Will Charles make it into the RA again?

THE Royal Academy of Arts will mark the 250th anniversary of its famous open-to-all-comers Summer Exhibition next year with a special display featuring highlights from the show’s history.

A painting by Winston Churchill, submitted in 1947 under the name David Winter, will join the Turner and Gainsborough works on display. But what of another keen amateur dauber? ‘Prince Charles entered a watercolour anonymously which was accepted in 1987. But it might not make the final selection,’ admits Tim Marlow, the RA’s artistic director. However with thousands of works rejected each year, the exhibition will include ‘some of the selection panel’s greatest mistakes,’ he promises.