Mark Louis Hallett (born 11 March 1965) is an English

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

specialising in the history of British art. He is the Märit Rausing Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Career

Hallett, who grew up in mid-Wales, attended his local secondary school in Tregaron, Cardiganshire. He studied for his undergraduate degree at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, graduating from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1986, and studied for a master's degree (1989) and a PhD (1996) at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

. He was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1990–91. Having been appointed lecturer in 1994, he spent 18 years teaching history of art at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, where he was made a professor in 2006. He was head of the History of Art department at York between 2007 and 2012, and a member of the University's ''Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies''. Hallett was appointed director of studies at the Paul Mellon Centre in October 2012. In this role, he oversaw a major expansion of the Centre's premises, personnel, activities and remit. Under his leadership, the Centre became known for supporting and publishing research on British art and architecture of all periods, having previously been distinguished by its primary focus on the art of the Georgian era. In this same period, the Centre became recognised for its pioneering forms of online publication, its transformative support of th
British Art Network
its expanded learning and events programme, and its ambitious in-house research projects. During his time as director, Hallett has also oversaw the launch of a succession of new funding streams within the Centre's Grants and Fellowships programme. These have included two rounds of Research Continuity Grants, which were designed to sustain art-historical research during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the continuing New Narratives initiative, which is intended to support the development of a more diverse range of scholarly voices in the field of British art studies. As an art historian, Hallett is best known for his writings on eighteenth-century graphic satire, exhibition culture and portraiture, and for his books and catalogues on the artists

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

and

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

. He also co-edited and contributed to the major online publication, ''The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769–2018'' (Paul Mellon Centre, 2018). More recently, he has been working on modern and contemporary British art, and has published on figures such as Michael Andrews and

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (29 April 1931 – 11 November 2024) was a German-born British painter. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of Lo ...

. He has also become involved in making films about different aspects of British art, and is currently working on a film project devoted to ''The Procession'', by the contemporary artist

Hew Locke Hew Donald Joseph Locke (born 13 October 1959) is a British sculpture, sculptor and contemporary visual artist based in Brixton, London. In 2000, he won a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists, Paul Hamlyn Award and the EASTinternational Awar ...

. Hallett has also been involved in curating numerous major exhibitions, including ''James Gillray: The Art of Caricature'' (

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

, 2001); ''

: The Creation of Celebrity'' (

, 2005); ''Hogarth'' (

, 2007); ''William Etty: Art and Controversy'' (

York Art Gallery York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...

, 2011); ''

: Experiments in Paint'' (

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse (Great Britain), townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquess of Hertford, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wall ...

, 2015); ''The Great Spectacle: 250 Years of the Summer Exhibition'' (Royal Academy, 2018); and ''George Shaw: A Corner of a Foreign Field'' (Yale Center for British Art, 2018). In 2019, he co-curated the Tate Britain Spotlight Display
Vital Fragments: Nigel Henderson and the Art of Collage
'. Hallett has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He gave the 2011 Watson Gordon lecture at the Scottish National Gallery and the 2019 Aspects of Art lecture at the British Academy. In 2021, he was appointed a member of th
Reviewing Committee for the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest

Publications

Books and catalogues

* ''Frank Auerbach: Drawings of People'' (co-edited with Catherine Lampert), Paul Mellon Centre, 2022 * '' George Shaw: A Corner of a Foreign Field'' (ed.), Yale University Press, 2018 * ''The Great Spectacle: 250 Years of the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

Summer Exhibition'' (co-authored with Sarah Turner), Royal Academy Publishing, 2018 * ''Court, Country, City: Essays on British Art and Architecture, 1660–1735'' (co-edited with Martin Myrone and Nigel Llewellyn),

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

'','' 2016 * ''

: Experiments in Paint'' (edited with Lucy Davis), The Wallace Collection, 2015 * '' Reynolds: Portraiture in Action'', Yale University Press, 2014 * ''Living with the

'': ''Artistic Ideals and Experiences in England'', ''1769-1848'' (ed. with Sarah Monks and John Barrel)l, Ashgate, 2013 * ''Faces in a Library: ‘

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

’s ‘Streatham Worthies’'' (The Watson Gordon Lecture 2011),

National Galleries of Scotland The National Galleries of Scotland (, sometimes also known as National Galleries Scotland) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the Nation ...

, 2012 * ''

William Etty William Etty (10 March 1787 – 13 November 1849) was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude figures. He was the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes. Born in York, he left sch ...

: Art and Controversy'' (ed. with Sarah Burnage and Laura Turner), Philip Wilson Publishers, 2011 * '' Hogarth'' (co-authored with Christine Riding), Tate Publishing, 2007 * ''Eighteenth Century

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

: Culture, Space and Society,'' ed. with Jane Rendall, Borthwick Institute, 2003 * '' Hogarth'', Phaidon Press, 2000 * ''The Spectacle of Difference: Graphic Satire in the Age of Hogarth'', Yale University Press, 1999

Online Publications

*
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle
1769–2018 (co-editor)'' Paul Mellon Centre, 2018

Films and Recorded Lectures

''The Original: William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress (1732)''
made with Jon Law, Paul Mellon Centre, 2021
''The Sequel: William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress (1733-5)''
made with Jon Law, Paul Mellon Centre, 2021
''Making an Impact: Thomas Lawrence's'' Arthur Atherley ''(1792)''
Paul Mellon Centre, 2020
''Displaying the Hero: John Singleton Copley's'' The Death of Major Peirson ''(1784)''
Paul Mellon Centre, 2020
''Walking the Streets: William Hogarth''’s The Four Times of Day ''(1736-8)''
Paul Mellon Centre, 2020
Fragments: Nigel Henderson and the Art of Collage''
12 short films made with Rosie Ram and Jon Law, Paul Mellon Centre, 2019

Articles and Essays

* �
The newspaper man: Michael Andrews and the art of painted collage
��, ''The Journal of the British Academy'', volume 8 (2020) * ‘A Double Capacity: Gainsborough at the Summer Exhibition’, in Christoph Vogtherr (ed.), ''

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...

: The Modern Landscape'', Hamburger Kunstalle, 2018 * ‘Cornucopia: Royal Female Portraiture and the Imperatives of Reproduction’ (co-authored with Cassandra Albinson), in Joanna Marschner (ed.), ''Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World'', Yale University Press, 2017 * ''‘''A monument to intimacy: Joshua Reynolds's The Marlborough Family', ''in Art History'', Vol.31, no. 5, 2008 * 'Reynolds, Celebrity and the Exhibition Space', and numerous catalogue entries, in Martin Postle (ed) ''Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity'', Tate Publishing, 2005 * Reading the Walls: Pictorial Dialogue at the British Royal Academy', in ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'', vol. 37, no. 4 (2004) * 'From Out of the Shadows: Sir Joshua Reynolds' Captain Robert Orme', in ''Visual Culture in Britain'', Vol. 5, No. 2, 2004 * 'Manly Satire: William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress' in Bernadette Fort and Angela Rosenthal (eds.), ''The Other Hogarth: The Aesthetics of Difference'', Princeton University Press, 2001. * 'James Gillray and the Language of Graphic Satire', in Richard Godfrey (ed.) ''Gillray and the Art of Caricature'', Tate Gallery Publications, 2001. * 'The Business of Criticism: the Press and the Royal Academy Exhibition in Eighteenth-Century London' in David Solkin (ed.) ''Art on the line: the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836'', Yale University Press, 2001. * 'The view across the City: William Hogarth and the visual culture of eighteenth-century London' in David Bindman, Frederic Ogee and Peter Wagner (eds.), ''Hogarth: Representing Nature's Machines'', Manchester University Press, 2001. * 'Painting: Exhibitions, Audiences, Critics, 1780–1830', in ''An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture 1776-1832'', edited by Iain McCalman, Oxford University Press, 1999 * 'The Medley Print in Early Eighteenth-Century London', in ''Art History'', Vol 20, no. 2, June 1997 * 'Framing the Modern City: Canaletto's Images of London', in Michael Liversidge and Jane Farrington (eds.), ''Canaletto and England'', Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1993

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallett, Mark (art historian) English art historians Living people Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art 1965 births Academics of the University of York Yale University fellows