The V&A’s paintings and drawings collection is rich in works by women artists. Many are found in our national collections of portrait miniatures, watercolours and pastels, as well as oil paintings and drawings. However, our historical holdings made by women have never previously been researched in depth. The placement student will choose an area of the pre-1900 paintings and drawings collection stored at South Kensington (drawings, watercolours, pastels and portrait miniatures). This could be the work of a specific artist well-represented in our collection, such as Angelica Kauffman or Rosalba Carriera, or a period or medium in which women artists were active, for example, Portrait Miniatures 1780-1830, or 19th century Watercolours. We welcome other approaches, for example, by genre or former owner. The student will catalogue and photograph relevant objects, undertake wider research into our holdings of women artists and present their findings to the V&A research community, as well as to the wider public via online content.
Working with the Paintings and Drawings section curators, they will contribute to wider activity giving greater prominence to women artists through cataloguing, online and print publications, acquisitions, displays and permanent collection galleries. Placement candidates will expect to acquire the following skills and knowledge from this placement.
- Object-based research, including provenance research and cataloguing
- Presenting academic research for a general audience
- Object-handling and the functioning of a museum Print Room
- Teamwork and collaboration
Possible outputs of the placement
- Cataloguing an agreed list of objects to accessibility standard
- Undertaking research into the women artists in the V&A collection
- Writing web features/blog posts/online tours about women artists in the collection
- Presenting findings to the Museum-wide research community
- Contribute to discussions of how to increase the number of women artists in paintings galleries redisplays
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CAREFULLY READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE ATTACHMENTS FOR HOW TO APPLY
Equal opportunities at the V&A
At the V&A we strive to ensure that placement opportunities are open to all. We treat all job applications equally, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or gender expression, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, or any other equality characteristic. We particularly encourage applications from disabled people and people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, as these groups are currently under-represented in the cultural sector.