The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1836 was the annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts running from 2 May to 16 July 1836. It featured more than a thousand submissions from leading artists and architects.
It was the notable as the last exhibition to be held at Somerset House in London, home to the Royal Academy since 1780, before it moved to new premises at the recently constructed National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. In recognition of this John Constable submitted a landscape painting Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds paying tribute to the first President of the Royal Academy Joshua Reynolds and the art collector Sir George Beaumont, both of whom were associated with the Somerset House era. It was also to be Constable's final appearance at the academy as he died before the opening of the following year's Exhibition of 1837.
Constable's rival J.M.W. Turner exhibited three oil paintings but came under a fierce attack from critic of the Edinburgh-based Blackwood's Magazine, particularly his Juliet and her Nurse. The attack led Turner's admirer John Ruskin to launch a defence leading to his influential five-volume Modern Painters.
In portraiture the current President of the academy Martin Archer Shee displayed two paintings commissioned to hang in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle, commemorating the victory in the Napoleonic Wars two decades earlier. Although The Times was critical of the general quality of portraits displayed that year Margaret Sarah Carpenter's Portrait of Ada Lovelace was particularly praised.
The Scottish artist David Wilkie submitted the history paintings Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau, and The Duke of Wellington Writing Dispatches both featuring scenes from the Napoleonic Wars. He also displayed the genre work The Peep-o'-Day Boys' Cabin inspired by a recent visit to Ireland. George Jones submitted Godiva's Return, a sequel to his 1833 painting Godiva Preparing to Ride through Coventry.
<Gallery Mode="packed" Heights="200"> File:John Constable - Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds - Google Art Project.jpg|Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds by John Constable File:Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850) - Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815) - RCIN 405141 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of Thomas Picton by Martin Archer Shee File:Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850) - Henry Paget (1768-1854), 2nd Earl of Uxbridge and 1st Marquess of Anglesey - RCIN 401453 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of the Marquess of Anglesey by Martin Archer Shee File:Robert McInnes (active 1841-66) - Sir James Kempt (1764-1854) - RCIN 405145 - Royal Collection.jpg|Portrait of James Kempt by Robert McInnes File:Ada Lovelace.jpg|Portrait of Ada Lovelace by Margaret Sarah Carpenter File:The Duke of Wellington Writing Dispatches.jpeg|The Duke of Wellington Writing Dispatches by David Wilkie File:David Wilkie (1785-1841) - The Peep-o'-Day Boys' Cabin, in the West of Ireland - N00332 - National Gallery.jpg|The Peep-o'-Day Boys' Cabin by David Wilkie File:David Wilkie (1785-1841) - The First Ear-Ring - N00328 - National Gallery.jpg|The First Earring by David Wilkie File:Juliet and Her Nurse (Turner).png|Juliet and Her Nurse by J.M.W. Turner File:Rome, From Mount Aventine.jpg|Rome, From Mount Aventine by J.M.W. Turner File:Turner - Mercury and Argus, before 1836.jpg|Mercury and Argus by J.M.W. Turner File:The Battle of Trafalgar by William Clarkson Stanfield.jpg|The Battle of Trafalgar by Clarkson Stanfield File:Etty â A Family of the Forest.jpg|A Family of the Forest by William Etty File:William Etty (1787-1849) - Venus and Her Doves - 1920.528 - Manchester Art Gallery.jpg|Venus and Her Doves by William Etty File:Dick Whittington and His Cat (painting).png|Dick Whittington and his Cat by William Allan File:Scene in Chillingham Park.png|Scene in Chillingham Park by Edwin Landseer File:Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-73) - Pen, Brush and Chisel, The Studio of Sir Francis Chantrey - RCIN 403222 - Royal Collection.jpg|Pen, Brush and Chisel, The Studio of Sir Francis Chantrey by Edwin Landseer File:James Ward - Portrait of Reformer, Blucher, Tory and Crib, the Property of Rowland Alston, Esq., M.P. - Google Art Project.jpg|Reformer, Blucher, Tory and Crib by James Ward File:Bayonne (David Roberts).png| Interior of the Cathedral of Bayonne by David Roberts File:William Collins Sunday Morning.jpg|Sunday Morning by William Collins File:Happy as a King.png|Happy as a King by William Collins File:The Trent on the Tyrol.png|The Trent in the Tyrol by Augustus Wall Callcott File:Edward William Cooke (1811-1880) - Mending the Bait-Nets, Shanklin - FA.40(O) - Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg|Mending the Bait-Nets, Shanklin by Edward William Cooke File:William Mulready (1786-1863) - Giving a Bite - FA.140(O) - Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg|Giving a Bite by William Mulready File:Petruchio and the Taylor (Sharp, 1835).jpg|The Taming of the Shrew by Michael William Sharp File:Thomas Uwins (1782-1857) - The House of Mourning - 03-1369 - Royal Academy of Arts.jpg|The House of Mourning by Thomas Uwins File:Field of Waterloo (Drummond).png|Field of Waterloo by Samuel Drummond File:Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859) - Autolycus - FA.115(O) - Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg|Autolycus by Charles Robert Leslie File:An Interview between Charles I and Oliver Cromwell .PNG|An Interview Between Charles I and Oliver Cromwell by Daniel Maclise File:Charles Landseer (1799-1879) - The Plundering of Basing House - N00612 - Tate.jpg|The Plundering of Basing House by Charles Landseer File:Thomas Duncan (1807-1845) - Anne Page Inviting Slender to Dinner - NG 448 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|Anne Page Inviting Slender to Dinner by Thomas Duncan File:John Constable - Stonehenge - Google Art Project.jpg|Stonehenge by John Constable File:William Frederick Witherington (1785-1865) - Fête in Petworth Park, 1835 - 486139 - National Trust.jpg|Fête in Petworth Park by William Frederick Witherington File:Samuel Drummond (1765-1844) - Sir Marc Isambard Brunel - NPG 89 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg|Portrait of Marc Isambard Brunel by Samuel Drummond File:Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875) - Benjamin Parsons Symons (1785âÂÂ1878), Scholar (1803), Fellow (1812), Warden (1831âÂÂ1871) - 59 - Wadham College.jpg|Portrait of Benjamin Parsons Symons by Henry William Pickersgill File:Andrew Morton (1802-1845) - Lord Brougham (1778âÂÂ1868) - LP.17 - Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne.jpg|Portrait of Lord Brougham by Andrew Morton File:Francis Leggatt Chantrey by Martin Archer Shee.jpg|Portrait of Francis Leggatt Chantrey by Martin Archer Shee File:Samuel Lane (1780-1859) - Lord George Cavendish Bentinck - NPG 1515 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg|Portrait of Lord George Bentinck by Samuel Lane. A different version was displayed at the 1834 exhibition File:Thomas Phillips (1770-1845) - John Dalton - NPG 5963 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg|Portrait of John Dalton by Thomas Phillips File:John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst by Thomas Phillips.jpg|Portrait of Lord Lyndhurst by Thomas Phillips File:John Simpson (1782âÂÂ1847) - The Duke of Wellington (1769âÂÂ1852) - 9 - Royal Hospital Chelsea.jpg|Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by John Simpson </gallery>