British Art and Sensibility at the NGV (AHIS90010)

The course will be taught by Professor Jeanette Hoorn and Mr Hugh Belsey in situ at the National Gallery of Victoria. We will focus upon the eighteenth century collection of British painting held by the gallery. With the emergence of science and the development of a complex market in the cities of England and Europe came a new culture of sensibility that came to influence all levels of social interaction. The culture of sensibility, conveyed through both the arts and sciences, placed a new emphasis on understanding the senses and how both the body and the natural world interacted. In this course, we will read the culture of sensibility through some of the best eighteenth century British paintings in the world that are housed in Melbourne's collection focussing in particular, on the materiality of paint on canvas and how it creates meaning for the viewer. We will teach directly in front of the painting in the gallery in which each work of art is housed asking students to join in with the discussion and to present their perceptions of how the works under examination contributed to and shaped this very exciting revolutionary eighteenth century culture.