
A trio of public lectures on portraiture by three leading art historians: David H. Solkin FBA (Courtauld Institute of Art), Kate Retford (Birkbeck, University of London) and Martin Myrone (Tate Britain). These scholars are coming to Melbourne as part of the University of Melbourne’s international conference, Human Kind: Transforming Identity in British and Australian Portraits, 1700-1914 and will present three free lectures at the NGV. Information and bookings for the full Human Kind conference can be found here. David Solkin: English or European? Portraiture and the Politics of National Identity in Early Georgian Britain. Thursday 8 September, 6:00pm. Clemenger Theatre, National Gallery of Victoria (International). The influence of European art created a fundamental shift in British portraiture in the mid eighteenth-century. With some artists championing native tradition and others embracing Continental trends, a struggling national identity was played out in British portraiture.…