2025 doctoral graduate student in HIAA, Dominic Bate, will be a post-doctoral fellow at the Morgan's Drawing Institute. There, Dominic will be working on a new project that considers graphite as both a natural resource and a drawing medium in Britain and its colonies between approximately 1660 and 1820. 

 

During this period, drawing emerged as a mature art form in Britain, where it was adopted by professional and amateur artists alike for a wide range of purposes, from portraiture to landscape studies. This development coincided with the rise and fall of graphite mining in the North-West of England, which became obsolete in the early nineteenth century due to dwindling ores; the growth of alternative sources of graphite, especially in European colonies; and new technologies such as the conté crayon. 

 

By examining these developments together, Dominic seeks to propose a new account of drawing in Britain on the eve of modernity that cuts across genres of artistic production to connect questions of geography, ecology, and economics with more traditional art historical concerns, such as iconography and artistic technique.

 

Congratulations, Dominic!
 

Image: Thomas Gainsborough, Landscape with a Decayed Willow over a Pool, graphite with smudging on laid paper, 1754–1756. Morgan Library and Museum, New York.