Art and Society in Britain, Hogarth to Turner (1730–1851)
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is pleased to announce the seminar, “Art and Society in Britain, Hogarth to Turner (1730-1851).” Intended for non-specialists in the subject, the seminar will be especially valuable for faculty members at institutions without large campus collections or proximity to major art museums. Art historians, studio artists, and faculty members trained in other disciplines such as history and English who teach art history are eligible to participate.
This week-long seminar offers a new account of significant developments in British art from Georgian London in the age of William Hogarth, who came to prominence in the 1730s, to the death of J. M. W. Turner in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition. Drawing upon innovative historical analyses, the seminar sets artistic production within a cultural and historical framework and places British art in a global context, emphasizing questions of race and empire. Original works of art will be addressed directly, focusing on the outstanding collections of the Yale Center for British Art. Themes will include portraiture and social status; London as a world city; taste and the Grand Tour; art and empire; the industrial revolution; and Romanticism and nature. Along with Hogarth and Turner, the seminar will explore the art of Johan Zoffany, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Richard Wilson, Benjamin West, William Blake, and John Constable. The seminar week will include a visit to Yale University’s Lewis Walpole Library, one of the world’s great collections of the works of Hogarth and of satirical prints, and to Wethersfield, one of the most extensive surviving groups of 18th-century domestic buildings in the country.
These seminars are made possible with the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.