Royal Academy of Arts to that drawn up by Cheere in 1755. It was Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect and head of the British government's architects' department, the Office of Works, who used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support for the Academy in 1768. The painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president, and Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788. The instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of
Charles Barber (artist) evolve into the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and Birmingham School of Art. By 1818 Barber had moved to Liverpool where he established himself as a drawing master. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Birmingham Society of Artists and the Liverpool Academy of Arts, of which he served as President from 1847 to 1853. Charles Barber (artist) Charles Vincent Barber (ca. 1784 – 1854) was an English landscape painter and art teacher. Barber was born in Birmingham and baptised on 28 January 1784, the first son of Joseph Barber, the town's first drawing master. He studied at his father's