have as much right to be Knighted as they have d[a]m[n] me; three who are seated, say, "We canot fail now of having a public Accademy", "We Conductors shall certainly be made professors & have good Salleries", "Ah! to be sure or we woud be troubled with it, so heres to ye"; the last speaker holds a tankard lettered, "Gerra[rd] Stree[t]. Above them hang three masks, "To be used occasionally", labelled, "Unanimity", "Candor" and "Disinterestedness". On the floor on the right, lies a scroll lettered "Sir / To. / The ..." and another, "Tho I am rejected the same Calf will not afford you a Better". In the centre, a Turk's head rests on two crossed clubs and is labelled "The Union". 1768
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| Depicted people | Representation of: Dr Samuel Johnson | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | 1768 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dimensions |
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| Collection |
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| Current location |
Prints and Drawings |
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| Accession number |
Cc,3.151 |
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| Notes |
Stephens quotes John Galt (The Life and Studies of B. West, 1816, p.36) who avers that it was the King's wish the formation of the new institution should be kept a secret, lest it should be made a vehicle for political influence; he states that the "whole affair" was arranged by Benjamin West, William Chambers, George Michael Moser and Francis Cotes who are presumably to be identifed among those shown in the print. Stephens suggests that the standing man on the right resembles Joseph Wilton, and the deaf man Joshua Reynolds. Samuel Johnson wrote the preface to the catalogue of the exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain in 1762, and the suggestion here is that he was prepared to write a similar essay for the Royal Academy exhibition. Stephens attributes the design to George Townshend, but this is no longer accepted; he also mentions that it had formerly been ascribed to Paul Sandby. The print is very similar in style to BM Satires 4221, itself a version of another print (BM Satires 4220), and it may be that the present print was a version by the same artist of a currently unknown print (July 2018). BM Satires 4216 to 4222 are all concerned with the same subject. |
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| Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Cc-3-151 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing
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File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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| current | 20:22, 11 May 2020 | | 1,600 × 1,001 (516 KB) | Copyfraud | British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1768 #5,343/12,043 |
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