In 1850, the Royal Academy elected the painter Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865) as its 7th President, who, like its first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, hailed from Plymouth.
Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, the National Gallery’s senior research curator in the History of Collecting, will uncover key episodes of Eastlake's 15-year tenure as 'PRA', including a broadening of its membership to encompass engravers and women artists, and his attempts to promote the institution to the outside world, notably his invitation to the press to attend the annual Academy Dinner.
