• 11 November 2015
  • 6:30 – 8:30 pm
  • Lecture Room, Paul Mellon Centre

This event celebrates the launch of Richard Wilson Online, the online catalogue raisonné of the paintings and drawings of Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and the prints after his work. The editor, Paul Spencer-Longhurst will give a brief summary of the project and its aims, together with some thoughts on Wilson as an artist and his contributions to landscape painting as a genre. There will be time for questions and discussion. The event will take place in the main conference room and drinks and canapés will be served afterwards.

Dr Spencer-Longhurst has been compiling Richard Wilson Online since October 2009 with the co-operation of Kate Lowry, former Chief Conservator at the National Museum of Wales and Professor David Solkin, curator of the milestone Wilson exhibition of 1982-83. The website went live in October 2014 as part of the tercentenary celebrations of the artist’s birth, following the exhibition, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting (Yale Center for British Art and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales). Since then it has continued to grow as a work in progress.

Richard Wilson Online updates the canonical books - W.G. Constable’s Richard Wilson (1953) and Sir Brinsley Ford’s The Drawings of Richard Wilson (1951) - assimilating them with recent scholarship. It provides a comprehensively illustrated overview of Wilson’s authentic works, freely accessible to users across the world. As such it is in the vanguard of digital publishing, the role of which will be discussed in relation to Wilson research and more general applications.

All are welcome! However, places are limited, so if you would like to attend please contact our Events Manager, Ella Fleming on [email protected]

About the speaker

  • Paul Spencer-Longhust has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre since October 2009. His project, to research and compile a catalogue raisonné of the paintings and drawings of Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), has resulted in Richard Wilson Online. This initiative aims to revise, update and integrate the catalogue raisonné of Richard Wilson by W.G. Constable (1953) and Brinsley Ford's The Drawings of Richard Wilson (1951).

    Marking the tercentenary of the artist's birth and to coincide with the exhibition Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Art at the Yale Center for British Art and the National Museum Wales, the online and open-access publication was launched in Autumn 2014. The project was supported by Maisoon Rehani, Peter Thomas, Charlotte Brunskill, James Brunskill, and Krzys Adamiec.

    Paul Spencer-Longhurst's research focuses on British painting of the late 18th and the 19th centuries, French Neo-classical and Romantic art, and the history of collecting and patronage. He has also curated a number of major exhibitions at important venues in Britain and the USA, featuring the works of Gainsborough, Constable, Turner, Rossetti, Puvis de Chavannes, Degas, J.C. Dahl and other artists. He co-curated Behind Closed Doors: Birmingham Private Collections from Van Dyck to Cornelia Parker (Barber Institute, 2008) and was sole curator of Northern Lights: Swedish Landscapes from the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, an exhibition of Swedish landscapes c.1850-1910 (Barber Institute 2009).

    Paul began his career as Official Lecturer at the National Gallery, London, before moving to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, where he held the successive positions of Assistant to the Director, Lecturer, Curator and Lecturer of Fine Art, and finally Senior Curator and Senior Lecturer.

    Paul Spencer-Longhurst holds a BA in Modern History from the University of Oxford, a Diploma from the Study Centre for the History of Fine and Decorative Arts at the V&A Museum, an MA in Romantic Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and a PhD from the University of Birmingham.