Miscellaneous Anecdotes, etc.
THE ROYAL ACADEMY, BURLINGTON HOUSE.
THE new rooms of the Royal Academy were erected from the designs, and under the superintendence, of Mr. Sydney Smirke, R.A., and consist of a large oblong block, parallel with Burlington House, and separated from it only by a few feet, but extending on both sides considerably beyond its frontage. The exhibition-rooms are approached by a noble staircase, with paintings by Ricci, which formed part of Burlington House. The galleries are divided into three lines or rows; five each in the north and south rows, and four in the middle. The central room is a domed octagonal sculpture saloon. Occupying the whole space westward of this is the “Great Room,” where the annual dinner takes place. Eastward of the central saloon is a lecture-hall; the remaining space eastward affords a room for water-colour drawings, and the gallery south of that for architectural drawings. All the exhibition-rooms communicate with each other. The dimensions of the apartments are as follows:—
| feet. | feet. | |||
| The Picture Gallery at top of stairs | 43 | by | 31 | |
| Central Sculpture Saloon, diameter | 43 | —— | ||
| Sculpture Room | 43 | by | 32 | ½ |
| North Picture Galleries, each | 40 | “ | 32 | ½ |
| The Great Room | 82 | “ | 43 | |
| Water Colour Room | 43 | “ | 26 | |
| Architectural Room | 40 | “ | 31 | |
| South Picture Galleries, each | 40 | “ | 31 | |
| Hall for Distribution of Prizes, and for Lectures | 55 | “ | 43 |
The height of the walls in the Great Room to the top of the cornice is 27 ft., the cove occupies 11 ft., making the height to the underside of lantern 38 ft. In the lesser rooms, the height to the top of the cornice is 22 ft., and the cove occupies 9 ft. The lighting is by means of a large central skylight in each gallery, excepting the Sculpture Room, where there is a side light. The walls of the Picture Galleries are of a deep subdued red, down to a dado of black wood and walnut. The choice rested between this and “pheasant egg colour.” The fine art critic of the Times, in his article of the 1st of May, 1869, makes the following appropriate remarks on this grand and useful suite of rooms, in which it is to be hoped that the Hanging Committee will for the future be able to display the pictures to the satisfaction of the artists and the public:—“The fears, if they were genuine fears, expressed by some of the Academicians as to the result of removal from Trafalgar Square to Piccadilly can hardly have survived the private view of the Exhibition yesterday. The verdict of the select crowd which filled the stately apartments provided by the architects of the new Academy building for its annual Exhibition was unanimous. No European capital can now boast a more commodious and noble suite of rooms for its yearly display of painting and sculpture than London now possesses.”
THE FONTHILL COLLECTION.