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BA (Birmingham), MA (Courtauld Institute), PhD (Cantab)
Anthony Geraghty is Professor of the History of Art.
He is an architectural historian, with a specialist interest in the early modern period in England.
He was Chairman of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain from 2015-18, and a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, Michaelmas term, 2018.
He joined the Department in 2002, having previously taught at the Glasgow School of Art in 1998-2002.
Chair of Graduate Studies
I first studied the history of architecture at the University of Birmingham (1990-93) and the Courtauld Institute of Art (1993-94). I then wrote a PhD at Cambridge on the rebuilding of the City Churches after the Great Fire of London. In 2007 I published the Architectural Drawings of Sir Christopher Wren at All Souls College, Oxford (Lund Humphries, 2007), which describes one of the key sources of British architectural history. The book shows how Wren went about designing one the largest cathedral in Europe, over fifty parish churches, numerous royal buildings, and much else besides. It also gives the first detailed account of Wren’ s office practice.
My recent work explores how architecture was conceived and understood in Renaissance and Baroque England (its intellectual history) with a view to better understanding how it was deployed and received (its cultural history). These interests informed my second book, The Sheldonian Theatre: Architecture and Learning in Seventeenth-Century Oxford (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Alice Davies Hitchcock Medallion (2014), awarded annually by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain for the best book on architectural history. The research for this book was funded by the British Academy.
I have also published on the historiography of British architectural history (including studies of John Summerson and Howard Colvin), and on the French architect and collector Hippolyte Destailleur (1822-93).
I am currently writing two short books: one on the exiled Empress Eugénie and the juxtaposition of history and historicism at the end of the nineteenth century, due for publication in 2020; and one on the English Baroque and ideas of architectural form, which I hope to publish by 2025 at the latest.
Large grants & research awards include:
In Progress
Awarded
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Departmental and University Administration
2015-18 |
Director of York Art History Collaborations |
2013-14 |
Chair of the Board of Studies (Director of Teaching Programmes, Department of History of Art) |
2013-14 | Senior Management Team, member |
2013-14 | Chair, Teaching Committee |
2014 | Acting Director of PhD Programme (summer term) |
2013 | REF 2014 Working Party |
2011-13 | Research Committee, member |
2011-13 | Graduate Committee, member |
2011-13 | Director of PhD Programme |
2010-13 | Director of Research School in Architectural History and Theory |
2008-10 | Period of dedicated research, funded by a British Academy Research Development Award and University of York Anniversary Lectureship |
2006-08 | Chair of the Board of Studies |
2006-08 | Co-chair, modularisation working group |
2004-06 | Careers Officer |
2003-04 | Research Seminar Convenor |
2002-04 | Open Day Officer |
Papers/Public Lectures (select) |
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Feb 2020 |
Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge, research seminar: 'Wren, Beauty, and Trinity College Library, Cambridge’
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June 2019 |
In conversation with Robin Darwell-Smith at the Sheldonian Theatre, 9 June 2019, to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Theatre’s opening: ‘Wren and Handel at the Sheldonian: Oxford and the Wider World'
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Nov 2018 |
Oxford Architectural History Seminar: ‘History, Historiography, Historicism: The Imperial Mausoleum at Farnborough Abbey’
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Oct 2018 |
Visiting Fellows’ Colloquiam, All Souls College, Oxford: ‘The English Baroque Revisited’
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March 2018 |
All Souls College, Oxford, Eighteenth-Century Seminar
‘‘Gothick’ and ‘solid’: Hawksmoor's work at All Souls reconsidered’
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Nov 2017 |
Northern Architectural History Society, Newcastle University
‘Sir Christopher Wren and architectural drawing'
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March 2017 |
Department of History, University of Kent, Research Seminar
‘Art, Architecture, Exile: the Empress Eugénie in Farnborough, 1880-1920
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March 2017 | Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, Architectural History and Theory Seminar. ‘Architecture about Architecture: Castle Howard and the English Baroque Architecture' |
Dec 2016 |
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, Research Seminar, ‘The Empress Eugénie in Exile: Collecting and Display at Farnborough Hill, 1880-1920’
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Nov 2016 | Department of History of Art, University of Birmingham, Research Seminar, 'Art, Architecture, Exile: The Empress Eugénie in Farnborough, 1880-1920' |
May 2016 | Centre for Anglophone Studies, Aix-Marseille University. Aix-en-Provence, ‘Stones under pressure: Castle Howard and the nature of English baroque architecture' |
Nov 2015 |
Department of History of Art, University of Oxford, Research Seminar, ‘Architecture about Architecture: Castle Howard and the English Baroque’
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June 2015 | Gresham College, London/City of London Festival 'Sir Christopher Wren and the Rebuilding of the City Churches after the Great Fire of London |
March 2015 |
Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge: |
March 2015 |
The Oxford Literary Festival |
Dec 2014 | Edgar Wind Society for Art History, University of Oxford In conversation Dr Walker Matthew at the Sheldonian Theatre |
Dec 2011 | Courtauld Institute of Art, London Seminar for Early Modern Visual Studies ‘The Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford and Contemporary Debates about Learning' |
July 2009 |
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford |
May 2009 | All Souls College, Oxford: Chichele Lecture 'Christopher Wren and the Restoration' |
Nov 2007 | St John's College, Oxford: Oxford Architectural History Seminar, '"The Tyranny of the Intellect": Christopher Wren, T.S. Eliot and John Summerson’ |
May 2004 | St John's College, Oxford: Oxford Architectural History Seminar ‘Wren, Restoration Oxford, and the Sheldonian Theatre’ |
Feb 2004 | The Victorian Society, London ‘H.A.G.W. Destailleur in England’ |
May 2002 | University of Glasgow, Department of History of Art 'Wren's Preliminary Design for the Sheldonian Theatre' |
Nov 1998 | Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Architecture Seminar 'Sir Christopher Wren and Architectural Drawing' |
Oct 1996 | University of Cambridge, Department of History of Art 'Sir Christopher Wren and the City Church Office' |
Conference Papers (select) |
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Nov 2018 |
Sir Richard Wallace and His Age: Connoisseurs, Collectors & Philanthropists', The Wallace Collection, London, 15-16 November 2018: ‘An Imperial Collection in Exile: The Empress Eugénie in Farnborough, 1880-1920'. |
May 2018 | Words/Works/Walls: Conceptual Architectures in Visual Culture (Ertegun House for the Humanities, University of Oxford) '"The Beauty and Strength of the Building”: The Representation of the Masonry Wall at Castle Howard' |
May 2018 | English Architecture 1690-1750: to be or not to be Palladian (Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, 11-13 May) 'Form and Idea: ‘baroque’ and ‘Palladianism’ at Castle Howard' |
Sept 2016 |
The Northern European Country House (Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies/Department of Archaeology, University of York) |
April 2016 |
Architectural Drawings Symposium 2016 (Drawing Matter Trust/Victoria and Albert Museum, London) |
March 2015 | Animating the Eighteenth-Century Country House (National Gallery, London; Birkbeck College, London, and the Paul Mellon Centre, London) ‘Experiencing Castle Howard’. |
Sept 2013 | British Art 1660-1735: Close Readings II (Paul Mellon Centre, London) ‘Castle Howard and the meaning of English Baroque architecture’ |
May 2011 | British Art 1660-1735: Close Readings I (Tate Britain, London) 'Robert Streater at the Sheldonian' |
May 2011 | Architectural History after Colvin (Annual Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, St John's College, Oxford) 'History and Architectural History: Colvin's Canterbury Quadrangle' |
July 2010 | Society for Renaissance Studies, 4th Biannual Conference, York Panel: The Built Frontispiece. 'The Built Frontispiece in Caroline Oxford' |
Nov 2006 | Histories of British Architecture: Where Next? (The Yale Center for British Art, US). 'Drawing as evidence' |
July 2006 | Rethinking the Baroque (Centre for Renaissaince and Early Modern Studies, University of York) ‘Nicholas Hawksmoor; A Baroque Draughtsman?’ |
June 2004 | John Summerson and Henry Russell Hitchcock: A Centenary Conference (Paul Mellon Centre, London). ‘Summerson on Wren’ |
Jan 2004 | Dutch Architectural Interchange (The Georgian Group, London) ‘William de Keyser and Wren’s St Mary-le-Bow’ |
April 2001 | L’Architecture Normande en Europe: Identités et Echanges (University of Caen, France) ‘L’abbaye Saint-Michel, Farnborough: un mausolée gothique pour Napoléon III’ |
May 2001 | Architectural Drawing (Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford) ‘Wren’s designs for Whitehall Palace’ |
Oct 2001 | International conference on architectural drawing (Netherlands Architectural Institute, Rotterdam) 'Architectural Drawing in early modern England' |
March 2000 | The Dome (The Annual Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, St John's College, Oxford) 'Sir Christopher Wren and the Dome of St Paul's' |