The Royal Danish Academy of Portraiture, Sculpture, and Architecture in Copenhagen was inaugurated on 31 March 1754, and given as a gift to the King Frederik V on his 31st birthday.

Its name was changed to the Royal Danish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in 1771.

At the same event, Johann Friedrich Struensee introduced a new scheme in the academy to encourage artisan apprentices to take supplementary classes in drawing so as to develop the notion of "good taste".

[1] In 1814 the name was changed again, this time to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

It is still situated in its original building, the Charlottenborg Palace, located on the Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen.