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| David Wilkie Boys digging for Rats 1812 oil on panel (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"In his youth David Wilkie was held in such esteem by his peers that he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy despite the fact that he had not quite reached the required minimum age of 24. After his election to full Academician in 1811 he presented this painting as his Diploma Work, a small scene of everyday life that formed a marked contrast to the grand historical subjects that many of his contemporaries had given. Wilkie excelled in this kind of low-life subject, which was immensely popular with the public. He was particularly skillful in choosing scenes which were not only entertaining but also, through expressive gestures and carefully posed figures, involved the viewer in a narrative."
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| Henry Raeburn Boy and Rabbit ca. 1814 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Henry Raeburn lived and worked in Edinburgh, and was the leading Scottish portrait painter of his day. The sitter, Henry Raeburn Inglis, was the son of Raeburn's stepdaughter and a great favourite with the painter. He is shown placing a protective arm around his pet rabbit as he feeds it dandelion leaves. The boy's proximity to the picture plane and Raeburn's broad handling of the landscape suggests a familiarity and ease which would have been more restrained in a commissioned portrait. This portrait has in fact been disguised as a genre painting in order to meet the Academy's requirements for Diploma Work."
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| William Redmore Bigg Cottagers 1814 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Bigg entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1778. His conversation and genre pieces, often with 'improving' messages, became popular in the late 18th century and were frequently reproduced as coloured engravings. Bigg presented a reassuring and pleasing view of peasant life – aimed at an audience far removed from the pictures' subjects."
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| Edward Bird Proclaiming Joash King ca. 1815 oil on panel (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| William Mulready The Village Buffoon 1816 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"The compositional structure to this anecdotal scene is typical of Mulready. In the manner of Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) he often set his groups against buildings which framed the narrative and positioned the central figure in the brightest light."
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| William Wilkins Design for Gateway and Cloisters, King's College, Cambridge ca. 1824 drawing (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Jeffry Wyatville Design for a Mansion for the 1st Earl of Yarborough, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire 1824 drawing, with watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| John Constable A Boat passing a Lock 1826 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Constable was elected a Royal Academician on 10th February 1829. Although he had at least three major works in his possession, he decided that he wanted to deposit A Boat passing a Lock as his Diploma Work. The owner of the painting, a friend, James Carpenter, agreed to return the picture to Constable on the condition he received a replacement, preferably a scene of Hampstead Heath. Constable deposited 100 guineas with Sir C. Scott's banking house as a guarantee that he would paint a picture of the same size by June 1830. In April 1830, just before he sent the present painting to the Royal Academy exhibition, Constable wrote to Carpenter saying that he would not give him the promised replacement painting after all but forfeit the 100 guineas."
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| William Etty Sleeping Nymph and Satyrs 1828 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Charles Lock Eastlake Hagar and Ishmael 1830 oil on panel (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| John Peter Gandy Design for Exeter Hall, Westminster ca. 1830 drawing, with watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Gilbert Stuart Newton Abelard in his Study 1833 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"According to William Sandby, Newton's Diploma Work was his last painting. The subject combines the artist's interest in literary learning, romance and historicism. It depicts the 12th-century philosopher and theologian, Peter Abelard reading a love letter from his student, Heloise."
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| Thomas Uwins The House of Mourning 1836 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Philip Hardwick Design for Euston Arch, Eaton Square, London ca. 1837 drawing, with watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| John Gibson Narcissus 1838 marble (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Gibson based the pose of Narcissus on a boy he observed sitting at the edge of a fountain on the Pincio in Rome. True to his Neoclassical principles, the artist here translated a modern life-experience into a more generalized and traditional ideal."
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| Daniel Maclise The Woodranger 1838 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Solomon Alexander Hart An Early Reading of Shakespeare 1838 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Solomon Hart was born in Plymouth but moved to London in 1820 with his father, a Jewish goldsmith, engraver and Hebrew teacher. Hart began his studies by drawing classical sculpture at the British Museum and was admitted in 1823 to the Royal Academy Schools. From the 1830s there was a growing interest in the early history of England and also the enshrining of Shakespeare as a national treasure. Hart seeks here not to paint a specific historical event or a scene from Shakespeare, but rather to recreate the atmosphere of a late 16th-century domestic interior showing figures listening attentively to a reading from their Immortal Bard."
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| William Frederick Witherington Landscape with Figures 1839 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Witherington was born in London and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1805. Except for one year he exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1811 to 1865. Like William Bigg, Witherington successfully courted popularity with the urban bourgeoisie by concealing the harsh realities of rural life behind a scrim of picturesque domesticity."
– quoted texts adapted from Royal Academy notes