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Why did Thomas Gainsborough quarrel with the Royal Academy in 1784?
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In 1784, Thomas Gainsborough quarreled with the Royal Academy of Arts over the hanging of his work, Three Eldest Princesses.1
The Academy insisted on displaying the painting at a standard height from the floor, a position Gainsborough argued was too high for viewers to properly appreciate his delicate pencilling and lightness of touch. In protest of this decision, he withdrew the pictures he had intended for the exhibition and never exhibited at the Academy again.1