Rye Gallery hosts Royal Society exhibition

Saturday saw the curtain go up on an exhibition by The Royal Society of British Artists.

The RBA was founded in 1823 by a group of artists meeting in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. At the time artists had celebrity status, pursued by royalty and the aristocracy and their work collected by the giant industrialists of the day.

Under the leadership of James McNeill Whistler that the Society won the right to the prefix ‘Royal’.

Members included great artists such as Monet, Alfred Stevens, Walter Sickert, L.S. Lowry, Henry Moore, Peter Greenham, Sir Roger de Grey, Carel Weight and Colin Hayes.

The Rye exhibition features works by over 40 members of the RBA including paintings, prints and sculptures. It runs daily until November 10 at the gallery in the High Street.