Autumn exhibition of modern pictures: the eighth (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), 1878
End Date: 1878
Type: Annual exhibition
Description: 1,062 works exhibited.
£7,340 7s. 0d. receipts from sales.
89,110 visitors (based on paid admissions).
Policy: The exhibition was started in 1871 because 'The Library, Museum and Education Committee consider[ed] it desirable in the interests of Art [...]' (Liverpool autumn exhibition of modern pictures, 1871, p. 2). Its success was immediate. The receipts not only defrayed all costs but also '[...] supplied a handsome surplus to be devoted to the purposes of Art' (19th Annual Report, 1871, p. 5). As a result the autumn exhibition became an annual event.
The instructions issued to exhibitors were as follows:
'All works of Art intended for Exhibition (which must not have been previously exhibited in Liverpool) must be sent addressed to the Curator, Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street, Liverpool[...] Arrangements have been made to meet the convenience of Metropolitan Artists for the transmission of their Works, at their own cost and risk, through Mr. James Bourlet, 17 Nassau Street, Middlesex Hospital, London.
A note [...] must be sent by post, and addressed to the Curator at Liverpool, giving the prices [...] and describing the works ads they are meant to be inserted in the Catalogue (quotations and narratives will be subject to the approval of the Acting Committee). At the back of each [work] must be written in full the name and Address of the Artist, the Title of the Picture and Number (if there are more than one)[...] The strict attention of Artists to these regulations is earnestly requested, so as to ensure accuracy in the catalogue. The absence of the Price List frequently interferes with the sale of [works of art].
[...] A Commission of Five per Cent (upon the catalogue prices) will be charged upon all works sold whilst in the possession of the Committee, whether by the Artist or the Committee.
The Committee are not responsible for, nor do they encourage any offers for Works not made through the Local Secretary; and they will be happy to receive any intimations from contributing Artists that none but Catalogue Prices would be acceptable.
All Works contributed by Members or Associates of the Royal Academy that may be sold at this Exhibition, are purchased subject to the condition that the Artist be allowed to exhibit such Work at the ensuing Exhibition of the Academy, the purchase money to be paid at the close of the Local Exhibition.
The utmost care will be taken of all Works of Art sent for the Exhibition; but the Committee will not be responsible for any damage or injury, whether in transit or whilst under their control, caused by fire or otherwise' (Instructions from 'Liverpool autumn exhibition of modern pictures', 1871, pp. 3-4).
Organizing Institution or Venue
Exhibitors included Allan and Sons
1878
Tam o'Shanter (cat. no. 1054, £31 10s.).
Organized by Walker Art Gallery
1878
Participants
Exhibitors included George Stone Thorpe
1878
Head of Christ (cat. no. 1030, £157 10s.).
Exhibitors included Randolph Caldecott
1878
A Boar Hunt (cat. no. 1031, low relief in metal, £12 12s.).
Exhibitors included John Lawlor
1878
'"Nobody ax'd you, sir," she said' (cat. no. 1032, £40); Blind girl of Castel Cuille - from Longfellow's translation (cat. no. 1057, £40).
Exhibitors included Mario Raggi
1878
Compulsory education (cat. no. 1033, £157 10s.).
Exhibitors included Giovanni Fontana
1878
A Medallion Portrait in marble of Eliza Meteyard, Authoress of Life of Wedgwood, &c. (cat. no. 1034, not for sale); A Medallion Portrait in marble of Thomas Spencer, FCS, FRMS, &c., discoverer of Electro-Metal-lurgy (Electrotype) at Liverpool in 1837 (cat. no. 1035, not for sale); Maria, SS (cat. no. 1037, £22 1s); Romeo (cat. no. 1039, high relief in marble, £150); La Concezione (cat. no. 1040, £22 1s.; Il Salvatore (cat. no. 1041, £22 1s.).
Exhibitors included John Warrington Wood
1878
Holbrook Gaskell, Esq. (cat. no. 1036, not for sale).
Exhibitors included George Frederick Halse
1878
Far away! (cat. no. 1038, marble, £47 5s.; Playmates and Messmates (cat. no. 1056, marble, £57 15s.).
Exhibitors included Edward Onslow Ford
1878
Rev. Newman Hall, LLD (cat. no. 1042, not for sale); Hubert Herkomer (cat. no. 1043, not for sale).
Exhibitors included Frederick Thomas Callcott
1878
Bashfulness (cat. no. 1044, terracotta, £21); Sisters (cat. no. 1048, £31 10s.).
Exhibitors included John Alexander Paterson MacBride
1878
Major Greig, CB (cat. no. 1049, not for sale); Model bust of a child (cat. no. 1053, not for sale).
Exhibitors included Edwin Roscoe Mullins
1878
Wounded paw (cat. no. 1055, £157 10s.).
Exhibitors included Francis John Williamson
1878
Sunrise (cat. no. 1052, high-relief in marble, £73 10s.).
Exhibitors included Albert Bruce Joy
1878
The First Flight (cat. no. 1060, bronze, not for sale).
Exhibitors included William Henry Tyler
1878
Hercules throwing Lichas into the Sea (cat. no. 1062, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, book ix, not for sale).
Exhibitors included C. E. Lucigna
1878
Spring (cat. no. 1061, plaster figure, on landing, not for sale).
Sources
Liverpool autumn exhibition of modern pictures, 1871 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1871
Liverpool autumn exhibition of modern pictures, 1878 Walker Art Gallery
1878
pp. 59-60
Citing this record
'Autumn exhibition of modern pictures: the eighth (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), 1878', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/event.php?id=msib4_1278412080, accessed 25 Mar 2023]
