Royal Academy of Arts as somewhat anachronistic. But efforts are made to award each prize to a student producing work that bears a relation to the intentions of the original benefactor. The Royal Academy has an important collection of books, archives and works of art accessible for research and display. A large part of these collections have been digitised and can be investigated through the Collection website. The first president of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, gave his noted self-portrait, beginning the Royal Academy collection. This was followed by gifts from other founding members, such as Gainsborough and Benjamin West. Subsequently each elected
Temporary exhibitions at the Royal Academy 1 the Winter Exhibitions programme became far more ambitious and included major surveys of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, French, Persian and British art. Since 2013, the RA has made digitized catalogues of the pre-1939 exhibitions freely available on its website. Temporary exhibitions at the Royal Academy This page contains a partial list of temporary exhibitions mounted at the Royal Academy (RA) in London. Only major lending exhibitions are listed: shorter-term events such as the London Original Print Fair are not included, nor are the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. Note: the list is known to be incomplete prior to 1987.