![Dr Helen Pierce Dr Helen Pierce](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/dhp027/HP_Small.jpg)
BA, MA, PhD, FHEA, FSA Scot
Senior Lecturer
- About
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- Email Address
- h.pierce@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272621
- Office Address
Art History, School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History, 50-52 College Bounds, ABERDEEN, AB24 3DS
- School/Department
- School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History
Biography
PhD, History of Art, University of York
MA, History of Art, University of York
BA (Hons), English and History of Art, University of York
I arrived at the University of Aberdeen in September 2010 as a Teaching Fellow in History of Art, having previously been employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of York's Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. I was appointed as Lecturer in British Art in June 2012. I've also held research fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC and the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Honorary Curatorial Fellow, Museums and Special Collections, University of Aberdeen (2024-)
- External Memberships
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Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2014-)
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2020-)
Latest Publications
Review of "Scottish Portraiture 1644-1714: David and John Scougall and their Contemporaries" by Carla van de Puttelaar
Scottish Historical Review, vol. 102, no. 3, pp. 471-473Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2023.0636
The Pope and the Grindstone: A Jacobean Satirical Print
Print Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 131-137Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] https://arthist.net/archive/39489
Francis Place in Glasgow: A Confirmation
Huntington Library QuarterlyContributions to Journals: ArticlesFrancis Place in Ireland
History Ireland, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 6Contributions to Journals: ArticlesReview of "The Birth of Modern Political Satire: Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708) and the Glorious Revolution" by Meredith McNeill Hale
Journal of Social History, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 798-800Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shab023
- Research
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Research Overview
I carry out research into British art of the early modern period (c.1550-1750), with a major strand of my work focusing on the interplay between printed images, propaganda and polemic across the seventeenth century. My monograph Unseemly Pictures: Graphic Satire and Politics in Early Modern England (Yale University Press) redresses an established art historical bias privileging genres such as elite portraiture over printed media, and challenges the presence of a pervasive 'iconophobia' in post-Reformation English culture.
I've also written on popular prints in Shakespearean England, the use of printed images as propaganda during the Exclusion Crisis of the 1680s, and on English portraiture of the Interregnum period.
Most recently, I've been investigating the activities of the York Virtuosi, an group of artists, natural philosophers and antiquaries who gathered in York during the late seventeenth century. I am also writing a history of British political caricature, which is under contract with Reaktion Books.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in History, Art History.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
History
Accepting PhDsResearch Specialisms
- History of Art
- Drawing
- Printmaking
- British History
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
I'm currently working on two projects: a history of British political caricature, from the seventeenth-century to the present day (for Reaktion Books) and a study examining the artistic activities and cultural networking of the late seventeenth-century group known as the 'York Virtuosi'. The latter is connected to research I've already published on the amateur artists William Lodge and Francis Place.
(left) Mary Darly, page from A Book of Caricaturas, 1762.
(right) Francis Place, Studies of Waterfowl, c.1700.
Both images © The Trustees of the British Museum, via a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons licence.
Knowledge Exchange
You can read about my work on the sketching tours of Francis Place on the 'Curious Travellers' and British Society for Eighteenth-Century studies websites:
www.curioustravellers.ac.uk/en/francis-place-1647-1728-and-his-early-sketches-of-wales/
www.bsecs.org.uk/criticks-reviews/found-and-lost-francis-place-1647-1728-in-scotland/
I've delivered public lectures on Francis Place for the National Gallery of Ireland, Fairfax House in York, and Hospitalfield, Arbroath.
In collaboration with colleagues from Museums and Special Collections at the University of Aberdeen, I co-curated the 2024 exhibition "Striking Impressions", which examines how we depict and interpret faces. My research into caricature informed the selection of a number of exhibits, and it was fascinating to work with a range artefacts from around the world depicting distorted and exaggerated faces and bodies.
You can read the press release for "Striking Impressions" here: www.abdn.ac.uk/news/22807/
Supervision
My current supervision areas are: Art History.
Michael Partington, "Paper-Kingdoms: the illustrated books of John Ogilby and the early modern world", 2023-onwards.
Kirsty Haslam, "An Investigation into the social context and cultural impact of warfare in late medieval and early modern Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire", co-supervised with Dr Alastair Macdonald, AHRC funded, 2019-2022.
Wendy McGlashan, "'A new species of liberty': John Kay’s Edinburgh portraits, 1781-1822", co-supervised with Professor John Morrison, Carnegie Trust funded, 2016-2019.
Funding and Grants
2015 Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Research Support Grant
2008 Institute for Historical Research, Scouloudi Historical Award
2007 Huntington Library, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship
2006 Folger Shakespeare Library, Short-Term Fellowship
2005 Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Postdoctoral Fellowship
2000-2003 Arts and Humanities Reseach Board Doctoral Award
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
I teach across a range of undergraduate courses in Art History at the University of Aberdeen, including specialist Honours-level courses in British art c.1500-1800; I co-ordinate HA1004 Introduction to Art History at Level 1, and the Art History dissertation course for our final year undergraduates.
At postgraduate level, I deliver the course HA552U Scottish Visual History for the online MLitt in Scottish Heritage, and contribute to team-taught courses for Scottish Heritage and the MLitt in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.
Non-course Teaching Responsibilities
School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, Student Engagement and Employability Lead
School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, Senior Personal Tutor
Art History Student Engagement and Employability Officer
Art History Social Media Officer
Elected member of the University Senate, 2014-18
- Publications
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Text and image: William Marshall's frontispiece to the Eikon Basilike (1649)
Censorship Moments: Reading Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom of Expression. Kemp, G. (ed.). Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 79-86, 8 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/censorship-moments-reading-texts-in-the-history-of-censorship-and-freedom-of-expression/ch10-text-and-image-william-marshall-s-frontispiece-to-the-1649
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472593078.ch-011
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/12237/1/Chapter_10._Text_and_Image.pdf
The Public Face of Early Modern England Artfully Revealed
Reviews in History, vol. 1421Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesAll ‘sorts of pictures of stories’: the print in early modern England
Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 629-633Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/hlq.2011.74.4.629
Images, representation, and counter-representation
The Oxford History of Popular Print Culture. Volume 1: Cheap Print in Britain and Ireland to 1660. Raymond, J. (ed.). Oxford University Press, pp. 263-279, 17 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersThe devil’s bloodhound: Roger L’Estrange caricatured
Printed images in early modern Britain: essays in interpretation. Hunter, M. (ed.). Ashgate, pp. 237-254, 18 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersArtful ambivalence?: Picturing Charles I during the Interregnum
Royalists and royalism during the Interregnum. McElligott, J., Smith, D. L. (eds.). Manchester University Press, pp. 67-87, 21 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersUnseemly Pictures: Graphic Satire and Politics in Early Modern England
Yale University Press, London, United Kingdom. 248 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksA Dutch Devil in Derbyshire:: Adaptation and Appropriation in a 1624 broadside
Art Re-Formed? Re-Assessing the Impact of the Reformation on the Visual Arts. Hamling, T., Williams, R. (eds.). Cambridge Scholars Press, pp. 215-226Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersUnseemly pictures: political graphic satire in 1620s England
The British Art Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 56-61Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAnti-Episcopacy and graphic satire in England, 1640-1645
The Historical Journal, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 809-848Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X04004017