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  5. Eighteenth-century visual cultures

Eighteenth-century visual cultures

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This research group is concerned with eighteenth-century visual culture in all its various manifestations, including painting, sculpture, architecture, graphic arts, landscape and urbanism. Its members explore the complex dynamics of visual culture during this period, with reference to the tensions between theory and practice, classicism and modernity, identity and power, and visual and textual sources. Our primary focus is on the art of Britain, France and Germany, and we consider the eighteenth century in its widest definition, including its legacies and historiography.

Current research projects include Figures of Pathos: Melancholy and Mourning in French and British Art c.1760–1815 (book – Emma Barker); Landscapes of London: The Metropolitan Environs 1660–1830 (book – Elizabeth McKellar); The First Actresses 1660–1800 (collaborative exhibition and book with the National Portrait Gallery – Professor Gill Perry); Meaning and Representation in Wallpapers and Related Schemes in Britain, c.1740–1820 (book – Dr Clare Taylor);Expression and Classicism in Sculpture and Painting c.1800 (book – Dr Linda Walsh); Living with Books: The Country House Library 1660–1830 (book – Dr Susie West).

We welcome applications in areas which correspond to current staff research interests. We look for detailed and well thought-out proposals, which set out specific research questions and outline the originality of your topic or approach. If you would like to discuss your ideas informally before submitting an application, please contact the department.

Qualifications available:

PhD or MPhil

Fees:

For detailed information on current fees visit Fees and funding.

Entry requirements:

Minimum 2:1 (or equivalent)

Potential research projects

The group welcomes enquiries from students interested in research projects in these or related areas.

Current / recent research projects

  • Meaning and Representation in Wallpapers and Related Schemes in Britain, c.1740–1820
  • The Burford Masons and the changing world of building practice in England,  c.1630–1730

Potential supervisors

  • Dr Emma Barker - French and British art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
  • Dr Elizabeth McKellar - Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British architecture and visual culture.
  • Professor Gill Perry - Modern and contemporary art; eighteenth-century British art, especially portraiture; art and gender.
  • Dr Clare Taylor - Eighteenth-century domestic interior.
  • Dr Linda Walsh - French art and European sculpture of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries.
  • Dr Susie West - Seventeenth and eighteenth-century architecture and material culture.

Further information

If you have an enquiry specific to this research area please contact:

Email:
arts-research-students@open.ac.uk
Phone:
+44 (0)1908 652479

For general enquiries please contact the Research Degrees Team via the link under ‘Your questions’ on the right of the page.

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