Public Lecture Course:
Georgian Provocations II

Georgian Provocations II, a sequel to the highly successful Georgian Provocations, which ran in the summer of 2020. Adopting a similar format, the present course will focus upon a series of provocative artworks from the Georgian era and investigate their contents, contexts and impact. Collectively, the lectures reveal many of the ideas and issues that coursed through British visual culture between the 1760s and the early 1800s, and demonstrate the riches that continue to be gained from looking intensively at individual works of art. Ranging from iconic images by major artists to little-known works by hitherto obscure individuals, the lectures are based upon original research by distinguished scholars in the field who have been invited to share their knowledge and enthusiasm.

No prior art historical knowledge is necessary.

The series is convened by Martin Postle, Senior Research Fellow, the Paul Mellon Centre.

Lecture 1: Establishing a Female Lineage at the Royal Academy's Show: Eliza Trotter, Angelica Kauffman and the Intrigues of Lady Caroline Lamb

Paris Spies-Gans is an historian and historian of art with a focus on women, gender and the politics of artistic expression.

Lecture 2: The Haunted Eighteenth Century: Fuseli's “The Nightmare”

Martin Myrone is Head of Grants, Fellowships and Networks at the Paul Mellon Centre.

Lecture 3: A Black King in Georgian London: British Art and Postrevolutionary Haiti

Esther Chadwick is a lecturer in art history at the Courtauld, where she specialises in eighteenth-century British art.

Lecture 4: George Romney in the Prison-World of Europe

Nicholas Robbins is a lecturer in British Art at University College London.

Lecture 5: John Singleton Copley’s “Watson and the Shark” and the Taste for Flesh

This recording will not be made publicly available.

Lecture 6: Joseph Wright of Derby: Self-portrait as an Experimental Artist

Martin Postle is Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre.

Panel Discussion

Mark Hallett, Paris Spies-Gans, Martin Myrone, Esther Chadwick, Nicholas Robbins, Nika Elder, Martin Postle in discussion.