The Department of History is delighted to announce that the collaborative doctoral studentship, in partnership with the National Gallery, London, will be taken up by Alison Clarke, who is currently completing her MA at the Warburg Institute, London.
Alison will be undertaking research on issues of authentication and attribution in relation to the authorship of Old Master paintings, using archives at the National Gallery. These include the newly-acquired Agnews archive. The Agnew family originated in Liverpool and set up as art dealers in Manchester, before expanding to Liverpool and London, where they established themselves as purveyors of Old Master paintings to individual collectors and art galleries, including the National Gallery. Issues of authorship remain central to the art market so research into the history of practices associated with identification of works will help curators and collectors to understand the context for historic attributions and their validity today. The project will be supervised by Dr Alexandrina Buchanan and Dr Dmitri van den Bersselaar of the University of Liverpool and Alan Crookham, Research Centre Manager at the National Gallery
The National Gallery is delighted to be working with one of the UK’s leading research universities on a project that will help inform both our understanding of the Gallery’s past and its work today. - Alan Crookham