Category: Research

UCL History of Art is seeking to appoint a full-time Lecturer (Grade 8) or Associate Professor (Grade 9) specialising in British art and material culture in its global and colonial contexts, c. 1650-1900. UCL History of Art has a long, distinguished engagement with the politics and aesthetics of British art and empire, as well as histories and theories of material culture, broadly understood. The successful appointee will have a relevant PhD and a track record of publications and research excellence in their field. The position will begin on 1 September 2025.

This book emphasises Lady Charlotte Schreiber (1812-1895) — also known as Lady Charlotte Guest, née Bertie — as one of the most significant women in the history of collecting. An extraordinary collector, historian and philanthropist, Charlotte subverted gendered norms and challenged Victorian conventions. This new study establishes Charlotte’s contribution to ceramic history and cultural education, and demonstrates her influential role in transnational artistic networks.

Charting Charlotte’s eventful life, McCaffrey-Howarth focuses on her identity as a renowned connoisseur, whose donation of thousands of objects to the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Museum marked a pioneering move for a female benefactor. Lady Charlotte Schreiber, Extraordinary Art Collector presents unique insight into the social and cultural world of Victorian England and the role of women within this.

Cristoforo de Predis at the Sforza Court - By Jeffrey Schrader

A portrait of an unknown woman by Titian - By Peter Humfrey and Paul Joannides

A Safavid ambassadress in Rome: the last testament of Teresa Sampsonia Shirley - By Alexandria Brown-Hedjazi

Additions to Ter Brugghen in Italy: ‘Christ bound to the column’ and ‘St John the Baptist in the wilderness’ - By John Gash

‘Two boys with a bladder’ in the J. Paul Getty Museum and Joseph Wright of Derby’s early candlelights - By Julia Siemon

Paul Sandby and Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn revisited - By Oliver Fairclough

Observations about the abandoned portrait beneath Gainsborough’s ‘Blue boy’ - By Christina Milton O'Connell

The period of Western art history known as “the Baroque” has traditionally been interpreted as a stylistic phenomenon. However, artistic production in Europe circa 1600–1750 was enabled by a proto-industrial world system dominated by Spain and Portugal, the Netherlands and later Britain. As a result, material culture became entangled in networks of trade, colonial rule and Catholic global mission stretching from Naples to Nagasaki.

This conference will broaden perspectives on the Baroque, embracing its transcontinental and multi-media character. By culturally decentring Europe and with materiality a special focus, the programme will recast the continent as a constituent part of an expanding artistic world driven by war, the exploitation of ecosystems and the first information technology revolution. Bringing together scholars and museum curators from the UK and internationally, the conference will demonstrate how objects can offer intimate insights into global histories often characterised by vast, impersonal economic forces.

In this monograph, author Alejandro Vergara-Sharp discusses what is known of Peeters’s biography while presenting the historical and cultural context behind her art, style, and techniques. Clara Peeters establishes the artist as a leader in her field by examining Peeters’s artistry and the material culture reflected in her paintings. This timely volume sheds light on the limitations that Peeters encountered because of her gender, and how she responded to them in her art, while assessing her importance as a painter of still life.

Better known as ‘Lizzie Siddal’, the model who posed for John Everett Millais’s painting Ophelia, Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti is now finally recognised as a Pre-Raphaelite artist in her own right, working alongside her male colleagues on equal terms. Elizabeth’s designs were truly original, the creation of her own imagination. They embodied the essence of Pre-Raphaelitism that her husband Gabriel and other members of the circle were striving to achieve. The male members of the group shamelessly copied the ideas from Elizabeth’s small sketches to create their own large masterpieces which have since become the epitome of Pre-Raphaelite art. The exclusion of women from the narrative has had a major impact in creating the perception of the Pre-Raphaelites as a predominantly male artistic movement; in Beyond Ophelia Dr Glenda Youde shows Elizabeth not as a pathetic drowning figure, but as the initiator of a directional change in the visual development of Pre-Raphaelite art. Featuring a unique collection of photographs of Elizabeth’s work commissioned by her husband after her death, this book highlights the critical importance of her role within the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and one which ultimately led to the evolution of the Aesthetic Movement.

This is an excellent opportunity that will enable a recent PhD graduate or Early Career Researcher to gain experience in a thriving cultural and research institution, as well as the opportunity to develop their own research portfolio in a supportive and well-established research environment.

The successful candidate will be a pro-active and knowledgeable postdoctoral researcher, whose expertise in the histories of sculpture will complement that of the Research Team at the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, and will form a key element of our public programmes.

You will be required to contribute lectures and tutorials on our first-year survey modules. You will also be expected to offer attractive and accessible research-led undergraduate courses, giving students as much first-hand experience of works as possible. For the Academic Year 2025-26 you will be required to teach two of our current available modules. These include: AH3106 Experiencing Sculpture in the Early Modern World; AH3107 Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from a Global Perspective; AH3235 Spanish Painting in the Age of Velázquez; AH4176 Early Modern Cities; AH4182 Principles and Protagonists of Italian Renaissance Architecture; AH4183 The Senses, Objects, and Buildings in Early Modern Europe; AH4185 Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect; AH4206 Raphael and His Reception; AH4222 Art, Theatre and Performance in France 1600-1800; AH4236 Images of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe; AH4241 Leonardo da Vinci, 500 years later. [...]

Conducted in collaboration with the Oskar Reinhart Collection, ‘Am Römerholz’, Switzerland, the unknown artwork was discovered when The Courtauld took x-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto – a portrait depicting Picasso’s sculptor friend painted in 1901 and one of the earliest examples of the artist’s Blue Period – ahead of its display as part of the upcoming The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection, opening 14 February. 

The Courtauld’s analysis of the painting reveals it played an important role at a crucial stage in the young Picasso’s stylistic development, at a time when he was moving away from colourful, Impressionistic paintings towards a distinctly more melancholy artistic style which became the defining phase of his career known as his Blue Period. 

An Islamic tent in S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara - By Federica Gigante

Lucchese patronage in Papal Avignon: the chapel of Carlo Spiafame in Notre-Dame-des-Doms - By Geoffrey Nuttall

Two paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Potsdam collection of Frederick the Great - By Franziska Windt

The elder sisters of the ‘The Campbell sisters’: William Gordon Cumming’s patronage of Lorenzo Bartolini - By Lucy Wood & Timothy Stevens

‘Victory at San Pietro in Casale’ in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome - By Stephanie C. Leone & Alessandro Serrani

Ménage de Pressigny and his art collection - By Yuriko Jackall

Lusieri’s mysterious ‘Wooded lake’ identified- By Dyfri Williams

Angelica Kauffman was one of the most renowned and recognizable artists in the eighteenth century. Her oil paintings, prints, and engravings were widely reproduced for and by British consumers. This project seeks to reexamine the reproduction, retranslation and consumption of Kauffman’s visual artworks, focusing on three-dimensional, small-scale works including ceramics, needlework, textiles (embroidery and needle pictures), and fans, among others. Drawing on the National Trust's extensive collections, including print and manuscript sources, the project will show, for the first time, the rich and varied depth of Kauffman's influence on aesthetics and the domestic interior. 

This project is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and the National Portrait Gallery. It investigates an overlooked aspect of female artistic practice: the portrait miniature. During the period 1680 to 1840, miniature production was increasingly dominated by women, yet there is no definitive study of the female miniaturist: her importance obscured by a focus on male counterparts, and her achievements sidelined by an increasingly institutionalised art world. In reconstructing the lives and practices of female miniaturists in the period, the project will draw on the National Portrait Gallery’s rich collection of miniatures and archival material as well as a range of literary and non-literary sources. The result will be an important contribution to the history of art and culture in the period.   

This landmark scholarly biography of Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1497–1543), court painter to Henry VIII, is the first in more than a century. This definitive account breathes new life into Holbein’s story. From his early days in Augsburg and Basel to his lasting impact on British art and culture, Holbein sheds light on the artist whose paintings would shape perceptions of the Tudor court for five hundred years. [...]

Beautifully illustrated, and including rarely seen paintings from private collections, this volume weaves the latest research – including new archival discoveries and scientific analysis – into a fresh examination of Holbein’s life and work.

The Frick Collection is pleased to announce the availability of a six-month fellowship for an outstanding candidate who wishes to pursue research in the field of medals with a chronology spanning from around the year 1400 to 1900. The fellowship offers invaluable curatorial training and provides the scholarly and financial resources required for completing the assigned research project. Internationally renowned for its exceptional collection of western European art from the early Renaissance through the end of the nineteenth century, The Frick Collection—complemented by the equally significant resources of the Frick Art Reference Library—offers a unique opportunity for object-based research. The fellowship is best suited to a scholar pursuing research that contributes to expanding knowledge in the field of medals, and ideally around one or more objects included the vast collection of medals donated to the Frick by Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher. 

An editor-in-chief is sought to lead the team at British Art Studies (BAS). Working collaboratively with authors and colleagues at the journal, the editor-in-chief will set the direction for future issues. They will proactively commission material for publication and carry out hands-on editorial work such as line editing texts and developing projects with authors. This is an exciting new opportunity to develop the future of BAS.

About the Journal
BAS is a peer-reviewed and open access journal for new research on the histories of British art, architecture and visual culture. Opening and testing the boundaries of “British” as a category, and reflecting critically on methodologies for British art history, are core areas of focus for the journal. As a digital-only platform, the journal also explores how to present research in novel ways online, experimenting with new tools and feature formats. In 2025, an updated design will mark the tenth anniversary of BAS.