This symposium explores the depiction of women and sexuality in eighteenth-century culture

10:00-17:00 | Keynes Library, Birkbeck, University of London

Tickets £40, £30 concessions & Foundling Friends

Drawing on the themes of love, friendship, passion and violence in our exhibition Basic Instincts, this symposium uses the art of Joseph Highmore and his contemporaries to explore depictions of women and sexuality in eighteenth-century culture. Chaired by Dr Kate Retford, Head of Birkbeck’s Department of History of Art, the day includes a keynote talk by Highmore expert Dr Jacqueline Riding. Full programme to be announced.

Dr Jacqueline Riding specialises in Georgian history and art, with over twenty-five years’ experience working as a curator and consultant within a broad range of museums, galleries and historic buildings. From 1993–9 she was Assistant Curator of the Palace of Westminster and later founding Director of the Handel House Museum, London (now Handel/Hendrix). She has published widely on early Georgian art and history, including her major book Jacobites: A New History of the ’45 Rebellion (Bloomsbury, 2016) and to coincide with this exhibition, Basic Instincts: Love, Lust and Violence in the Art of Joseph Highmore (Paul Holberton publishing, 2017).