An intellectual elite

There is no doubt that the Academy constituted an intellectual elite. In many ways it was also a social elite but this is a different issue and it is best to deal with each aspect in turn. That members constituted an intellectual elite can be demonstrated in several different ways. We could for example, examine a number of case histories of the careers of Academicians. Of course, the First Class of 1795–6 consisted of a substantial core of men who had been members of the previous Royal Academy. They had come up through the old system of promotion from assistant to associate and finally to pensioner. Most had learned a great deal of their craft, so to speak, by ‘apprenticeship’ as junior members of the Royal Academy.