The Radhakrishnan Room

The former Mall Room was renamed the Radhakrishnan Room after the Academy’s first Fellow from an ethnic minority, Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He is one of the only Academy Fellows to be elected as both a Fellow and Honorary Fellow. He also served as Vice President of India from 1962-1967.

The lift outside the Radhakrishnan Room was installed as part of the 1905-1907 internal refurbishment of No. 10.  It was then extended to the third floor in the 1920s for the Union Club. The hinged wrought iron doors are attributed to the renowned metalwork designer Bainbridge Reynolds, who also created the balustrade of the stairs. The other lift, in the Waiting Room of No. 11, was installed in 1922.

This room was the south drawing room during the Ridley family’s tenancy and offers views across to St James’s Park, the Mall and the Academy’s sister institution, the Royal Society.

During the First World War, Lady Ridley turned the house into a hospital for wounded officers, many of whom were suffering from the effects of gas inhalation. If you look out of the window overlooking the Mall, you can see a terrace below where beds were placed so that the soldiers could get much needed fresh air to aid their recovery.

Figures on Pedestal #1 & #2

by Charlotte Hodes, papercut, 2013

A leading figure in contemporary art, Charlotte Hodes’ work profiles her long-standing engagement with the crossovers between the fine and decorative arts. She draws on craft processes to create imagery firmly situated within the language of fine art. She brings her considerable experience as a painter to both her extraordinarily intricate papercuts and large-scale installations in which ready-made ceramic ware serves as her alternative canvas. She has been a member of the Academy’s Art Committee since 2021.

The female figure is Hodes’ pivotal motif, an elusive but ever-present silhouette emerging from or blending into backdrops of tactile pattern and vibrant colour. The woman that wanders through her work is nonetheless a disruptive force, refusing her given role as decorative feature to take ownership of her environment and reclaim her autonomy.

Charlotte Hodes comments: “The depiction of women is the overriding concern in my work, and I draw upon its rich history in both the fine and decorative arts. My intention is to re-imagine the female figure for a contemporary audience.

In these papercuts I explore ideas around statuary and in particular how women are raised on pedestals. They constitute a collision between public and private, the domestic domain of women and notions of women as mere decorative elements.

The artworks are hand-cut, and are the result of hours of manual work, connecting me to those craft traditions associated with women, such as, embroidery and quilting. As in these traditions, my large-scale works are composed of tiny fragments and intricately cut passages that build together into a monumental whole. In Figure on Pedestal I, the woman has a pile of crockery on her head, a reference to the maid in Domenico Ghirlandaio’s fresco, The Birth of John the Baptist (Santa Maria Novella Florence) and a further reference to female domestic activity.

In Figure on Pedestal II the woman is encompassed by swirling drapery, reminiscent of the sculpture of St Veronica by Francesco Mochi (St. Peter’s, Rome) in which the drapery encompasses the imposing, authoritative saint while she is simultaneously stuck on a pedestal. They both give the impression that they are moving with purpose but are conversely trapped within a vortex.

My women are aware of the irony of having been finely balanced on pedestals. They have a quizzical attitude to their precarious predicament, and I draw reference from in particular, Antoine Watteau, Fête galante in a Wooded Landscape (The Wallace Collection) in which a nude is pictured as a sculpture coming to life, observing the scene before her. As an aside, she has insight and agency that gives her the option to get down from her pedestal and leave the stage at any time she chooses.”