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| John William Waterhouse A Mermaid 1900 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"When Waterhouse exhibited A Mermaid at the Royal Academy in 1901, the Art Journal noted her 'wistful, sad look' and remarked that, 'the chill of the sea lies ever on her heart; the endless murmur of the waters is a poor substitute for the sound of human voices; never can this beautiful creature, troubled with emotion, experience on the one hand unawakened repose, on the other the joys of womanhood."
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| Walter Sickert Santa Maria della Salute, Venice ca. 1901 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| George Frampton Portrait Bust of the Marchioness of Granby 1902 marble (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"This marble by Frampton was presented as his Diploma Work shortly after it was made – it was originally painted with gold highlights, as the Art Journal recorded: 'Mr. George Frampton, who was raised from Associateship to full membership of the Royal Academy on March 26th last, has already deposited his diploma work. This takes the form of a bust portrait of the Marchioness of Granby in marble. Mr. Frampton is a firm adherent of what may be called the polychromatic school of sculptors; he does not believe that here and now we need to dissociate colour from reliefs or examples in the round. In the 'Lady Granby' the medallions bearing a peacock design, the earrings, and the fastening of the quaint headgear under the chin, are touched with gold.' This colour is visible in the image reproduced in Royal Academy Pictures (1902), although no colour is present today and the conservation reports do not refer to any pigment remaining. Unusually, it is not clear when this colour was lost, and there is no evidence that Lambert removed the colour before presenting the work to the Royal Academy."
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| Robert Walker Macbeth The Lass that a Sailor Loves 1903 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Robert Walker Macbeth painted contemporary genre scenes of rural and fishing communities, deeply influenced by the work of British ruralists of the 1860s such as George Heming Mason, Fred Walker and G.J. Pinwell. Reviewing the Royal Academy exhibition of 1881 the critic for The Times noted: 'Mr. Macbeth is the only artist now living among us who retains the power of the late Fred Walker of giving to his peasantry the simple dignity of movement and something of the antique nobility of form which we are accustomed to connect with the thought of Greek sculpture. That he is able to do this without sacrifice of truth is no small praise."
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| Ernest Albert Waterlow The Banks of the River Loing 1903 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"This painting portrays a tranquil scene on the River Loing, a branch of the Seine that flows south of Paris near the Forest of Fontainebleau. This choice of location is highly significant, as the Loing area was the home of the 'Barbizon School' of French landscape painters. Waterlow visited Barbizon in the mid-1890s and was particularly impressed there by the work of Camille Corot."
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| Aston Webb Design for Queen Victoria Memorial, The Mall, Westminster 1903 drawing (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| John Macallan Swan Tigers Drinking ca. 1905 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Solomon Joseph Solomon St George ca. 1906 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Solomon's artistic training included periods at Heatherley's Art School, the Royal Academy Schools, the Munich Academy and Ecole des Beaux-Arts, as well as nine months in the Paris atelier of Alexandre Cabanel. The model for Solomon's St George was his younger brother Albert. The subject was a popular one, particularly after the Boer War (1899-1902) when images of chivalric gallantry were well received by the English public."
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| Ernest George Design for Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire 1907 drawing, with watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| William Lionel Wyllie The Portsmouth Fishing Fleet: The Breeze Falls Light 1907 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Frank Cadogan Cowper Vanity 1907 oil on panel (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"The detailing of the luxurious fabrics in Vanity relates to a renewed interest in the applied arts and crafts which emerged in late 19th-century British art. The serpentine design on the woman's dress may have been inspired by the portrait of Isabella d'Este attributed to Giulio Romano and hanging at Hampton Court Palace – in a similar painting, Edward Burne-Jones rendered the same pattern."
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| John J. Burnet Design for King Edward VII Galleries, British Museum ca. 1908 drawing, with watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| James Shannon Black and Silver 1909-1910 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Stanhope Alexander Forbes The Harbour Window 1910 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Alfred Parsons Orange Lilies, Broadway, Worcestershire ca. 1911 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Alfred Parsons was not only a painter but an accomplished gardener, a judge at the Chelsea Flower Show, and advisor on the laying out of the gardens at Wightwick Manor near Wolverhampton. This painting probably depicts Parson's own garden in the Worcestershire village of Broadway. Although carefully tended, it reflects the revival of the cottage garden developed by Gertrude Jekyll and Sir Edwin Lutyens at the end of the nineteenth century."
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| Robert Anning Bell The Women going to the Sepulchre 1912 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Walter Tapper Design for the Church of the Annunciation, Westminster ca. 1912 drawing, with watercolor (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| George Adolphus Storey Viola 1914 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Henry Scott Tuke A Bathing Group 1914 oil on canvas (diploma work) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
"Although Tuke often used local boys in Falmouth to pose for him, the main figure in A Bathing Group is Nicola Lucciani, a professional Italian model. At this period Tuke's style had become broader – the scene painted with great expressiveness and beautifully capturing the light reflected off the sea onto the figures. The transience of this idyll was bitterly underscored a short while later when Lucciani was killed fighting in the First World War."
– quoted texts adapted from Royal Academy notes