Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers , 1992- Society of Painter-Etchers , 1880-1887 Royal Society of Painter-Etchers , 1887-1898 Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers , 1898-1992

Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers , 1992- Society of Painter-Etchers , 1880-1887 Royal Society of Painter-Etchers , 1887-1898 Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers , 1898-1992

The Society of Painter-Etchers was a voluntary society formed in 1880 by Seymour Haden and James J Tissot, Alphonse Legros and Hubert Herkomer, Robert Walker Macbeth, Heywood Hardy, who sought recognition of etching as a painter's art, rather than merely a craftsman's means of reproducing an artist's painting in multiples. It was also a protest against the Royal Academy's unwillingness to accept artists' etchings as original works of art and their refusal to elect artist-etchers as Academicians, though is elected craftsmen-engravers to membership and showed their copies of Academicians' paintings in the annual exhibitions.

It gained immediate support from fellow printmakers, and the following year an additional number were elected to the Society and the group prospered, so much so that in 1888 Queen Victoria granted a Royal title to the Society and in 1898 allowed its name to be enlarged to include Engravers, and in 1911 King George V granted a Charter of Incorporation and Bye-laws.
In 1989, to accommodate advances in technology and fully represent current printmaking in all its forms, the RE, as the Society had become known, voted to include all kinds of artists' prints in its exhibitions and to elect as members outstanding artists working in any of the various printmaking media. The revision of the name to The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, further reflects this change, and was approved by HM The Queen, The Privy Council, and the Home Office.
The Society has assembled a unique Diploma Collection of Prints, comprising a representative work from each new member upon election. This growing collection of more than a thousand prints, including works by such well reputed artists as Sickert, Poynter, Alma-Tadema, Griggs, Brockhurst, Knight, Sutherland, Hermes, Gross, Hayter, Bawden, and Rothenstein, is now held in trust by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. From the beginning the Society had members in common with the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) and a long term partnership ensued, with the Society sharing premises with the RWS. In 1980, they jointly established the Bankside Gallery Charitable Limited Company, where their regular exhibitions now take place. The Society's major exhibition of Member's work generally in May each year.