This reinstallation includes paintings and sculpture by an international range of artists whose work was grounded in the academic tradition. The Academies promoted meticulous draftsmanship, highly finished paint surfaces, and careful study from the live model.

Under the Awning, Zarauz by Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla shows the artist's wife and daughter on the beach in northern Spain. Jules Breton's The Wounded Sea Gull represents an idealized peasant holding an infirm seagull as other birds glide in the distance. Irish painter Sir William Orpen depicts himself in front of one of his large allegorical canvases.

The Academic Tradition is curated by Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art.