ART EXHIBITIONS. Public displays of the works of living artists, with the view of affording gratification and instruction to the community on the one hand, and, on the other, of procuring purchasers for the works exhibited, have taken place in most of the principal towns of Europe, for more than a century and a half. Though sometimes connected with art unions (q.v.), A. E. are in reality much older institutions. Still, as the offspring of a necessity which did not exist in earlier times, they are essentially modern. So long as artists were chiefly patronized either by the church, by their respective governments, or by individuals of sovereign rank, their works were placed either in churches, in public buildings, or in palaces, and were thus continually exhibited to the public; but when private patronage came to be their chief support, and their works, if sold at all, were certain to be buried in private houses, the necessity for making arrangements by which they could be displayed to the public either before they were disposed of, or afterwards with the consent of their owners, became apparent. We have mentioned under ART UNIONS that, till aided by these latter institutions, A. E. for the most part did not succeed in effecting the objects which their promoters had in view. The earliest collective art exhibition was probably that of the members of the academy of the fine arts at Rome; anything of the kind which had previously exiSted being 'eenfined to the Works of a .partleular artist and his pupils, enriched perhaps by a few contributions from his friends. Something of this earlier character probably attached to these Roman exhibitions; and the first art exhibition, in the sense in which we now understand it, seems to have been that of the French academy in 1673. From 1745, down to the period of the revolution, this exhibition, which from its commencement had been confined to the works of members of the academy, took place biennially. During the revolution it was thrown open to foreign artists, and in 1796 it was again made annual. Au exhibition was attempted in England in 1760, but it was not till 1769 that the regular exhibitions of the royal academy commenced. They hav since gone on, not only without interruption, but with increasing energy. The
works exhibited in 1760 were only 130, the number of exhibitors being 69; in that of 1875 there were exhibited 1408 works by 835 artists. The annual revenue which the academy derives from the fee of one shilling paid by each visitor has also been steadily increas ing. The exhibition of the Scottish academy, which is the second in importance in this country, has existed since 1826. To the first exhibition, 178 works were sent by 27 contributors; the exhibition of 1876 consisted of 1090 works, which were contributed by 493 artists. The annual revenue of the Scottish academy derived from this source exceeds .02500. The only other exhibition of the same class in the United Kingdom is that of Dublin, which is supported by an annual grant from government—the exhibitions of London and Edinburgh being merely furnished with rooms erected at government expense. Several private societies in London and the provinces, however, have exhi bitions for similar objects, and conducted on similar principles. Of these we may mention the British institution, the society of British artists, the national institution, the society of painters in water-colors, and its rival, the new. society of painters in water-colors. There are also exhibitions in several of the large provincial towns, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, etc. On the continent, wherever an academy of art exists, there is now an exhibition, which takes place for the most part annually, but sometimes biennially. In New York there is a permanent exhibition of the works of Dusseldorf artists; and from thence they are frequently carried for exhibition to the provincial towns of the Union.
The London exhibition of 1851, commonly known as the great exhibition, was not only on a larger scale, but introduced new features into these displays. Though confined to industrial objects and works of plastic art, it gave an impulse to A. E. strictly so called, which showed itself almost simultaneously in the great international artistic exhi bition of Brussels; and even those exhibitions which have been formed more closely on its model—those of Dublin and New York in 1853, London in 1862, Paris 1867, Vienna 1873, Philadelphia 1876, and Paris 1878—have all included the fine arts.