Senior Lecturer, Fine Art
I have taught History of Art and Design at the Lincoln School of Art and Design for over a decade. My research focuses on artistic depictions of the English Landscape and, in particular, the paintings, drawings and prints from the period c.1810-1850 that depict the landscape of unenclosed England - common, waste and heathland - that the wave of enclosure by parliamentary act in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries all but eradicated.
I have researched and found nearly 200 such depictions, examining these in relation to the actual locations represented, against the social and agricultural change in the landscape itself, and as part of the overall development of the English landscape painting genre. To date, any studies of this subject have been few and limited, and this is the first extensive study of this subject.
I co-curated (in 2007) a major exhibition on the early-nineteenth century landscape painter, Peter DeWint, at ‘The Collection’ Lincoln, the Lincolnshire County Museum, and made a chapter contribution, ‘Peter DeWint and the Lincolnshire Landscape’ to the accompanying monograph/catalogue for this exhibition, Peter DeWint 1784-1849: For the Common Observer of Life and Art, Lund Humphries, 2007, pp. 29-39.
I am also interested in post-World War Two British society and popular culture, in particular the connections between pop music and social change during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and the social history of the English Council Estate.I am a member of the following learned societies:
- Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology
- British Association for Romantic Studies
Postgraduate Tuition
I have recently successfully co-supervised two MPhil/PhD projects: one on the representation of the Scottish highland habitat in the paintings of Edwin Landseer, and one on a little-known German Enlightenment figure, Jacob Christian Schaffer (1718-1790).
I would be interested in hearing from students who are considering study for either an MPhil and PhD in the areas of English landscape art and rural society c.1700-2000; British Art c.1700-2000, and British Popular Culture and Social History 1945-1980.
Funded Research
I am involved in an AHRC-funded collaborative project (with colleagues from the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sussex, and English Heritage) entitled 'Changing landscapes, changing environments: enclosure and culture in Northamptonshire, 1700-1900'.
The project was one of 10 successful bids out of 120 applications, for an AHRC large research grant programme centred on a theme of ‘Landscape and Environment’. The team was awarded a total of £400,000 for the three-year project which started in September 2007.
My role in the project is to examine pictorial and literary representations of the Northamptonshire landscape before, during and after enclosure. In particular, I will look at the work of the little-known regional artist, George Clarke of Scaldwell, Northamptonshire.
See the project website: http://www.landscapeandenclosure.com for more information and details of forthcoming associated conferences, workshops etc.
Forthcoming Curatorial Activities
In the spring/summer of 2010, the final year of the AHRC project, I will be responsible for curating an exhibition of George Clarke’s work which will be held in what will be the newly restored birthplace of the nineteenth century poet, John Clare, John Clare’s Cottage at Helpston, Northants, in collaboration with the John Clare Trust.
Recent publications:
Book Chapter:
'The Common Field Landscape, Cultural Commemoration and the Impact of Enclosure, c.1770-1850' in Matthew Cragoe and Paul Readman (eds), The Land Question in Britain 1750-1950, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 19-36.
Journal Article:
‘‘The prospect far and wide’: An eighteenth century drawing of Langley Bush and Helpston’s unenclosed countryside’ in John Clare Society Journal, 26, July 2009, pp. 5-22.
Latest papers deposited on the University of Lincoln Institutional Repository (click on the links below):
Full profile - click here.