PhD students 3rd cohort

2013–2017 Undergraduate studies in History of Art and British Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the University of Dresden

2017–2018 Postgraduate studies in History of Art (British Art) at the University of York; MA thesis on the topic of New Woman, Gibson Girl, Suffragette: The Woman Question at the Fin de Siècle in the Work of Eleanor   Fortescue Brickdale

2016–2020 Postgraduate studies in History of Art at the University of Dresden and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena; MA thesis on the topic of German Pre-Raphaelitism: Pre-Raphaelite Receptions in the Work of Heinrich Vogeler

2019 Editor employee (English) for the research project Hearts of Flesh - Not Stone at the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies at the Theological Faculty

2020–2021 Research Assistant for Prof. Dr Johannes Grave at the Department of History of Art and Film Studies within the DFG research project Time and Rhythm in Pictures. An Aesthetic Concept and Its Implications from the Point of View of Reception Aesthetics

since 2021 Research Assistant for the research group ‘European Romanticism’ at the Department of History of Art and Film Studies at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and associated PhD Student at the Research Training Group ‘The Romantic Model’

Pre-Raphaelitism in the Context of Romanticism

Critics have described Pre-Raphaelite art as a breach with the prevailing conventions of the Royal Academy. Recent publications often present Pre-Raphaelite artists as representatives of a Victorian avant-garde movement and pioneers of modernism. However, art historical evidence from the late 19th and early 20th centuries shows commentators frequently attributing Pre-Raphaelite paintings as Romantic, despite their deviant visual language. My PhD dissertation refers to these Romantic attributions and explores this alleged connection. Selected examples of Pre-Raphaelite work are examined for Romantic characteristics. This examination locates the phenomenon of Pre-Raphaelitism within British Romanticism. The research combines three methodological approaches to investigate the affinities and divergences between Pre-Raphaelitism and Romanticism. A reception-historical approach is used to investigate what the Pre-Raphaelites understood by Romantic and to assess the extent of critical perception of Pre-Raphaelite work as Romantic. The image analyses of the project consider central and hitherto little-noted works from the three phases of Pre-Raphaelitism (1848 to c. 1940). Romantic aspects of landscape, history and genre paintings are reviewed. Comparing both phenomena calls for a flexible concept of Romanticism, which allows identifying specifics without claiming general validity. Model theory is employed to create a model of Romanticism as a heuristic basis through which bundles of characteristics can be generated. Applying a model-theoretical approach creates a system for tracing which characteristics of Romanticism were transported through three generations of Pre-Raphaelite artists into the 20th century. The visual characteristics of Pre-Raphaelite paintings have often taken a back seat to literary, historical and biographical narratives in previous critical examinations of these works. This doctoral project offers new insights on the Pre-Raphaelite artworks through an emphasis on reception aesthetics.

• ‘Heinrich Vogeler und die Rhythmusdebatte um 1900: Zur Konstruktion und Rezeption von Bildrhythmen in Heinrich Vogelers Jugendstilgraphiken für den Inselverlag’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 47 (2020): 217–44.
• ‘New Woman in Disguise: The Art of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale and the Woman Question at the Fin de Siècle’, in Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Art, Poetry and Female Agency in Victorian Britain, ed. Glenda Youde and Robert Wilkes (Oxford: Peter Lang 2022). (Forthcoming)
• ‘Depicting and Remembering Prince Albert in the 21st Century: The Role of Youth and Germanness in the ITV Series Victoria’, in Coburg in Europa: Albert und Victoria – Wege und Wirkungen, Prinz-Albert-Studien 37, ed. Frank-Lothar Kroll, (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2022). (Forthcoming)

• 11/2015 Hidden Symbolism in Millais’ ‘Christ in the House of His Parents’: A Pre-Raphaelite Creation or a Reversion to Old Traditions? at the IV. International Congress of Art History Students, Zagreb University, Croatia
• 10/2016 The Emergence of the Working Class in English and German Art of the 19th Century at the V. International Congress of Art History Students, Zagreb University, Croatia
• 06/2017 ‘Truth to Nature’: The Pre-Raphaelite Studies of Nature as a Trailblazing Project for the Establishment of a Victorian Avant-Garde at the 92nd KSK, Münster, Germany
• 01/2018 The Pre-Raphaelite Re-interpretation of van Eyck’s Paternoster in the Arnolfini Portrait as a Symbolisation of Victorian Gender Constructions at the Postgraduate Panel of the International Conference Arnolfini Histories: Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and its Receptions, National Gallery, London, UK
• 08/2019 Depicting Albert, Prince Consort: The Role of Youth and Germanness in the ITV Series ‘Victoria’ at the Prince Albert Festival Conference What Was and What Remains? Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Now and Then, Coburg, Germany
• 12/2019 The Woman Question at the Fin de Siècle in the Work of Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale at the Conferenc Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Making Art, University of York, UK