Course Catalogue

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The course is an introduction to the art market in late nineteenth century Britain and the differing approaches of a selected group of artists to exhibiting and selling their work

1 x 1hr lecture; 1 x 1hr seminar per week over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in History of Art and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History of Art, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

None

None

Examination (90 minutes duration) open exam within 24 hours - 40%

Essay (2,500 words) - 40%

Seminar presentation of 10 minutes accompanied by 800 word paper or PowerPoint slides - 20%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ introduce students to the institutions and commercial practices of the art world in late 19th century Britain and to explain how these interacted

■ establish key themes and debates that influenced the art market

■ explore and evaluate the practices of individual artists in the context of the art market and wider social and political change

■ relate the art trade in London (and one or two other British major cities such as Manchester and Glasgow) to other leading centres of global artistic commerce such as Paris and New York.

■ familiarise students with approaches to the production and reception of art that remain crucial to our understanding of the modern day art market

■ encourage pro-active learning through seminar participation, seminar presentations, the use of online resources such as the Rossetti Archive and the Whistler Correspondence and the possible use of Moodle web-forums.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

■ articulate a clear understanding of the late 19th century art trade in Britain in its economic and cultural context

■ analyse the way the selected individual artists interacted with the art market and the differing approaches taken by these artists

■ display in their written and oral work a critical appreciation of the roots of the modern day art market in the 19th century

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.