Royal Academy Exhibition of 1868

The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1868 was the hundredth annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts. It was held between 4 May and 23 July 1868. It was the last to be held at the National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square, which had been the headquarters of the Royal Academy since its move from its previous home Somerset House in 1836.^[1] The following year the exhibition moved to Burlington House in Piccadilly

The president of the Royal Academy Francis Grant exhibited a battle scene The Duke of Cambridge at the Battle of the Alma.^[2] Other works on display included Sisters by John Everett Millais^[3] and his Greenwich Pensioners at the Tomb of Nelson. William Powell Frith showed Before Dinner at Boswell's Lodging and She Stoops to Conquer. Medea by Frederick Sandys was accepted by the committee for display but never hung, possibly due to concerns about the subject matter.^[4] The Irish artist Daniel Maclise displayed The Sleep of Duncan, inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[5] John Everett Millais chose another Shakesperean theme Rosalnd and Celia based on As You Like It. While the painting is now untracted, a preparatory sketch Rosalind in the Forest is in the Walker Art Gallery.^[6] Frederick Richard Pickersgill showed the history painting Christopher Columbus at Lisbon. The landscape painting Bowman's Moss, Balmoral Forest by Peter Graham was a royal commission.^[7]