The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1856 was the annual Summer Exhibition of the British Royal Academy of Arts, the eighty eighth to be held. It was staged at the National Gallery in London between 5 May and 26 July 1856 during the Victorian era. Taking place the year the Crimean War ended with the Treaty of Paris, a number of paintings made reference to the recent conflict. Peace Concluded by John Everett Millais features a wounded army officer reading news of the peace. Other works displayed by Millais were Autumn Leaves, L'Enfant du Regiment and The Blind Girl. His fellow Pre-Raphaelites were also prominent with William Holman Hunt displaying The Scapegoat, April Love by Arthur Hughes and The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis. The Illustrated London News commented on the absence of many established members of the academy, including the president Charles Lock Eastlake.
John Phillip submitted genre scenes of Spanish life, while fellow members of The Clique William Powell Frith and Edward Matthew Ward were also represented. The cityscape Christmas Day at St Peter's, Rome by David Roberts was widely acclaimed by critics, even John Ruskin who as usually unsympathetic to the artist's works. One of the major hits of the exhibition was the marine painter Clarkson Stanfield's The Abandoned depicting an abandoned ship adrift in the ocean. Today its whereabouts are unknown. Edwin Landseer submitted the sentimental animal genre scene Saved!. Francis Grant, a future president of the academy, displayed portraits of Lord Raglan and Lord Lucan, two of the commanders during the Crimean War. Dutch artist Ary Scheffer produced a Portrait of Charles Dickens. Charles-ÃÂdouard Boutibonne's companion portraits of the French Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie were acquired by Queen Victoria for the Royal Collection.
<Gallery Mode="packed" Heights="200"> File:Arthur Hughes - April Love - Google Art Project.jpg|April Love by Arthur Hughes File:Sir John Everett Millais - Peace Concluded - Google Art Project.jpg|Peace Concluded by John Everett Millais File:Millais leaves.jpg|Autumn Leaves by John Everett Millais File:John Everett Millais - L'Enfant du Regiment - Google Art Project.jpg|L'Enfant du Régiment by John Everett Millais File:John Everett Millais - The Blind Girl, 1854-56.jpg|The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais File:William Holman Hunt - The Scapegoat.jpg|The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt File:Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879) - Byron's Early Love, 'A Dream of Annesley Hall' - 1917.273 - Manchester Art Gallery.jpg|Byron's Early Love by Edward Matthew Ward File:Charles Dickens by Ary Scheffer 1855.jpg|Portrait of Charles Dickens by Ary Scheffer File:Rosalind and Celia (O'Neil).png|Rosalind and Celia by Henry Nelson O'Neil File:Doubtful Fortune by Abraham Solomon.jpg|Doubtful Fortune by Abraham Solomon File:John Phillip (1817-1867) - Water-Carrier of Seville - NCM 1904-65 - Nottingham Museums.jpg|The Water-Carrier of Seville by John Phillip File:Agua Fresca (Phillip).png|Agua Fresca by John Phillip File:Venice, Approach to the Grand Canal).webp|Venice, Approach to the Grand Canal by David Roberts File:Veduta di San Pietro, by David Roberts, 1853 ("Looking Back on Rome", Saint-St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy).png|Looking Back on Rome by David Roberts File:David Roberts - The Giudecca, Venice - Google Art Project.jpg|The Giudecca, Venice by David Roberts File:Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859) - Hermione - WAG 918 - Walker Art Gallery.jpg|Hermione by Charles Robert Leslie File:Frith a o A dream of the future 1865.jpg|A Dream of the Future by William Powell Frith File:Many Happy Returns of the Day by William Powell Frith.jpg|Many Happy Returns of the Day by William Powell Frith File:Garden Flowers (Frith).png|Garden Flowers by William Powell Frith File:Landseer Saved.jpg|Saved! by Edwin Landseer File:George Bernard O'Neill (1828-1917) - Market Day - WAG 282 - Sudley House.jpg|Market Day by George Bernard O'Neill File:Gale Captured Runaway.png|The Captured Runaway by William Gale File:William Edward Frost - The Three Graces - Google Art Project.jpg|The Three Graces by William Edward Frost File:Michael Frederick Halliday - The Measure for the Wedding Ring.jpg|The Measure for the Wedding Ring by Michael Frederick Halliday File:The Abandoned (engraving).png|The Abandoned by Clarkson Stanfield, an engraving based on the painting File:Edward William Cooke San giorgio maggior, venice.jpg|San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice by Edward William Cooke File:George Edwards Hering (1805-1879) - Arona and the Castle of Angera, Lago Maggiore - 1828-1888 - Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg|Arona and the Castle of Angera, Lago Maggiore by George Edwards Hering File:Thomas Danby (1818-1886) - The Lake of Lucerne - WAG 1709 - Walker Art Gallery.jpg|The Lake of Lucerne by Thomas Danby File:Alfred Elmore (1815-1881) - The Emperor Charles V at Yuste - 211 - Touchstones Rochdale.jpg|The Emperor Charles V at Yuste by Alfred Elmore File:Thomas Faed - Home and the Homeless - NG 2549 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|Home and the Homeless by Thomas Faed File:Home Thoughts.png|Home Thoughts by Emily Mary Osborn File:William Shakespeare Burton (1824-1916) - The Wounded Cavalier - 927 - Guildhall Art Gallery.jpg|The Wounded Cavalier by William Shakespeare Burton File:Robert Hannah -Master Isaac Newton in His Garden at Woolsthorpe, in the Autumn of 1665.jpg|Isaac Newton in His Garden at Woolsthorpe by Robert Hannah File:Frederick Goodall (1822-1904) - Cranmer at Traitor's Gate - 534-1882 - Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg|Cranmer at Traitor's Gate by Frederick Goodall File:Assassination of Alboin.jpg|Assassination of Alboin, King of the Lombards by Charles Landseer File:James Clarke Hook (1819-1907) - Welcome, Bonny Boat^ The Fisherman's Return (Scene at Clovelly, North Devon) - PRSMG , P298 - Harris Museum.jpg|Welcome, Bonny Boat by James Clarke Hook File:The Bride by Abraham Solomon.jpg|The Bride by Abraham Solomon File:Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) - Colour Sketch for 'The Triumph of Music' - LH1823 - Leighton House.jpg|Sketch for The Triumph of Music by Frederic Leighton File:Uncle Tom (c. 1856) by Thomas Uwins.jpg|Uncle Tom by Thomas Uwins File:Robert Braithwaite Martineau (1826-1869) - Picciola - N03626 - National Gallery.jpg|Picciola by Robert Braithwaite Martineau File:John Watson Gordon (1788-1864) - Major General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley (1824âÂÂ1893), KCB, KCMG, RA, Commandant, Staff College (1870âÂÂ1877) - 20553 - Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.jpg|Edward Bruce Hamley by John Watson Gordon File:John Watson Gordon (1788-1864) - David Cox (1783âÂÂ1859) - 1978P185 - Birmingham Museums Trust.jpg|David Cox by John Watson Gordon File:Lady Clementina Child-Villiers.jpg|Lady Clementina Villiers by Franz Xaver Winterhalter File:Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere by Edwin Longsden Long.jpg|Earl of Ellesmere by Edwin Long File:George-Charles-Bingham,-3rd-Earl-of-Lucan-by-Sir-Francis-Grant-(color).jpg|Lord Lucan by Francis Grant File:Francis Grant (1803-1878) - The Right Honourable Edward Ellice (1781âÂÂ1863), MP - VA.1955.0002 - Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.jpg|Edward Ellice by Francis Grant File:John Graham-Gilbert (1794-1866) - Sir John Watson Gordon (1788âÂÂ1864), Artist - PG 715 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|John Watson Gordon by John Graham-Gilbert File:Henry Wyndham Phillips (1820-1868) - Colin Campbell (1792âÂÂ1863), Lord Clyde - 488 - Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.jpg|Colin Campbell by Henry Wyndham Phillips File:Daniel Macnee (1806-1882) - David Crawford (1790âÂÂ1861), Deputy Lieutenant of Renfrewshire and Baron Baillie of Greenock - 1977.982 - McLean Museum and Art Gallery.jpg|David Crawford by Daniel Macnee File:Léopold Ier de Belgique.JPG|Leopold I of Belgium by Eugène Verboeckhoven File:Sir David Salomons (1797âÂÂ1873), Lord Mayor of London (1855).jpg|David Salomons by Solomon Hart File:Sir Richard Collinson by Stephen Pearce (2).jpg|Richard Collinson by Stephen Pearce File:Sir Henry Kellett by Stephen Pearce.jpg|Henry Kellett by Stephen Pearce File:Robert McCormick by Stephen Pearce.jpg|Robert McCormick by Stephen Pearce File:Edouard Boutibonne (1816-97) - Napoléon III (1808-73), Emperor of the French - RCIN 406011 - Royal Collection.jpg|Napoleon III by Charles-ÃÂdouard Boutibonne File:L'impératrice Eugénie àcheval - 1856 - Charles ÃÂdouard Boutibonne.jpg|Empress Eugenie by Charles-ÃÂdouard Boutibonne </gallery>