The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1818 was an art exhibition held at Somerset House in London between 4 May and 27 June 1818. It was the fiftieth annual Summer Exhibition staged by the Royal Academy of Arts and attracted nearly eighty thousand visitors. It featured submissions from most of the leading British-based painters, sculptors and architects of the Regency era.
J.M.W. Turner displayed The Field of Waterloo, a scene of the aftermath of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. As night has fallen the battlefield is covered with corpses with the farmhouse of Hougoumont still blazing in the background. He exhibited it with lines from Lord Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Another work by Turner receiving critical attention ws his seascape '. This has been interpreted as a riposte to the success of his friend and rival Augustus Wall Callcott's The Entrance to the Pool of London at the Academy Exhibition of 1816. In 1818 Callcott exhibited Mouth of the Tyne, which also received praise.
The leading portraitist of the era Thomas Lawrence featured pictures of prominent figures including the Prince Regent and the Duke of Wellington with his horse Copenhagen. This was the largest of seven portraits of the Duke painted by Lawrence. George Dawe attracted notice for his Portrait of Princess Charlotte, who had died in childbirth the previous year leaving the country without a guaranteed heir. Dawe also displayed a painting of her husband Prince Leopold.
The American-born President of the Royal Academy Benjamin West submitted one of his last major works the history painting The Treaty of Allahabad. His fellow American Washington Allston showed Hermia and Helena based on a scene from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. David Wilkie displayed the genre painting The Errand Boy and The Abbotsford Family, a group portrait of the writer Sir Walter Scott and his relations at Abbotsford.
<Gallery Mode="packed" Heights="200"> File:Sir Thomas Lawrence - King George IV as Prince Regent in Garter Robes - MV.40448 - Pinacoteca Vaticana.jpg|Portrait of the Prince Regent by Thomas Lawrence File:Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) - Lydia Elizabeth Hoare (1786âÂÂ1856), Lady Acland, with Her Two Sons, Thomas (1809âÂÂ1898), Later 11th Bt, and Arthur (1811âÂÂ1857) - 922303 - National Trust.jpg|Lady Ackland and Her Sons by Thomas Lawrence File:The Duke of Wellington on Copenhagen (1818) by Thomas Lawrence.jpg|The Duke of Wellington on Copenhagen by Thomas Lawrence File:Portrait of Frederick Stewart.jpeg|Portrait of Frederick Stewart by Thomas Lawrence File:Princess Charlotte of Wales by Dawe (1817).jpg|Portrait of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales by George Dawe File:Thomas Phillips (1770-1845) - Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey - NPG 86 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg|Portrait of Francis Leggatt Chantrey by Thomas Phillips File:Sir George Campbell.jpg|Portrait of George Campbell by William Beechey File:Earl Grosvenor (Jackson).png|Portrait of Earl Grosvenor by John Jackson File:DortorDordrecht.jpg|' by J.M.W. Turner File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington - Walters 3741.jpg|Raby Castle by J.M.W. Turner File:The Errand Boy.jpeg|The Errand Boy by David Wilkie File:The Abbotsford Family by Sir David Wilkie.jpg|The Abbotsford Family by David Wilkie File:Shah 'Alam conveying the grant of the Diwani to Lord Clive.jpg|The Treaty of Allahabad by Benjamin West File:Washington Allston - Hermia and Helena - Google Art Project.jpg|Hermia and Helena by Washington Allston </gallery>