Royal Academy Exhibition of 1815 in the context of "Dido building Carthage"

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⭐ Core Definition: Royal Academy Exhibition of 1815

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1815 was the annual Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts based in London. It was held at Somerset House from 1 May to 24 June 1815 during the Regency Era. It took place during the Hundred Days campaign after Napoleon's escape from Elba with the Battle of Waterloo taking place on 18 June shortly before the end of the exhibition.

Amongst the works on display were those celebrating the victory over Napoleon the previous year War of the Sixth Coalition. Notable amongst these were paintings by Thomas Lawrence depicting leading figures of the alliance that had defeated France in 1814. Portrait of Prince Metternich, featuring the Austrian foreign minister Klemens von Metternich. Two of the portraits, that of the Duke of Wellington and Portrait of Marshal Blücher, depicted the commanders of the Allied armies that would join forces to secure victory at Waterloo. They would both end up at the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle. Lawrence also exhibited a portrait of the Prince Regent who had commissioned the paintings of the victorious allies. He is depicted in a Field-Marshal's uniform.

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👉 Royal Academy Exhibition of 1815 in the context of Dido building Carthage

Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire is an oil on canvas painting by J. M. W. Turner. The painting is one of Turner's most important works, greatly influenced by the luminous classical landscapes of Claude Lorrain. Turner described it as his chef d'oeuvre. First exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1815, Turner kept the painting until he left it to the nation in the Turner Bequest. It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 1856.

The subject is a classical landscape taken from Virgil's Aeneid. The figure in blue and white on the left is Dido, directing the builders of the new city of Carthage. The figure in front of her, wearing armour and facing away from the viewer, may be her Trojan lover Aeneas. Some children are playing with a flimsy toy boat in the water, symbolising the growing but fragile naval power of Carthage, while the tomb of her dead husband Sychaeus, on the right side of the painting, on the other bank of the estuary, foreshadows the eventual doom of Carthage.

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← Dido building Carthage
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (Waterloo Chamber) → Thomas Lawrence → Summer Exhibition → Royal Academy of Arts → London → Somerset House → Regency Era → Hundred Days → Napoleon → Elba → Battle of Waterloo → War of the Sixth Coalition → First French Empire → Portrait of Prince Metternich → Austrian Empire → Foreign minister → Klemens von Metternich → Duke of Wellington → Portrait of Marshal Blücher → Waterloo Chamber → Windsor Castle → George IV → Commission (art) → Field-Marshal →