FINAL Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023 by Unknown
24 Jan 2024
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters seeks submissions of new and traditional artistic models and perspectives in portraiture from international artists.
This is about:the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and why it's a good idea to enter- who can enter
- what you can enter
- how to enter
- the timeline of important dates
[ PROFUSE APOLOGIES: I thought this post was published but somehow or other it got stuck in "draft" mode - and the deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 26h January 2024 ]
About the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters invites artists from all over the world to submit portraits for its Annual Exhibition in 2024......The total prize fund is £40,000, including The William Lock Portrait Prize (£20,000) and The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (£10,000).
The Society welcomes paintings, drawings and original prints including digital/ipad prints from artists over 18, from the UK and internationally.
"The Society’s Annual Exhibition is probably the largest and most significant celebration of contemporary portrait painting in Europe. The show is always selected by a jury of practising portrait painters, no critics, no journalists, no celebrities – just painters."
Reasons why you should enter the RP's annual exhibition
For those wondering whether and why they should submit an entry to this exhibition, take a look at the following.Entry is digital
You only need to go to the expense of framing and transport IF invited to progress to the second stage of selection. So entries which do not succeed only incur the expense of the submission fee.
The Importance of Exhibitions to Portrait Commissions
- This exhibition generates a LOT of portrait commissions. This exhibition is very much a marketing shop window.
- An expert Commissions Consultant service runs throughout the show
- Exhibiting artists are invited to
- display additional material
- advertise portrait commissions through our Commissions department on which a commission will be payable.
The Commission Area in 2023 |
Some significant prizes
This is an exhibition with some heavyweight and prestigious cash prizes. It has the most valuable individual prizes awarded by any national art society in the UK.
In total, the cash on offer is worth a total of £36,000. These include awards for younger artists and portrait drawing.
- The William Lock Portrait Prize: £20,000 for the most timeless portrait with a real feeling for paint and its aesthetic potential
- The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture: £10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition
- The de Laszlo Foundation Award: £3,000 plus a Silver Medal for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under
- The Raw Umber Studios Prize value: £2,000 for the most exciting contemporary portraiture lies at the intersection of technical excellence and
- The Smallwood Architects Prize for Contextual Portraiture: £1,000 for a portrait in which architectural or interior features play an important part.
A prestigious portraiture exhibition - in central London and online
- It fills all three galleries at the Mall Galleries on The Mall in London
- last year it attracted 4,400 entries to the exhibition - including very many entries from international artists
Why it compares favourably to the BP Portrait and other portrait competitions
- ALL works selected for exhibition from the Open Entry are chosen by practising professional portrait artists who are full artist members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. The Selection Committee is rotated annually. There are no administrators, sponsors, gallerists, art critics or other such éminence grise who get a say on what gets hung.
- Your chances of getting exhibited: Exhibition Metrics: I haven't crunched the numbers since 2019 but back then the data analysis I did was as follows
- about half the portraits exhibited were by non-members
- about 5% of the works submitted via the open entry are selected for the open exhibition. (This is a not untypical percentage for a top exhibition and is better than the acceptance rate for BP Portrait over several years when that was running)
- a SIGNIFICANT number of artists from overseas submit their work - with an increasing number from Asia
- your work needs to be VERY GOOD to get selected. I'd go so far as to say it needs to be better than some of the artwork submitted by members!
CALL FOR ENTRIES
In summary:
- All entries are via digital submission
- The deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 26h January 2024
- The non-refundable entry fee is
- £20 per work payable at the time of submitting
- £15per work for artists aged 35 or under
Sample Image Gallery
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SPRING SUMMER LOOKBOOK
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