The
private view took place on 4 May and the annual banquet the following day. There was a danger of the event being overshadowed by the huge popularity of ''
Belshazzar's Feast'' by John Martin which had been shown at the rival
British Institution until shortly before the Exhibition opened. Two paintings that drew particular attention were
William Hilton's
Nature Blowing Bubbles for Her Children and
William Etty's
The Triumph of Cleopatra.
Thomas Lawrence who had been elected
President of the Royal Academy the previous year displayed
portrait paintings of the
Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh and
Princess Charlotte. Lawrence also presented his
Portrait of Sir Humphry Davy featuring the
President of the Royal Society Humphry Davy with whom he took part in the ceremony of
Coronation of George IV shortly after the Exhibition closed. The Scottish painter
Henry Raeburn exhibited his
Portrait of the Marquess of Bute.
John Jackson submitted a portrait of the
stage actor William Macready as
Macbeth. '' by
John Constable David Wilkie displayed two
genre paintings
Newsmongers and
Guess my Name.
Andrew Geddes exhibited a now-lost large
Rembrandtesque group portrait
The Discovery of the Regalia of Scotland featuring
Walter Scott and others discovering the
Honours of Scotland in
Edinburgh Castle in 1818.
William Collins presented a view of
Borrowdale in
Cumberland. The young specialists in animal paintings
Edwin Landseer also featured at the exhibition.
Charles Robert Leslie showed a
history piece May Day in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth while
William Mulready displayed the genre work
The Careless Messenger Detected.
The Hay Wain The
Suffolk-born
John Constable displayed the
landscape painting The Hay Wain under its original title of
Landscape: Noon. It portrays a scene on the
River Stour near
Flatford Mill in what is now known as
Constable Country, but attracted very little attention. This was possibly due to it being hung in an unfavourable location in the Academy School rather than the main room, although Etty's
The Triumph of Cleopatra was also hanging there and received widespread coverage. The painting remained unsold at the end of the exhibition and Constable displayed it again at the British Institution the following year where it was bought by the French
art dealer John Arrowsmith who then entered it into the
Salon of 1824 in
Paris to widespread acclaim. ==Gallery==