AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Studentship:
“Authenticity and Attribution in the Agnew’s and National Gallery Archives 1855-1932”
The University of Liverpool and the National Gallery (London) invite applications for the fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentship: “Authenticity and Attribution in the Agnew’s and National Gallery Archives 1855-1932”.
Using the recently-acquired archives of the firm of Thos. Agnew & Sons, as well as the institutional archives of the National Gallery, the proposed project will examine the history of provenance research in both commercial and public contexts during a period of time when there was a vigorous debate between connoisseurial and evidential approaches to attribution and authentication. It will examine the methods used for the attribution of paintings sold by Agnew’s and acquired by the National Gallery in a period when the Gallery shifted towards a more connoisseur-led approach to acquisitions and how the archives supported and documented these methods and decisions.
The project is situated at an exciting juncture between the developing fields of art historiography, collection studies and archival science. Candidates with demonstrable interest and experience in any of these areas are particularly encouraged to apply.
The successful candidate will profit from the academic and practical resources of both partner institutions, becoming a full participant in the international community of research students at the University of Liverpool while also having the opportunity to gain first-hand professional experience of archive work at the National Gallery in London, including cataloguing, digitization, conservation and exhibitions work. The student will contribute to the Gallery’s research strategy and participate in its rich programme of public events, study days and student seminars in order to disseminate research findings to academic and non-academic audiences.
PhD studentship award
The AHRC studentship award pays for the student’s fees to study at the University of Liverpool and also pays an annual Research Council maintenance grant. For the academic year 2014-15, the student will receive (subject to confirmation from the AHRC) a maintenance grant of £13,863 and an additional maintenance supplement of £550 (paid to Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship holders). Further details on AHRC studentships are available here: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Postgraduate-funding/Pages/Current-award-holders.aspx. In addition to this remuneration from the AHRC, the student can claim up to £1000 in research-related travel expenses directly from the National Gallery, during each year of the award.
The successful holder of the studentship will be supervised by academics at the University of Liverpool (Dr. Alexandrina Buchanan and Dr Dmitri van den Bersselaar) and the National Gallery’s Research Centre Manager (Mr Alan Crookham), whose research interests span archives, art historiography, business history and the history of collecting. As well as intellectual support from research communities at both supervising institutions, the student will be allocated a shared office with other History PGR students at the University of Liverpool and shared office space at the National Gallery. The student will also benefit from association with the Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies (www.liv.ac.uk/lucas), which coordinates research and outreach activities within the field of archive studies and offers an active partnership between the University and the archival profession.
Full details including eligibility criteria and application procedures (closing date 14 April 2014) are available online at http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/jobvacancies/currentvacancies/studentships/phd-agnewnat/.
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