841
It was in these conversations that the plan of
the Royal Academy was digested; but it is
necessary to state more particularly the different
circumstances which co-operated at this period
to the formation of that valuable institution.
At the annual exhibitions of the paintings
-and drawings, which obtained the premiums
of the Society for the Encouragement of
Arts, Agriculture, and Commerce, was then
customary with artists to send occasionally their
works to be exhibited with those of the com-
petitors, as a convenient method of making
themselves known to the public. But the
visitors hearing from the newspapers only of
the pictures which had gained the prizes, con-
cluded that they were the best in the exhi-
bition; and the Works of the matured artists
were overlooked in the attention paid to the
efforts of juvenile emulation. This neglect
mortified the artists, and induced them to form
themselves into an association for the exhibition
of their own productions. The novelty of this
plan attracted much attention, and answered
the expectations of those with whom it origin-