In 1735,
Carl Gustaf Tessin set up a drawing school at
Stockholm Castle, naming it the
Royal Drawing Academy. It was modeled after French academies of the day as a gathering place for established artists and art connoisseurs. The painters
Guillaume Taraval,
Johan Henrik Scheffel, and
Olof Arenius and the architect
Carl Hårleman taught there, and the first group of students included
Johan Pasch. In 1766, the academy expanded its activities following a parliamentary decree. In 1768, its name was changed to the
Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1773, King
Gustav III wrote the first statutes for the academy's organization. At the time, the curriculum spanned architecture, graphics, anatomy, theory of perspective, and cultural history. The late 18th century is considered the first golden age of the Royal Academy, when great artists of the time such as
Johan Tobias Sergel were elected as members and also taught there. In 1810, it was renamed again to Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Swedish: ), the name it still bears today. By the 1830s, there was beginning to be opposition to the Royal Academy's commitment to traditional
academic art. In addition, while both men and women could be elected as members of the academy, at the time women could only study art by special permission before 1864, when women students were accepted. The Stockholm Art Association was formed to offer exhibition alternatives, and an Impressionist artists' group known as
Opponenterna ('the Opponents') arose as well. ==Location==