Truth and Nature in British Art

Kress Fellow in the Literature of Art before the Age of Art History Frédéric Ogée presents, “Truth and Nature in British Art.”

This lecture will survey British artists’ writings from c. 1700–1920, bringing out the priorities and values shared by those artists, and the ways in which they addressed artistic ‘truth to nature’ in relation to contemporary scientific discourse.

Frédéric Ogée is professor of British literature and art history at Université Paris Diderot. His main period of research is the long 18th-century, and his publications include two collections of essays on William Hogarth, as well as ‘Better in France’? The Circulation of Ideas across the Channel in the 18th Century (Lewisburg, 2005), Diderot and European Culture (Oxford, 2006), and J.M.W. Turner, Les Paysages absolus (Paris, 2010). In 2006–07, he co-curated the first-ever exhibition on Hogarth for the Louvre. In 2014–2017 he was a member of Tate Britain’s Advisory Council. He is currently preparing a book and exhibition on Thomas Lawrence for 2019.