History of the collection Ellen Sharples, benefactor of the Academy, bequeathed her large collection of paintings to the Academy in 1849. These paintings, together with many paintings given to the Academy by its artist members during the latter part of the nineteenth century, formed the beginnings of the RWA Permanent Collection. In the 1920s a number of these paintings were loaned to the City Art Gallery and in 1930 they were sold to the City. In 1941 Augusta Talboys, an artist member, left a sum of money to the Academy so that the interest may be used to purchase works of art by artist members. These works of art now exceed 1000 and form the substantial part of our growing collection. Latest additions to the Permanent Collection are Diploma Works donated by every new member and a gift of 12 works from the Arnolfini Trust. Over the years, a number of paintings, sculptures and other works have been donated or bequeathed to the Academy by generous members and supporters. This is the first time that the Royal West of England Academy has made some of the works from its collection accessible online. Further works from the collection are on display in the RWA galleries periodically throughout the year. Please contact the gallery for more information.

Using the Online Archive The online archive exemplifies 200 of our most important works from the multitude of gems that are held within the collection as a whole. Five main groups introduce the selection contained within this archive. You can search for works via: name  :   by artist object :   by medium date    :   by overall list or decade title     :   by artwork title gallery view : a clickable selection of thumbnail images of those entries currently available online. Many of the artworks on view also have an accompanying statement which reveals personal and insightful details about both the processes and contexts surrounding these individual works, many of which were written by the artists themselves. The research for this project was sponsored by the Faculty of Creative Arts at UWE Bristol; its principal authors and designers were Lucy Cox and Ivan Eastwood. enter the archive