Griselda Pollock: Was Van Gogh a Victorian Artist?

6 Dec 2023 7-8pm

Overview

Join art historian Griselda Pollock in a lecture exploring the challenging idea that Van Gogh was, at heart, more a Victorian than a modern artist.

It is well-known that Van Gogh was inspired to start drawing by the social themes and graphic styles he encountered in English illustrated magazines such as The Graphic.

Less recognized is the fact that Van Gogh was an avid reader of the novels of Charles Dickens and George Eliot. His somewhat reactionary political imagination was furthermore inspired by the writings of the influential Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, whose ideas shaped two of his most famous paintings, The Potato Eaters (1885) and Starry Night (1888).The lecture will examine the difference between a Victorian sense of modernity and the Parisian modernity, and modern art, that Van Gogh in fact resisted.

Part of The Living House, celebrating 150 years since Van Gogh lived in South London.

This event is sponsored by Brixton Brewery. Each in-person ticket comes with a free can of limited edition The Living House Pale Ale.

Online talk tickets will include access to watch the event live, and a link to the recording will be available for two weeks afterwards.

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Griselda Pollock is Professor emerita of Social and Critical Histories of Art at the University of Leeds. For her work as a feminist art historian and cultural theorist she was awarded the Holberg Prize in 2020 and CAA Life-time Achievement Award for Writing on Art in 2023.
 

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