The society was originally the idea of the lawyer Bellenden Ker and was founded at a meeting in the house of the famous painter Charles Eastlake, attended by Eastlake, Ker, Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi, and Edmund Oldfield.
The society's purpose was to promote knowledge of the art works of the old Italian, Flemish, and other European masters.
Some of the other important early members were John Ruskin, Charles Thomas Newton, and Henry Liddell.
[6] Members of the Society's Council in 1877 included Frederick William Burton, Lord Elcho (Francis Charteris), Edward Poynter, George Edmund Street, Philip Charles Hardwick, George Richmond, and the architect John Norton.
The Arundel Club went further by copying and publishing important works in private collections previously inaccessible.