TheAmerican Pre-Raphaelites launched the earliest reform movement in the history of American art.Founded in 1863,in the midst of the American Civil War, the movement comprised politically radical, abolitionist artists, joined by like-minded architects, critics, and scientists.In the decade that followed, the American Pre-Raphaelitesexecuted paintings, designed buildings, and published criticismthatmarriedprinciples of social equity, civicengagement, and beauty.Such work, theybelieved,couldfosterlastingculturaland political reform.
This lecture explores how the American Pre-Raphaelitesdismantlednational traditions of painting, embracingmodels of landscape theory and artistic praxis drawn from across the Atlantic. In contrast to their more prominent colleagues, ٳartistsnow known as the “Hudson River School,” the American Pre-Raphaelites established themselves as eloquent critics of slavery andantebellum American society.
Dr.SophieLynfordis the Rousseau Curatorial Fellow in European Art at the Harvard Art Museums.She specializesin Americanand Britishart of ٳnineteenthcentury,with a focus on transregional exchange within the Atlantic World. Her current book project,Egalitarian Optics: Art, Ethics, and the American Pre-Raphaelites, examines the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the United States, its interdisciplinary priorities, and itspassionate commitment to abolitionand radical reform.Prior to joining the Harvard Art Museums,shewas the Douglass Foundation Fellow in American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and worked in the curatorial departments of the New-York Historical Society and the Yale Center for British Art.She was co-curator of the 2018 exhibition,Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritanceat the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and co-author of the accompanying publication.Shereceived her doctorate in art history from Yale University.
Organised by Professor David Peters Corbett (The Courtauld)
