THE ART OF LOOKING: ART, SCIENCE, AND OBSERVATION IN LATE ENLIGHTENMENT BRITAIN

Abstract

This project will examine the artistic and visual culture of the late Enlightenment (roughly 1750-1830) with a focus on Great Britain. Specifically, I will be examining how the New Science of the Enlightenment, with its focus on learning from observable natural phenomena, gave rise to a new, active relationship between artwork and spectator/observer. While there is a great deal of writing on both the art and science history of the Enlightenment, this project is rare in its focus on the connection between the two and its focus on British art in particular. This connection manifests in the art of science, representations of science in art, and institutional crossover between the worlds of art and science in late Enlightenment Britain.