Past Events

Pre-Raphaelite Gold

Research Lunch – Tara Contractor

  • 10 March 2020
  • 1:00 – 2:00 pm
  • Seminar Room, Paul Mellon Centre

A male angel figure surrounded by gold female angels. Victorian painters experimented with gold leaf and pigments in unprecedented ways. Focusing on Edward Burne-Jones's gilt gesso panels from the 1870s and 1880s, this talk explores what it meant to paint with gold in the age of the gold standard, a moment when the metal held new roles as currency and imperial trophy.

About the speaker

  • Tara Contractor is a PhD candidate in the History of Art department at Yale University, where she is completing her dissertation 'British Gilt: Gold in Painting 1790-1914'. She is a co-curator of the recent Yale Center for British Art exhibition Unto this Last: 200 Years of John Ruskin, which travels to the Watts Gallery in March 2020.