Jessica Fahy Art Historian

This course will trace the development of art and architecture on the British Isles from 1714 to 1830, during the reign of four King Georges, a time when the art world changed dramatically. Wealthy travellers who went on the Grand Tour amassed great collections from continental European and even brought back artists to decorate their extravagant country houses. British and Irish artists were in competition with this favouritism of non-native art and consequently formed the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy to drawn attention and give prestige to home ground talent. The artworks, buildings, furniture and even gardens designed and produced reflect a time of great social change that saw the growth of cities and the beginning of the Industrial revolution as well as political and social revolt in Ireland and in the American colonies. This era witnessed the birth of romanticism with poetry by Lord Byron and William Wordsworth as well as novels by Jane Austen and Mary Shelley. Many visual artists and architects responded to this new way of looking at the world. Some of the artist to be discussed include William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, James Barry, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner and architects William Chambers, John Nash, James Gandon, landscape architect Capability Brown.