Profile

I am a keen and dedicated lecturer and researcher, who achieved a first-class honours degree from Oxford Brookes University in 2005, where I was awarded the Jeanne Sheehy Memorial Prize for the best undergraduate dissertation in History of Art.

In 2006 I completed my MA at the University of Bristol and subsequently spent a year as Research Assistant on a major AHRC project at the University of Plymouth. My PhD on the subject of the impact of Nordic art in Europe in the period 1878-1889 was awarded by the University of Leeds in January 2015. I have written extensively, with three publications in 2016, and a major catalogue in 2017, with further publications in 2018 and 2019. I have taught since 2007, including teaching second year students at Oxford Brookes in 2014/15 and first year students at Exeter in 2017. I am on the tutor panel for both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and have delivered conference papers in Britain, Scandinavia, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands and Canada. In 2017, I contributed twenty-seven individual essays to the catalogue “Romanticism in the North – from Friedrich to Turner (Groningen: Groninger Museum), where I was entrusted with the major sections on Constable and Turner. My broad knowledge has led to teaching on a substantial range of subjects, but I have specialised in nineteenth-century art in the Nordic countries, France and Britain, with an additional interest of British art of the early twentieth century.

Employment:

University of Exeter – Associate Lecturer 2017

I wrote and presented a first year module on Modernism in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the early twentieth century. Additionally I set formative and summative essay questions, and acted as first marker on both. I provided office hours and consulted with students on their work. Topics covered included the art of Vienna, secessions in Austria and Germany, Dada, Neue Sachlichkeit, Degenerate Art, architecture in Red Vienna, Wiener Werkstätte, and early German film. I supervised a third year student in her dissertation. The head of department commented “you clearly have communicated a good deal to the students who have produced some excellent work”.

Oxford Brookes University – Associate Lecturer 2014/15

I researched and designed a module for second-year undergraduates “From the Easel to the Machine: Modern Art in Europe 1910-1939”. I taught on the module, arranged seminars, set and marked essay and exam questions, provided advice and feedback to students, and led gallery visits. I covered art, design, architecture, photography and film. I prioritised student contact and the module received very positive feedback. 

Oxford University (OUDCE) – Undergraduate Diploma in History of Art 2014, Undergraduate Certificate in History of Art, 2019 – Both ongoing

I researched and designed a module for Oxford University Diploma students. Units included Techniques of Impressionism, Haussmann’s Paris, the Impressionist body, women Impressionists and the Impressionist landscape. I taught on the module, contributed essay questions, marked essay papers, arranged supervision sessions, and undertook dissertation supervision and marking. In 2019, I am supervising the long essays of ten students in Oxford’s Undergraduate Certificate in History of Art.

Oxford University (OUDCE) 2013 ongoing

Course Author: “The Impressionists: Painting Modern Life”

In 2013, I wrote and devised an online course that introduced students at first year undergraduate level to Impressionism. Artists include Degas, Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Caillebotte, Pissarro, Morisot, Cassatt, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat. Topics include modernity, technique, critical responses, women Impressionists and international Impressionism. I have been teaching on this ongoing course since January 2014.

Plymouth University 2008-2009

Research Assistant on an AHRC project to place online the art criticism of Wyndham Lewis published in The Listener from 1946 to 1951. The website for the project can be found at: http://www.unirioja.es/listenerartcriticism/

My major achievements were:

The production of a fully functional website that met completely the aims and objectives laid down by the AHRC. Four substantial essays: Canadian Painters, Francis Bacon and Edward Wadsworth (x2) (See ‘Publications’ below for fuller details). The conversion of seventy-three articles and letters published in The Listener into an editable format. The choice of appropriate images to accompany the articles and letters. Subsequent contact and negotiation with museums, galleries, archives and copyright holders on a worldwide basis. Substantial research into contemporary catalogues and archival material undertaken at the National Art Library, Tate Archives and the Bodleian Library.

Other Teaching:

Since 2007 I have researched, written and presented a substantial number of study modules for both students and art aficionados alike. In January 2013, I began teaching with Oxford University (OUDCE), presenting both a weekly course and a week-long Summer School. I have also produced an online Undergraduate-level course for OUDCE that went live in January 2014, and began teaching for Cambridge University (ICE) in October 2013.

Teaching Organisations

Cambridge University (ICE) Oct 2013-Present

Oxford University (OUDCE) Jan 2013 Present

Dillington House, Somerset Nov 2011-Present

Plus numerous one-off lectures for such organisations as University of Edinburgh, Tate St. Ives, Barber Institute, ULEMHAS (Birkbeck), Ripon Arts.

Education:

University of Leeds 2010-2014

PhD in History of Art

My PhD, The Impact of Nordic Art in Europe 1878-1889, was part of an AHRC-funded project entitled ‘Nordic Art: The Modern Breakthrough’, Principal Investigator: Prof. David Jackson. It contributed significant new material to our knowledge of nineteenth-century Nordic art and can be viewed at: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10406/

University of Bristol 2005-2006

MA in History of Art

● Coursework 72%, Dissertation 68%

● Dissertation: In War and Peace: John Minton, Keith Vaughan and Modern

Romance.

● Modules included ‘Histories, Theories and Critical Interpretations of Art’

and ‘The English Avant-Garde’, tutored by Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn,

and ‘The Art Critic’ tutored by Professor Stephen Bann.

● My essay on the art historian Herbert Horne was adjudged by Michael

Liversidge (Emeritus Professor of History of Art at Bristol) to be ‘meticulously scholarly’ with ‘an astonishing bibliography’.

Oxford Brookes University 2002-2005

BA (Hons) in History of Art/Tourism Management

● First Class Honours Degree

● Dissertation: A Better World beyond the Horizon: The Art and Life of

Christopher Wood (1901-30).

● My dissertation was awarded the 2005 Jeanne Sheehy Memorial Prize.

Research Interests:

• Scandinavian Art in the nineteenth century.

Particularly the artists who interacted with mainstream European art such as Erik Werenskiold (Norway), P. S. Krøyer (Denmark), Anders Zorn (Sweden), Albert Edelfelt (Finland), Thomas Fearnley (Norway)

Artists of the Danish Golden Age and the artists’ colony at Skagen.

• British Art in the twentieth century

C R W Nevinson, Wyndham Lewis, Camden Town & London Groups, First World War, Edward Wadsworth, Mark Gertler, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis. Second World War, Neo-Romantic art, Festival of Britain, early Freud and Bacon, British Cinema 1940-1970.

• Ferrara in the fifteenth century

Duke Borso d’Este and the Este family, the artist Cosmè Tura and his relationship with the Este and Roverella families. The political and ecclesiastical roles of the Roverella, Strozzi and Calcagnini.

Publications

2019 The Painters of Skagen – a Utopia in the North? 

(future) Book chapter from conference proceedings at the University of Aberdeen to be published at end 2019 by the Nordic Research Network (Norvik Press). A discussion of the status of both artists and local inhabitants in the isolated Danish artists’ colony.

2018 Vilhelm Hammershøi at the Exposition Universelle of 1889

Book chapter in Petra Broomans et al. (eds.) Transit – ‘Norden och Europa’ IASS XXXI 2016, Groningen: Barkhuis. pp. 18-41. A chapter that discusses new discoveries I made regarding the four pictures exhibited by Hammershøi at the Exposition.

2017 Exhibition Catalogue: Romanticism in the North – from Friedrich to Turner, Groningen: Groninger Museum

I contributed twenty-seven individual essays on British and Scandinavian artists and their works for this catalogue, including Constable and Turner; the leading author in terms of output. https://vimeo.com/248437742

2016 Ribe Kunstmuseum (Denmark) Guide to the Collection (in English – 72 pages)

A guide that concentrates on the artists of the ‘modern breakthrough’ in the late nineteenth century, and the Danish Golden Age that preceded it. https://ribekunstmuseum.dk/butik/produkter/ribe-art-museum

2016 Erik Werenskiold and James Guthrie: Parallel Pictures in Norway And Scotland

Journal article in Kunst og Kultur, Norway’s leading art history journal. Kunst og Kultur Nr. 2/2016 pp. 84-91.

2016 The Battle of Kringen (1612) and its impact on Norway’s History.

Book chapter in Beyond Borealism: New Perspectives on the North. London: Norvik Press, 2016, pp. 118-134.

2016 Teofilo Calcagnini and the Balance of Power in Estense Ferrara (Published online at Academia.Edu)

This substantial article has received an unqualified endorsement from Richard Tristano, Professor of History at St. Mary’s University, Minnesota. It sheds new light on the painter Cosmè Tura and the illustrator Taddeo Crivelli and their representations of the relationship between the political and ecclesiastical Este and Roverella families in fifteenth-century Ferrara.

2014 ‘By Stream and by Shore’ – Nordic Painters in Artists’ Colonies

Book chapter in Making Room: Nordic Artists, Institutions and Artist Institutions of the Modern Breakthrough published by Den Frie, Copenhagen, pp. 143-156.

2012 “Nordic Art 1880-1920” – Groninger Museum, Netherlands & Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich.

Catalogue contributor including entries for Christian Krohg, Ernst Josephson, Carl Wilhelmson, Thórarinn B. Thorláksson. Bibliographical literature for all Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic artists in the exhibition.

2009 Wyndham Lewis on Canadian Painters:University of Plymouth

In this essay, I examine the considerable role played by Scandinavian painting in the formation of the ideas of the Canadian Group of Seven, and discuss Wyndham Lewis’s art experiences in Canada. http://www.unirioja.es/listenerartcriticism/essays/essay-Wyndham-Lewis-on-Canadian-Painters.htm

2009 Wyndham Lewis and Francis Bacon:University of Plymouth

In this essay, I analyse Bacon’s exhibitions up to 1950, including an original discovery in respect of the artist’s three early versions of a Study after Velázquez. http://www.unirioja.es/listenerartcriticism/essays/essay-Wyndham-Lewis-and-Francis-Bacon.htm

2009 Edward Wadsworth: Lewis’s “salty” obituary of an “old comrade”:University on Plymouth

In this essay, I analyse carefully the way in which Wyndham Lewis, in his Listener obituary of Edward Wadsworth, appears to praise the artist, while neglecting no opportunity to undermine the merit of his art. http://www.unirioja.es/listenerartcriticism/essays/essay-EW-Lewiss-salty-obituary-of-an-old-comrade.htm 

2009 Edward Wadsworth: The Modern and the Maritime:University of Plymouth

In this essay, I analyse the oeuvre of Edward Wadsworth (1889-1949), and demonstrate two previously unrecognised important discoveries. http://www.unirioja.es/listenerartcriticism/essays/essay-EW-The-modern-and-the-maritime.htm

Conference and Symposium Papers

Jan 2019 Caspar David Friedrich Institute for Art History, Greifswald

“Inventing the Pictorial North” KEYNOTE SPEAKER

North Cape to Canada: Painting the Arctic

Aug 2017 University of Aberdeen – Nordic Research Network

The Painters of Skagen – A Cocoon in the North?

Investigating the social relationships between artists and the local population at Skagen.

Jun 2017 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

Balloons, Blimps and Biplanes: Nevinson and Lavery in the Great War

The first representations of aeroplanes and airships made by British artists. 

Nov 2016 Nordic Research Network – UCL, Senate House, London

Thomas Fearnley (1802-42) in Italy.

Aug 2016 University of Groningen – International Association of Scandinavian Studies (IASS) KEYNOTE SPEAKER

The Impact of Nordic Art in Europe 1878-1889

Apr 2016 University of Edinburgh – Association of Art Historians

The Lure of Lofoten (19^th-century depictions of the Lofoten Islands)

Feb 2016 University of Edinburgh – Scandinavian Studies guest lecture

The Significance of Erik Werenskiold’s Painting ‘A Peasant Burial’ (1885)

Oct 2015 Danish and Swedish Institutes – Rome

(“Another Horizon. Northern Painters in Rome 1814-1870”)

Thomas Fearnley: Industry, Sociability, Liminality

Feb 2015 University of Edinburgh (“Nordic Research Network”)

The Battle of Kringen (1612) – A momentous and meaningful event?

Analysis of Nineteenth-century depictions of the battle.

May 2014 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

(“British Waters and Beyond”)

Christopher Wood – Painter of Two Cornwalls

Jan 2014 Aarhus University, Denmark (“Nordic Cosmopolitans”)

Nordic Art: The Modern Breakthrough 1860-1920

Dec 2013 University of Oslo (“After the party: Strategies for future studies on Munch and his Nordic contemporaries”)

Erik Werenskiold: A Peasant Burial

Oct 2013 Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen

(Symposium: “Making Room”)

‘By Stream and by Shore’ – Nordic Painters in Artists’ Colonies

Sept 2013 University of Cork (“War in the Visual Arts”)

C.R.W. Nevinson: The Twenty-First Century

An analysis of recent representations of Nevinson in the popular media allied to a reconsideration of his oeuvre.

Nov 2012 Barber Institute, Birmingham.

J. C. Dahl and the Stave Churches of Norway.

Symposium allied to the Barber’s ‘Thomas Fearnley’ exhibition.

Jun 2012 Tate St. Ives (1928: A Cornish Encounter)

Christopher Wood in Cornwall: Painters and “Primitives”

Engaging with Christopher Wood in the context of his meeting with Alfred Wallis and Ben and Winifred Nicholson.

Apr 2012 University of East Anglia (British Art as International Art)

From Lom to Brig o’ Turk: Parallel Pictures in Scotland and Scandinavia

James Guthrie and the links between art, culture and religion in Scotland and Scandinavia.

Mar 2012 Danish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst)

(International Researchers Conference)
Nordic Success in Paris 1878-1889.

A discussion of Nordic success at the Paris Salon and Expositions Universelles, with an emphasis on Danish artists P. S. Krøyer and Wilhelm Hammershøi.

Oct 2011 University of Leeds (T. J. Clark on “The Sight of Death”)

“A Realistic Death”: Politics, Class and Ritual in Burials and Funerals.

A discussion of T. J. Clark’s ‘Image of the People’ in the presence Clark himself, with reference to Courbet, Erik Werenskiold and James Guthrie.

Dec 2010 University of York (Postgraduate Conference)

Erik Werenskiold

An examination of Werenskiold’s engagement with Scottish art.

June 2010 The Courtauld Institute (New Approaches to British Art 1939-69)

Keith Vaughan: The Dynamic Tension of Man versus Terrain.

A re-examination of the tension inherent in the work of Keith Vaughan. It analyses the figurative elements in his work, and the relationship between those figures and his representation of landscape.

March 2009 Concordia University, Montreal (Art and its Historians)

Herbert P. Horne: ‘Arid Burrower’ of the Florentine Archives.

Herbert Horne, Bernard Berenson and art historical methodologies.

April 2008 Tate Britain, London (AAH Annual Conference)

Lippo Memmi: Exemplar per eccellenza of the familial and familiar in the Sienese Trecento.

Lippo Memmi, Simone Martini and their familial production of art.

April 2007 University of Ulster, Belfast (AAH Annual Conference)

Rodrigo Moynihan and the ‘missing Minton’ – the photograph as agent of revelation and inertia.

John Minton, Rodrigo Moynihan, Francis Bacon and the use of the camera in artistic practice.

Sept. 2005 University of Nottingham (AAH students)

Christopher Wood: The Zebra and the Parachute.

Christopher Wood and his use of George Stubbs as source material.