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| Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers | |
|---|---|
| Name | Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers |
| Formation | 1880 |
| Founder | Frederick Walker, Francis Seymour Haden |
| Type | Learned society |
| Location | London |
| Headquarters | Bankside, United Kingdom |
| Leader title | President |
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers is a professional society and artistic institution founded in 1880 in London to promote the art of original printmaking. It has historically engaged with artists and cultural bodies across United Kingdom, maintained links with international exhibitions in Venice, Paris, New York City, and supported print culture in venues such as Tate Britain, British Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum. The society fostered connections with artists and patrons associated with movements represented at Royal Academy of Arts, Society of Artists of Great Britain, and exhibitions at Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
The society originated as the Society of Painter-Etchers in 1880 under founders including Francis Seymour Haden and Frederick Walker, with early activity connected to galleries like Goupil & Cie, Agnew & Sons, and print dealers in Soho and Bond Street. During the late Victorian period it interacted with figures tied to Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts Movement, and contemporaries such as William Morris, Gustave Doré, and James McNeill Whistler. In the Edwardian era the society exhibited alongside institutions such as Royal Academy of Arts and showed works by artists who travelled to Japan and Italy, including exchanges with collectors associated with John Ruskin, Benjamin Godfrey Windus, and Samuel Courtauld. The society received a royal charter in the 20th century, developing links with cultural events like Festival of Britain and wartime exhibitions coordinated with Imperial War Museum. Postwar, it engaged with contemporary print movements represented by participants in exhibitions at Institute of Contemporary Arts, Serpentine Gallery, Hayward Gallery, and international biennales in São Paulo and Documenta.
Governance has traditionally mirrored models used by Royal Academy of Arts, with a governing council, president, secretaries, and treasurer elected by fellows and members. The society’s administration liaises with public bodies such as Arts Council England and institutions like British Council and National Portrait Gallery for touring exhibitions. Meetings and lectures have been held at venues linked to South Kensington, Chelsea, and Whitechapel Gallery, while archival stewardship involves cooperation with the National Archives (United Kingdom), V&A Archive, and municipal collections in Cambridge and Oxford.
Membership comprises elected printmakers and associate members with voting rights, comparable in structure to bodies such as Royal Watercolour Society and Royal Society of British Artists. Fellowship is conferred for distinction in printmaking, following nomination procedures resembling those of Royal Society of Arts and Order of the British Empire honorees. Members have included practitioners who also held posts at institutions like Goldsmiths, University of London, Slade School of Fine Art, Royal College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, and artists with commissions from entities including BBC and Design Council.
The society organises annual exhibitions and participates in group shows at venues including Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Festival Hall, Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, and regional museums such as Manchester Art Gallery, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Awards and prizes mirror formats employed by institutions such as Turner Prize, John Moores Painting Prize, and regional grants from Arts Council England and British Council exchange funds. Exhibition catalogues and prize lists have been disseminated to collections at Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and university libraries at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge.
The society promotes techniques including etching, mezzotint, aquatint, drypoint, lithography, woodcut, linocut, and modern intaglio processes used by printmakers exhibited at venues tied to Print Council of Great Britain and workshops like Curwen Press and Woolwich Polytechnic School of Art. Members have engaged with both traditional methods practiced by masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn and modern approaches associated with Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Wassily Kandinsky. Technical training and workshops echo curricula at Royal College of Art and facilities like Somerset House Studios, while conservation practices liaise with experts from Courtauld Institute of Art and conservation departments at the British Museum.
Prominent participants have included artists and presidents whose careers intersected with institutions and events such as Royal Academy of Arts, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, Royal Society of Oil Painters, Whitworth exhibitions, and biennales in Venice Biennale. Figures associated through membership or presidency have been exhibited alongside work by John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, Thomas Gainsborough, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, David Hockney, Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley, Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama, Bridget Riley, Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Mark Rothko, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Albrecht Dürer, Gustav Klimt, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Evelyn De Morgan, Dame Laura Knight, Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein), Stanley Spencer, and John Piper.
Collections holding society works include Tate Britain, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Gallery (London), Ashmolean Museum, Hunterian Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, Scottish National Gallery, Ulster Museum, Ulster Museum, National Library of Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, and international repositories such as Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery of Art (Washington). The society publishes catalogues, monographs, and bulletins distributed to libraries such as Bodleian Libraries, British Library, and academic presses at Yale University Press and Oxford University Press, and contributes essays to journals like The Burlington Magazine and Print Quarterly.
Category:Art societies Category:Printmaking