Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2026

This is about the call for entries for the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and why it's a good idea to enter if you an aspiring portrait artist.  It covers:
  • reasons to enter
  • who can enter
  • what you can enter
  • how to enter
  • the timeline of important dates
Submissions are open until Tuesday 3 February 2026

You can also review my past blog posts about the RP Annual Exhibition over the last 19 years at the end.

Reasons why you should enter the RP's annual exhibition



The "Portrait Artist of the Year" competition may attract a lot of entries from would-be portrait artists in the UK - and be on television - but only one artist gets to win. 

The annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, on the other hand, welcomes new and emerging talent and ample space to give a boost to more than one artist.
The RP exhibition is an annual opportunity for artists who paint people to see their paintings hung alongside the work of their peers. As always, emerging and established talent is displayed together.

This "call for entries" gives all aspiring portrait painters:

  • an opportunity to be hung in the same exhibition as some of the leading portrait painters in the UK
  • a potential first step up on the ladder to becoming a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 
  • access to an extremely well used commission service for portraits
  • access to a much longer term payoff than an outing on television and not winning the top prize
For all those wondering whether and why they should submit an entry to this exhibition, take a look at the following.

Expert assessment of your portrait

  • ALL drawings and paintings selected for exhibition from the Open Entry are chosen by practising professional portrait artists who are full artist members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and who use a variety of media. (click the link to check out their work)
    • The Selection Committee is rotated annually. 
    • There are no administrators, sponsors, gallerists, art critics, television personalities or other such éminence grise who get a say on what gets hung.
  • Judges are are looking for solid skills in portraiture - but they are not averse to new styles and innovation demonstrated by emerging talent.

A prestigious portraiture exhibition - in central London and online

This is a very prestigious exhibition within the international portrait world
  • It fills all three galleries at the Mall Galleries on The Mall in London
  • It attracts over 4,000 entries to the exhibition - including very many entries from international artists
  • The exhibition is also put online so it can be seen all over the world.

An expert commissions service

  • This exhibition generates a LOT of portrait commissions. This exhibition is much less about sales and much more about being a marketing shop window (e.g. 87 (40%) of the portraits exhibited last year were not for sale as they had been done as commissions and already had owners)
  • An expert Commissions Consultant service runs throughout the show. Exhibiting artists are invited to
    • display additional material
    • advertise portrait commissions through the Commissions department - on which a commission will be payable.
The Commission Room at the 2024 Exhibition

Entry is digital

  • Hence you only need to go to the expense of framing and transport IF invited to progress to the second stage of selection. So entries which do not succeed only incur the expense of the submission fee.

Some significant prizes

This is an exhibition with some heavyweight and prestigious cash prizes. 
  • The total prize fund is £35,000, including The William Lock Portrait Prize (£20,000).
  • It has the most valuable individual prizes awarded by any national art society in the UK. 
  • These include awards for younger artists and portrait drawing.

Your chances of getting selected


First and very important point: your work needs to be VERY GOOD to get selected. I'd go so far as to say it needs to be better than some of the artwork submitted by members!

Assuming your artwork is of exhibition standard, your chances of getting exhibited: 
  • last year 217 artworks were hung - by both RP members and open artists
  • of these 115 drawings or paintings were by open artists 
    • i.e. 53% of the artwork in the exhibition were by artists who were NOT RP members
    • some had been invited by RP members to exhibit
    • some were open artists 
  • some of the open artists had two or three artworks selected for the exhibition.
  • a number of open or guest artists are well known in the portraiture field including individuals who have portraits hanging in the National Portrait Gallery
  • You can check out the names of those selected in last year's e-catalogue - where you can also check out pricing
  • HOWEVER:
    • c.100 exhibited out of 4K submissions means that the acceptance rate is about 2.5%. 
    • This is very similar to the acceptance rate for those applying to The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

Cover of RSPP Annual Exhibition Catalogue

Call for Entries


This is an OPEN EXHIBITION. Artists are invited to submit works for exhibition alongside members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at their Annual Exhibition 2026.

In summary:
  • All entries are via digital submission
  • The deadline for entries is 12 noon on 3rd February 2026
  • The non-refundable entry fee is 
    • £22 per work payable at the time of submitting
    • £14.50 per work for artists aged 35 or under
Details of how artists can apply via the open entry process are set out below. You can also
This is my blog post about the Annual Exhibition in 2025 - Royal Society of Portrait Artists Annual Exhibition 2025. You can also see images of the 2025 exhibition on my Facebook Page in the following albums
Part of the Drawing Wall

Membership

The RP has a maximum of 60 members, so inevitably the bar for membership is very high. The society is looking to find excellence of execution, individuality of vision, and commitment and professionalism in its applicant artists.
Any artist is eligible to apply to become a candidate for membership of the Society, provided 
  • their work is selected into the annual exhibition and 
  • they have registered their intent to apply. 
To find out about the application process and the roles and responsibilities of membership, please read more here.

Who can Submit?

  • Any artist - over the age of 18 - living anywhere in the world can submit artwork to this exhibition and be exhibited alongside members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
  • This exhibition has become increasingly international over the years.

What you can submit

  • Artwork: 
Works should be based on a sitting or study of the human figure from life. We understand that artists may use photographs for assistance but the primary source should be from life.
  • Media and presentation: any medium including original and digital prints (BUT excluding sculpture and photography).
  • Size: MUST NOT be larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.Number: a maximum of four works - of which a maximum of three will be selected (TIP Save your cash and submit your best three works - but get some input from knowledgeable others as to which are the best three!)
  • Age: MUST have been completed in the last three years
  • Dry: Paintings MUST be COMPLETELY DRY at the time of delivery.
  • Previous Exhibitions: Work must NOT have been exhibited in London previously.
  • For Sale: You can enter work "not for sale" - use NFS to indicate this
Small works on the Messanine Wall in 2025

Additional and Important Matters

  • Framing: Use plain, simple framing. No projections whatsoever on the back of the works. Frames or stretchers should be sufficiently substantial to withstand mirror plating with 12mm size 6 screws. (If works arrive damaged, with unacceptable framing, size discrepancies from the original submission, or not as shown online, these will be withdrawn and will need to be collected from Mall Galleries by the artist at their expense.)
  • Price & VAT: The minimum price is £300 (Use £0 on form for NFS Works).
    • The price of works MUST include commission of (45% + Standard Rate VAT@20%) irrespective of whether the artist is registered for VAT i.e. the VAT relates to a sale via commercial gallery VAT registration)e.g. for a painting priced at £1000 the deduction by the gallery equals commission of £450 and VAT on commission on £90 = TOTAL deduction of £540
    • meaning the artist is paid £460
    • from which the artist must then deduct the costs of the materials, frame, the courier / transport to the exhibition, materials and a contribution to studio overheads)
  • Artists from outside the UK need to register for VAT if exhibiting work for sale. 
    • Please check with HM Revenue and Customs: https://www.gov.uk .
    • VAT on art imported into the UK for sale is 5%.
  • Packaging from delivered works cannot be retained and must be taken away at the point of delivery. To see delivery & shipping options, please click here.
The end wall of the West Gallery


How to Submit

  • The submission fee (which includes free admission to the exhibition - normally £5) is
    • £22 per work for standard entries and
    • £14.50 per work for artists aged 35 or under.
The entry process works as follows (further details re. international artists are also below)

International Entries

  • All international submissions will be selected ONLINE ONLY, therefore selected international artists will need to ship their work to the gallery on a date to be announced. Please note that if selected international works arrive damaged, with unacceptable framing, or not as illustrated, they may be rejected.
  • Artists sending work from abroad should use a picture carrier. Many artists use Picture Post Art as they offer a packing and delivery service for our exhibitions (we do not accept any liability for their services). Picture Post Art - Tel: 07833 450788 / Email: info@picturepostcompany.co.uk
  • Register for VAT if selling work by an international artist: If you are NOT a UK resident and your work is sold at the exhibition you have a responsibility to register and account for UK VAT with H.M. Revenue & Customs at www.hmrc.gov.uk (HM Revenue & Customs Reference: Notice 700/1).

Selection

  • Pre-selection is based on online entries and associated digital images. Images must be in JPEG format and under 5MB
  • Notification of Pre-selection: Wednesday 11 February, 12 noon
  • Deliver pre-selected entries ONLY to Mall Galleries, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD for final selection on Saturday 28 February, 10am to 5pm
  • Final selection - in front of a Panel of Members of the RP
  • Notification of Acceptance: Tuesday 3 March, 12 noon
  • Collect work not accepted for exhibition from Mall Galleries, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD on Thursday 5 March, 10am to 5pm
The selectors' decisions are final and no feedback is offered.

Exhibition

  • Private View (invite only): Wednesday 6 May, 11am to 8pm, official opening at 6:30pm
  • Exhibition opens: Thursday 7 May, 10am to 5pm daily
  • Exhibition closes: Saturday 16 May, 5pm
  • Collection of unsold work: Thursday 21 May, 10am to 5pm. Any work uncollected by 5pm will be removed and stored at a separate location for which artists will be charged a storage fee.

The Last 18 Years: Past Annual Exhibitions (2007-2025)


The Private View in 2015
Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Categories , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAIN because of too much spam.
My blog posts are always posted to my Making A Mark Facebook Page and you can comment there if you wish.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)