The Watson Gordon Lecture 2011

The lecture was given by Mark Hallett of the University of York. An eminent expert on English art of the eighteenth century, Professor Hallett has published books and organised exhibitions on Hogarth, Reynolds and Gillray, as well as co-editing a book on the city of York at that period. By engagingly concentrating on a set of thirteen portraits painted by Sir Joshua for the Thrale family, he brings us into lively and intimate contact with intellectual life in London at the time. 

Professor Hallett moved to the Paul Mellon Centre in October 2012, after having spent eighteen years teaching at the University of York, where he was appointed a Professor in 2006. Hallett is best known for his writings on eighteenth-century graphic satire and on Georgian portraiture, and on the artists William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds.

He has also published essays on the new exhibition culture of Georgian London and about the visual imagery of London and York in the eighteenth-century. Hallett has been involved in curating a number of major exhibitions, including James Gillray: The Art of Caricature (Tate Britain, 2001), Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity (Tate Britain, 2005) Hogarth (Tate Britain, 2007), and William Etty: Art and Controversy (York Art Gallery, 2011).
 

Series: The Watson Gordon Lecture Series

The Watson Gordon Lectures, established in 2006, typify the long-standing collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland.

Each lecture is by a leading scholar and reveals new research on a focused topic. The lectures are delivered and published annually, and now number eight titles in the series.