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| John Flaxman Apollo and Marpessa ca. 1790-94 marble relief (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Flaxman carved this sculpture in Rome, where he lived and worked between 1787 and 1794. It reflects the influences he absorbed there, from the linear rhythms and economical design of Greek vase painting to the highly-finished surface popular amongst Italian sculptors. Apollo and Marpessa was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800 and presented by Flaxman as his Diploma Work the same year. His decision to submit a bas-relief was in keeping with that of other contemporary sculptor-members, including Joseph Nollekens and Richard Westmacott. It has been suggested that this may have been because relief works could be exhibited alongside paintings more seamlessly, according to the taste of the time, than sculpture in the round."
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| Thomas Stothard Charity ca. 1794 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Stothard was an immensely popular and prolific artist. After training at the Royal Academy Schools, he contributed history paintings to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery and Macklin's Poets' Gallery. He also took on book illustration, including such titles as Richardson's Clarissa, Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress."
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| John Soane Design for new House of Lords 1794 drawing, with added watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Sir John Soane's choice of subject for his Diploma Work – a project for a magnificent new House of Lords in the Neoclassical style dating from 1794 – was by no means mere paper architecture at the time he sent it to the Academy on 20 March 1802. Only a week later the Peace of Amiens, under negotiation since 1 October 1801, was signed with France, opening up a real prospect that the medieval rabbit warren currently occupied by their lordships could at last be replaced by a new, purpose-built Upper House. Soane – like everyone else – could not have know that war was to break out again the following year, postponing any chance of realising his dreams for another twelve years."
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| Richard Westall A Peasant Boy ca. 1794 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Richard Westall trained at the Royal Academy Schools from 1785, establishing himself in the 1790s as a painter of historical and literary subjects. He illustrated books by Walter Scott and Lord Byron, contributing as well to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery and Fuseli's Milton Gallery. Although Westall's Diploma Work is titled A Peasant Boy, the inclusion of a sheepdog and staff and the upward gaze of the boy give him a saintly air and may be intended to suggest the Christ Child as the Good Shepherd."
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| Henry Tresham Death of Virginia 1797 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Tresham was born in Ireland and studied at the Dublin Society's drawing school before leaving for Italy in 1775. He settled in Rome for thirteen years, but was more active as an art dealer than a painter there. On his return to London he became a key contributor to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery and Bowyer's History Gallery. Tresham's demonstrative and emotive style reveals the influence of fellow Academician Henry Fuseli."
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| Sawrey Gilpin Horses in a Thunderstorm 1798 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Gilpin was initially trained by his father, an amateur artist. During his subsequent apprenticeship to the marine painter Samuel Scott, Gilpin began sketching the horses and carts of Covent Garden market near Scott's studio. He progressed to become an accomplished painter of animals and sporting pictures. Like his celebrated contemporary George Stubbs, Gilpin ventured into painting elevated 'historical' animal paintings but found that his patrons preferred his more conventional work. He often collaborated with artists such as Philip Reinagle, George Barret and J.M.W. Turner by adding animals to their paintings."
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Dolbadern Castle, North Wales 1800 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Dolbadern Castle was exhibited in 1800 and offered by Turner as his Diploma Work when he was elected as an Academician in 1802. This is one of his earliest dozen or so oil paintings, although he had been exhibiting watercolours since 1790. Castles, especially Welsh ones, were a favorite Turner theme at this time. The actual ruin of Dolbadern is near Llanberis in north Wales, but Turner considerably heightened the tower and the mountains, increasing the dominance of the castle and narrowing the valley. Philippa Simpson and Martin Myrone describe the work as 'an exercise in the manner of Salvator Rosa – an artist widely admired for the sublime wildness of his scenes, but also for expressing an imaginative freedom in defiance of all rules.' They argue that Turner's explicit references to Rosa would have suggested meanings of desolation, solitude and danger to contemporary viewers. 'His aim was to maximise the expressive potential of the chosen motif, and of landscape as his chosen genre."
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| Samuel Woodforde Dorinda, wounded by Silvio, is sustained by Linco (scene from Il Pastor Fido by Guarini) 1801 oil on panel (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Philip Reinagle Eagle and Vulture disputing with a Hyena ca. 1801 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Reinagle exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1773 onwards and was elected an Associate in 1797. However, he waited a further fifteen years for his elevation to the rank of Academician. Following his election Reinagle presented as his Diploma Work this brooding – if grotesque – painting of a confrontation between a vulture, an eagle and hyena over the body of a hare. Reinagle aligned his painting with contemporary theories of the Sublime by setting the fighting animals on a desolate ledge among towering crags."
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| Henry Thomson Prospero and Miranda 1803 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Henry Thomson succeeded Henry Fuseli as Keeper of the Royal Academy in 1825 but resigned two years later owing to a severe illness from which he never fully recovered. Thomson retired to the island of Portsea, where he had grown up and where he enjoyed boating and sketching marine subjects."
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| Henry Howard The Sixth Trumpet Soundeth 1804 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"This painting was exhibited in 1804 with the following quotation from Revelations: 'And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river of the Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed.' The influence of Fuseli is clearly seen in the dramatic foreshortening of the central figure and the dissolution of the background into darkness."
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| William Hilton The Rape of Ganymede ca. 1806 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| William Owen Boy with a Kitten 1807 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Owen was originally apprenticed to the coach-painter and founder-member of the Royal Academy, Charles Catton. He subsequently entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1791. He found most success as a portrait painter – however, as portraits were not at this date acceptable as Diploma Works, Owen presented Boy with a Kitten to the Royal Academy. These kinds of subjects were very popular as engravings and by 1810 a print of this picture was published with the title, Puss in Hopes."
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| Thomas Phillips Venus and Adonis 1808 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Phillips was apprenticed to a glass painter in Birmingham before moving to London, where he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1791. Assisting in the studio of Benjamin West, Phillips was likewise drawn to history painting. However, he soon realised that if he were to live by his profession then 'I must attach myself to Portraiture." Like William Owen, he was banned from offering a portrait when elected Academician in 1808, and the Venus and Adonis was produced as an alternative."
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| Martin Archer Shee Belisarius 1809 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"On a parallel path with his contemporaries William Owen and Thomas Phillips, Arthur Shee built his professional career on portrait painting, but was forbidden from submitting a portrait when required to offer a Diploma Work. A friend and ally of Sir Thomas Lawrence, Shee became President of the Royal Academy after Lawrence's death in 1830."
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| George Dawe The Demoniac ca. 1811 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Richard Westmacott Jupiter and Ganymede 1811 marble relief (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
– quoted texts adapted from Royal Academy notes