The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1803 was an art exhibition held at Somerset House in London between 2 May and 11 June 1803. It was the thirty fifth annual Summer Exhibition staged by the Royal Academy of Arts. It was notable for the submissions by the London-born painter J.M.W. Turner who had recently been elected as a full member of the Academy at the age of twenty seven.
The Treaty of Amiens, signed the previous March, brought an end to the French Revolutionary Wars. During the peace a number of British artists had travelled to Continental Europe including France. The President of the Royal Academy Benjamin West had visited Paris and exhibited a work at the Salon of 1802 at the Louvre. By the time the 1803 exhibition in London was being held, the uneasy peace between Britain and France ended and the decade-long Napoleonic Wars began. A number of artists submitted works reflecting their trips to the continent, including Turner whose seascape Calais Pier reflected his first landing in France during a storm.
Thomas Lawrence exhibited portraits of leading political and high society figures including William Windham and Emily Lamb, the sister and wife of future Prime Ministers. Lawrence's Portrait of Lord Thurlow, featuring the former Lord Chancellor Lord Thurlow, attracted particular praise from critics and George III.
The Academy was the scene of growing tension between the two American painters Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley. Both artists gained bad publicity from the exhibition. Copley's large group portrait The Knatchbull Family received a poor critical reception and he withdrew it at the demand of Sir Edward Knatchbull who had commissioned it while West was accused of violating the Academy rules by submitting the history painting Hagar and Ishmael which he had previously exhibited, and ended up withdrawing it from show.
<Gallery Mode="packed" Heights="200"> File:Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) - Edward, First Lord Thurlow (1731-1806) - RCIN 400712 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of Lord Thurlow by Thomas Lawrence File:Sir Thomas Lawrence Portrait of Emily Mary Lamb, 1803. National Gallery London.jpg|Portrait of Emily Lamb by Thomas Lawrence File:Bonneville, Savoy by Joseph Mallord William Turner.jpg|Bonneville, Savoy by J.M.W. Turner File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Chateau de St. Michael, Bonneville, Savoy - Google Art Project.jpg|Chateau de St. Michael, Bonneville, Savoy by J.M.W. Turner, 1803 File:Turner - The Festival of the Opening of the Vintage at Mâcon, France, c.1803, VIS.3129.jpg|The Festival of the Opening of the Vintage at Mâcon by J.M.W. Turner File:St Huges Denouncing Vengeance on the Shepherd of Cormayer in the Valley of d'Aoust.jpeg|St Huges Denouncing Vengeance on the Shepherd of Cormayer in the Valley of d'Aoust by J.M.W. Turner File:Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) - Holy Family - N00473 - National Gallery.jpg|The Holy Family by J.M.W. Turner File:Prospero and Miranda, 1803.png|Prospero and Miranda by Henry Thomson File:William Owen (1769-1825) - Mrs Robinson - 486132 - National Trust.jpg|Portrait of Mary Robinson by Willian Owen File:Portrait of Samuel Brooking.png|Portrait of Captain Samuel Brooking by James Northcote File:WilliamGodwin.jpg|Portrait of William Godwin by James Northcote File:PORTRAIT OF CHARLES MARSHAM, 1ST EARL OF ROMNEY (1744-1811), FULL-LENGTH ).jpg|Portrait of the Earl of Romney by William Beechey File:William Beechey (1753-1839) - Sir William Staines, Lord Mayor of London (1800) - 109 - Guildhall Art Gallery.jpg|Portrait of William Staines by William Beechey File:Mrs Symonds and Her Children.png|Mrs. Symonds and Her Children by William Beechey File:Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester - Beechey 1803-5.jpg|Princess Sophia of Gloucester by William Beechey File:Davy Humphry desk color Howard.jpg|Portrait of Humphry Davy by Henry Howard File:John Henry Johnstone portrait.png|Portrait of John Henry Johnstone by Martin Archer Shee File:Maria Ann Campion Pope by Sir Martin Archer Shee.jpg|Portrait of Maria Ann Pope by Martin Archer Shee File:Peter Edward Stroehling (1768-c. 1826) - Louisa, Queen of Prussia (1776-1810) - RCIN 404867 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of Louise, Queen of Prussia by Peter Edward Stroehling File:William Redmore Bigg (1755-1828) - A Shooting Party of Captain William Lukin (1768âÂÂ1833), and His Brothers at Felbrigg Parsonage - 1401222 - National Trust.jpg|A Shooting Party by William Redmore Bigg File:Portrait of a Newfoundland Dog.jpg|Portrait of a Newfoundland Dog by George Stubbs File:Hagar and Ishmael MET ap95.22.8.jpg|Hagar and Ishmael by Benjamin West File:Portrait of the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Knatchbull, later 9th Bt. (1781-1849), with his brother Norton Joseph Knatchbull (d. 1801) (by John Singleton Copley).jpg|A surviving fragment of The Knatchbull Family by John Singleton Copley </gallery>