The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1824 was an art exhibition held at Somerset House in London. Running from 3 May to 10 July 1824 it was the fifty sixth annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy. Some critics expressed concern about they regarded as the poor quality of the works on display, and suggested this might signal a decline in British art. Ironically, this was the same year British artists enjoyed great success at the Salon of 1824 in Paris which was dubbed the "British Salon" because of the impact of the pictures.
J.M.W. Turner was noted for his absence. Thomas Lawrence, the President of the Royal Academy, submitted a series of portraits that includes his Portrait of the Duke of Devonshire and Portrait of the Duchess of Gloucester as well as The Calmady Children. A number of other noted portraitists who had emerged in the Regency era also displayed works including Martin Archer Shee, William Beechey and Margaret Sarah Carpenter. John Constable featured The Lock the latest of his "six-footers" which he had been displaying at the Academy since 1819. William Etty submitted Pandora Crowned by the Seasons, one of his characteristic nude scenes with a classical theme.
In genre painting David Wilkie displayed Smugglers as well as The Cottage Toilette, based on a scene from The Gentle Shepherd by Allan Ramsay. William Collins showed several landscapes as well as the genre painting The Cherry Seller. Edward Villiers Rippingilles The Stage Coach Breakfast, a genre scene in a coaching inn that also featured portraits of leading writers of the period. Francis Danby, like Rippingille a member of the Bristol School, submitted Sunset at Sea after a Storm which drew inspiration from Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa. It received critical praise and Thomas Lawrence bought it for twice Danby's asking price.
One of the works on display was A Modern Picture Gallery by William Frederick Witherington. It depiction of an idealised art gallery featured many paintings by major British artists of the previous decades. Its production coincided with the opening of the National Gallery the same year, which focused initially on Old Masters rather than more recent British works. The following year's Royal Academy Exhibition of 1825 saw the return of Turner as well as further portraits by Lawrence and landscapes by Constable.
<Gallery Mode="packed" Heights="200"> File:William Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, by Thomas Lawrence.jpg|Portrait of the Duke of Devonshire by Thomas Lawrence File:Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) - Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) - RCIN 403421 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of the Duchess of Gloucester by Thomas Lawrence File:Sir thomas lawrence pra portrait of richard meade 3rd earl of clanwill082227).jpg|Portrait of the Earl of Clanwilliam by Thomas Lawrence File:The Calmady Children (Emily, 1818âÂÂ?1906, and Laura Anne, 1820âÂÂ1894) MET DP162148.jpg|The Calmady Children by Thomas Lawrence File:Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) - Sir William Curtis (1752-1829) - RCIN 400514 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of Sir William Curtis by Thomas Lawrence File:Portrait of Frederick Stewart.jpeg|Portrait of Lord Castlereagh by Thomas Lawrence File:Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850) - Anthony Carlisle (1768âÂÂ1840) - RCSSC-P 44 - Hunterian Museum.jpg|Portrait of Anthony Carlisle by Martin Archer Shee File:Alexander Macdonell.jpg|Portrait of Alexander Macdonnell by Martin Archer Shee File:Portrait of Thomas Lowndes.png|Portrait of Thomas Lowndes by William Beechey File:John Constable A Boat Passing a Lock.jpg|The Lock by John Constable File:William Collins (1788-1847) - The Cherry Seller - 0010-1901 - Bury Art Museum.jpg|The Cherry Seller by William Collins File:William Etty - Pandora Crowned by the Seasons, 1824.jpg|Pandora Crowned by the Seasons by William Etty File:David Wilkie (1785-1841) - The Cottage Toilet - P352 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|The Cottage Toilette by David Wilkie File:Edward Villiers Rippingille (1798-1859) - The Stage-Coach Breakfast - 624187 - National Trust.jpg|The Stage Coach Breakfast by Edward Villiers Rippingille File:Francis Danby (1793-1861) - Sunset at Sea after a Storm - K5008 - Bristol City Museum ^ Art Gallery.jpg|Sunset at Sea after a Storm by Francis Danby File:Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859) - Sancho Panza and the Duchess (from Cervantes's 'Don Quixote of La Mancha', 1605âÂÂ1615) - 485040 - National Trust.jpg|Sancho Panza and the Duchess by Charles Robert Leslie File:Rochester (Wall Callcott).png|Rochester by Augustus Wall Callcott File:Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) - The Port of Leith - CAC1978-227 - City Art Centre.jpg|The Port of Leith by Alexander Nasmyth File:High Street and the Lawn Market, Edinburgh.png|High Street and the Lawn Market, Edinburgh by Alexander Nasmyth File:Neptune (Landseer painting).jpg|Neptune by Edwin Landseer File:Brunette (Landeer painting).png|Brunette by Edwin Landseer File:James Ward (1769-1859) - "Soothsayer" - RCIN 402008 - Royal Collection.jpg|Soothsayer by James Ward File:James Ward (1769-1859) - Sir John Leicester, Bt, Exercising His Regiment of Cheshire Yeomanry on the Sands at Liverpool - 222.1 - Tabley House.jpg|Sir John Leicester Exercising His Regiment of Cheshire Yeomanry on the Sands at Liverpool by James Ward File:Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850) - A Young Bacchus - N00367 - National Gallery.jpg|A Young Bacchus by Martin Archer Shee File:Fuseli â Britomart.jpg|Britomart Delivering Amoretta from the Enchantment of Busirane by Henry Fuseli File:The Oriental Love Letter.png|The Oriental Love Letter by Henry William Pickersgill File:Elizabeth, Viscountess Belgrave (portrait).png|Portrait of Lady Belgrave by Henry William Pickersgill File:Mrs William Wilberforce and Child.jpeg|Mrs William Wilberforce and Child by John Linnell File:George Hayter (1792-1871) - Thomas Graham (1748âÂÂ1843), 1st Baron Lynedoch of Balgowan, General - PG 2432 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|Portrait of Thomas Graham by George Hayter File:Charles William Doyle.png|Portrait of Charles William Doyle by Margaret Sarah Carpenter File:Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793-1872) - Captain Sir Christopher Cole (1770âÂÂ1836) - BHC2623 - Royal Museums Greenwich.jpg|Portrait of Christopher Cole by Margaret Sarah Carpenter File:Vice Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope.jpg|Portrait of William Johnstone Hope by James Ramsay File:Samuel Lane (1780-1859) - Robert Southey, Commoner (1792), Poet Laureate (1813) - 132 - Balliol College.jpg|Portrait of Robert Southey by Samuel Lane </gallery>