The establishment of a Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Spain was first proposed by painter Antonio Meléndez, who suggested the idea in 1726 to king Philip V for the creation of an Academy of Arts for design, painting, sculpture and architecture.

The San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts Museum, located close to Sol, currently boasts more than 1,400 paintings, 600 sculptures and 15,000 drawings, as well as an excellent collection of decorative arts made up of tapestries, silver, ceramics, porcelain, clocks, furniture and medals. It also has a Permanent Photography Room, where a small selection of around 3,000 photographs are on display, consisting of the photography collection belonging to the Academy’s Museum. The artists on display in this space include great maestros of Spanish photography, such as Charles Clifford, Ramón Masats, Paco Gómez, Gabriel Cualladó, Castro Prieto, García Alix, Isabel Muñoz, Ouka Leele, Manuel Outumuro, Chema Madoz or Carlos Pérez Siquier.

The Academy’s permanent collection contains masterpieces from Spanish, Italian and Flemish masterpieces.  The museum preserves 13 of the paintings by Francisco de Goya, who was a member from 1780, including two self-portraits (particularly Self-portrait at the easel, the only one of the artist working in his studio), the Bullfight, the portraits of Moratín, Juan de Villanueva, the actress La Tirana and the Carnival scene known as The Burial of the Sardine. Since June 2022, following the refurbishment of  the Museum, thanks to a donation by the Callia Foundation through the Latin American Patronage Awards, his works can be seen in the two main rooms on the first floor, hence doubling the space devoted to Goya.

The Academy is home to the Museum, the Archive-Library, the Castings Workshop, and the National Hand Engraving Collection, which encompasses a series of plates engraved by the most eminent Spanish artists, including the copper plate etchings made by Francisco de Goya, masterpieces in the universal history of engraving.