Events

Public Lecture Course: Georgian Provocations

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These 30-minute lectures focus on six seminal works of art from eighteenth-century Britain, and use them to offer an informative, stimulating and sometimes surprising introduction to Georgian art. Through detailed readings of these works’ contents, contexts and impact, Mark Hallett and Martin Postle reveal many of the ideas and issues that coursed through British visual culture in this period, and demonstrate the riches that continue to be gained from looking closely at the individual work of art.

Lectures will be released weekly from 28 May to 2 July 2020.

Lecture 1: Walking the Streets: William Hogarth’s The Four Times of Day (1736–1738)

Mark Hallett, Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Further reading and resources:

Wikipedia. "William Hogarth." Last modified 22 May 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Hogarth&oldid=958230187

Explore William Hogarth’s other engravings at the British Museum.

Lecture 2: Variations on a Theme: Richard Wilson’s The White Monk (c.1760–65)

Martin Postle, Deputy Director for Grants & Publications at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Further reading and resources:

Wikipedia. 'Richard Wilson (painter).’ Last modified 16 November 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Wilson_(painter)&oldid=926441862

Spencer-Longhurst, Paul, with Kate Lowry and David Solkin, Richard Wilson Online: A Digital Catalogue Raisonné. London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2014.

http://www.richardwilsononline.ac.uk/

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Westminster Bridge under Construction, 1744.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-westminster-bridge-under-construction-t03665

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Distant View of Maecenas’ Villa, Tivoli, c.1756-7.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-distant-view-of-maecenas-villa-tivoli-n00108

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Lake Avernus.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-lake-avernus-n00267

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri, c. 1760.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-ake-avernus-and-the-island-of-capri-n00304

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Rome: St Peter’s and the Vatican from the Janiculum, c.1753.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-rome-st-peters-and-the-vatican-from-the-janiculum-t01873

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Maecenas’ Villa, Tivoli, c.1765’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-maecenas-villa-tivoli-n00303

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Hadrian’s Vila, c.1765.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-hadrians-villa-n00302

Postle, Martin. ‘Richard Wilson, Ponte Nomentana, 1754.’ Tate. Accessed 26 May 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-ponte-nomentana-t03026

Lecture 3: All done from Nature: George Stubbs’s Whistlejacket (1762)

Martin Postle, Deputy Director for Grants & Publications at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Further reading and resources:

Wikipedia. ‘George Stubbs’. Last modified 26 December 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stubbs

View more equine anatomical drawings online at the Royal Academy.

Blake, Robin. ‘Wild at Heart.’ The Guardian, 18 June 2005. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/jun/18/art1

Jones, Jonathan. ‘Whistlejacket, George Stubbs (1762).’ The Guardian, 22 April 2000. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/apr/22/art1

Morgan, Matthew. 'George Stubbs: Portrait of the Horse Whistlejacket'. The National Gallery. 13 Apr 2017. YouTube video, 25:31. https://youtu.be/6M8BmsrC18g.

Lecture 4: The artist as intellectual: Joshua Reynolds’s Self-Portrait as President of the Royal Academy (c.1780)

Martin Postle, Deputy Director for Grants & Publications at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Further reading and resources:

Wikipedia. ‘Joshua Reynolds.’ Last modified 2 June 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Reynolds

Royal Academy of Art. ‘Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (172301792).’ Accessed 10 June 2020. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/joshua-reynolds-pra

Royal Academy of Art. ‘Self-portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA. Ca/ 1780’. Accessed 10 June 2020. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/self-portrait-of-sir-joshua-reynolds-p-r-a

Lecture 5: Displaying the Hero: John Singleton Copley’s The Death of Major Peirson (1784)

Mark Hallett, Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Further reading and resources:

Wikipedia, ‘John Singleton Copley.’ Last modified 8 June 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singleton_Copley

Fowle, Frances. ‘John Singleton Copley, The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781.’ Tate. Accessed 16 June 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/copley-the-death-of-major-peirson-6-january-1781-n00733

Find out more about depictions of war in the Paul Mellon Centre’s 2019 Public Lecture Course, Art and War.

Lecture Six: Making an Impact: Thomas Lawrence’s Arthur Atherley (1792)

Mark Hallett, Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Further reading and resources:

Wikipedia, ‘Thomas Lawrence.’ Last modified 22 May 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lawrence

Mark Hallett, ‘1792: A Guided Tour’, from Mark Hallett, Sarah Victoria Turner and Jessica Feather (eds.), The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1768-1792: A Chronicle.London: Pau Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2018. https://chronicle250.com/1792

Explore other works of art by Thomas Lawrence at the National Gallery.