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William L. Pressly

William L. Pressly, Professor Emeritus, Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century European Art
PhD, Institute of Fine Arts of New York University
wpressly@umd.edu

William L. Pressly's scholarship is devoted to the art of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, with an emphasis on British painting. His numerous publications include three single-authored books on the eighteenth-century Irish painter James Barry.  He has also published on a number of other artists of the "English" School, including William Blake, John Singleton Copley, Henry Fuseli, James Gillray, James Jefferys, John Hamilton Mortimer, Samuel Palmer, John Francis Rigaud, George Romney, Alexander and John Runciman, Gilbert Stuart, J. M. W. Turner, Benjamin West, Joseph Wright of Derby and Johan Zoffany.  Outside of British art, he has pubished on Goya and the Surrealists.  His most recent book, James Barry's Murals at the Royal Society of Arts: Envisioning a New Public Art (Cork University Press, 2014) is the first to offer an in-depth anaylsis of these remarkable paintings and the first to demonstrate that the artist was pioneering a new approach to public art in terms of the novelty of his patronage and the highly personal nature of his content.  The book argues that the murals contain a deeper hidden meaning that has gone unperceived for 230 years, the artist having disguised his message due to its inflammatory nature. It was awarded the 2015 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History.

Professor Pressly has held grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, and Senior Smithsonian Fellowship. Before joining the Maryland faculty in 1987, he had taught at Yale University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Duke University. At Maryland, he served as Director of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department of Art History and Archaeology. Since 2012 he and his wife Nancy have been living in Atlanta, just one and a half blocks from their son and two grandchildren.

Full List of Publications

Books           

The Life and Art of James Barry, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981, pp. xiii + 320. 148 b/w ills. + 8 color plates.

James Barry: The Artist as Hero, London: The Tate Gallery, 1983, pp. 167.  161 b/w illus. + 8 color plates.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library: “As Imagination Bodies Forth”, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993, pp. x + 385. 302 b/w illus. + 32 color plates.

The French Revolution as Blasphemy: Johan Zoffany's Paintings of the Massacre at Paris, August 10, 1792, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999, pp. xxiii + 212. 101 b/w illus. + 2 color plates.

The Artist as Original Genius: Shakespeare’s “Fine Frenzy” in Late-Eighteenth-Century British Art, University of Delaware Press, 2007, pp. 235. 124 b/w illus.

James Barry’s Murals at the Royal Society of Arts: Envisioning a New Public Art, Cork University Press, 2014, pp. xx + 395. 123 color plates + 2 diagrams.

 

Books Edited

"Facts and Recollections of the XVIIIth Century in a Memoir of John Francis Rigaud Esq. R. A.," by Stephen Francis Dutilh Rigaud, abridged and edited with an introduction and notes by William L. Pressly, The Journal of the Walpole Society, L, 1984, pp. 1-164, 70 b/w ills., pp. 317-341.

Co-editor with Professor Tom Dunne of James Barry, 1741-1806: History Painter, Ashgate, 2010, pp. 268.  56 b/w illus. + 11 color plates (a book of the papers delivered at the Barry International Conference held at Cork and London in 2006).  Also contributed Foreword (pp. xv-xviii) and the essay “Crowning the Victors at Olympia: The Great Room’s Primary Focus,” pp. 189-210.

 

Books in Progress

America’s Paper Money: A Canvas for an Emerging Nation

           

Chapters in Books

"The Challenge of New Horizons: Copley's 'rough and perilous Asent' 'of that Mighty Mountain where the Everlasting Lauriels grow,'" in John Singleton Copley in England, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 23-59.

“James Barry and the Print Market: A Painter-Etcher avant la lettre,” Art and Culture in the Eighteenth Century: New Dimensions and Multiple Perspectives, ed. by Elise Goodman, University of Delaware Press, 2001, pp. 142-56.

“Romney's 'Peculiar Powers for Historical and Ideal Painting,'” in “Those Delightful Regions of Imagination”: Essays on George Romney, ed. by Alex Kidson, Yale University Press, 2002, pp. 97-130.

“Barry’s Murals at the Royal Society of Arts,” in James Barry (1741-1806): “The Great Historical Painter,” exh. cat., Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 2005-06, pp. 47-55.

“Barry’s Self-Portraits: Who’s Afraid of the Ancients?” in the above exhibition catalogue, pp. 61-77.

“Elysium’s Elite: Barry’s Continuing Meditations on the Society of Arts Murals,” in Cultivating the Human Faculties: James Barry (1741-1806) and the Society of Arts, ed. by Susan Bennett, Lehigh University Press, 2008, pp. 98-109.

“A Preparatory Drawing for Barry’s Glorious Sextumvirate Rediscovered: The Search for the Seventh Man,” in the above book, pp. 119-130.

“Barry’s Medal for the Society of Arts: A Celebration of the Three Kingdoms,” in the above book, pp. 131-141.

“Les Prédécesseurs de Blake: Mortimer, Fuseli, et Barry,” essay in William Blake: Le Génie visionnaire du Romantisme Anglais, Petit Palais, Paris, 2009, pp. 166-7.

“Crowning the Victors at Olympia: The Great Room’s Primary Focus,” in James Barry: History Painter (see under Books Edited).

“James Barry’s Crowning the Victors at Olympia: Transmitting the Values of the Classical Olympic Games into the Modern Era,” in Thinking the Olympics: The Classical Tradition and the Modern Games, ed. by Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson, Bristol Classical Press, 2011, pp. 122-40.

“Benjamin West’s Royal Chapel at Windsor: Who’s in Charge, the Patron or the Painter?” Transatlantic Romanticism: British and American Art and Literature, 1790-1860, ed. by Andrew Hemingway and Alan Wallach, University of Massachusetts Press, 2015, pp. 102-21.

“Limits to the Artist’s Role as Social Commentator: Zoffany’s Condemnation of Hogarth and Gillray,” Representation, Heterodoxy, and Aesthetics: Essays in Honor of Ronald Paulson, ed. by Ashley Marshall, University of Delaware Press, 2015, pp. 63-78.

           

Anthologies

“The Ashbourne Portrait of Shakespeare: Through the Looking Glass,” in Shakespeare and the Arts, ed. by Stephen Orgel and Sean Keilen, Garland Publishing, New York and London, 1999, pp. 318-34. Reprinted from The Shakespeare Quarterly.

 

Exhibitions Curated

"Samuel Palmer: The Etching Dream," The Art Museum, Princeton University, January 6 - February 7, 1971 (exhibition catalogue under "Articles")

"James Barry: The Artist as Hero," Tate Gallery, London, February 9 - March 20, 1983 (exhibition catalogue under "Books")

"'As Imagination Bodies Forth': Paintings from the Folger Shakespeare Library," Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., October 28, 1993 - February 15, 1994

"100 Years of British Landscape Watercolors and Drawings," The Art Museum, Princeton University, November 20, 1993 - January, 1994

"Samuel Palmer and the Visionary Pastoral," The Art Museum, Princeton University, November 20, 1993 - January, 1994

 

Articles (Refereed Journals)

"Samuel Palmer and the Pastoral Convention," Record of the Art Museum: Princeton University, XXVIII, 1969, pp. 22-37.

"Samuel Palmer: The Etching Dream," Record of the Art Museum: Princeton University, XXIX, 1970, pp. 7-36.

"The Praying Mantis in Surrealist Art," The Art Bulletin, LV, December, 1973, pp. 600-15.

"James Barry's The Baptism of the King of Cashel by St. Patrick,” The Burlington Magazine, CXVIII, September, 1976, pp. 643-46.

"A Portrait of Joseph Nollekens Reattributed to John Francis Rigaud," The Connoisseur, CXVII, February, 1978, pp. 111-15.

"James Barry's Proposed Extensions for his Adelphi Series," Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, CXXVI, Parts I and II, March and April, 1978, pp. 233-37 and 296-301.

"Antiochus and Stratonice: A Copy after a Lost Painting by James Barry," Worcester Art Museum Journal, IV, 1980-81, pp. 13-27.

"Scientists and Philosophers: A Rediscovered Print by James Barry," Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, CXXIX, July, 1981, pp. 510-15.

"A Chapel of Natural and Revealed Religion: James Barry's Series for the Society's Great Room Reinterpreted," Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, CXXXII, parts I, II, and III, July - September, 1984, pp. 543-46, 634-37, and 693-95.

"Portrait of a Cork Family: The Two James Barrys," Journal of the Cork Historical and  Archaeological Society, XC, January - December, 1985, pp. 127-49.

"Gilbert Stuart's The Skater: An Essay in Romantic Melancholy," The American Art Journal, XVIII, 1986, pp. 42-51.

"Genius Unveiled: The Self-Portraits of Johan Zoffany," The Art Bulletin, LXIX, 1987, pp. 88-101.

"Goya's Don Manuel Osorio de Zuniga: A Christological Allegory," Apollo, CXXXV, January 1992, pp. 12-20.

"The Ashbourne Portrait of Shakespeare: Through the Looking Glass," The Shakespeare Quarterly, XLIV, Spring 1993, pp. 54-72.

"Johan Zoffany as 'David, the Anointed One,'" Apollo, CXLI, March 1995, pp. 49-55.

"On Classic Ground: James Barry's 'Memorials' of the Italian Landscape," Record of the Art Museum: Princeton University, LIV, 1995, pp. 12-28.

“James Barry's Drawing Monte Cava: A New Leaf from his Italian Sketchbook,” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, CXLVIII, April 2000, pp. 138-9.

"The Reappearance of a Portrait by James Barry: 'D. Solly' and 'thought's exchange',” British Art Journal, I, Spring 2000, pp. 62-66.

“Joseph Wright of Derby's Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of his Ancestors: Variations on an Arabian Tale,” British Art Journal, II, Autumn 2000, pp. 14-19.

“Expanding James Barry's Print Catalogue,” Print Quarterly, XIX, March 2002, pp. 53-55.

“James Barry’s Syncretic Vision: The Fusion of Classical and Christian in his Birth of Pandora,” British Art Journal, XIV, no. 3, 2013-14, pp. 27-35.

“Milton as Turner’s Muse in the Conjuring of New Worlds: An Explanation for Moses’ Presence in The Morning after the Deluge,” to be published in The British Art Journal

“Inoculating the Public Against French Infection: John Francis Rigaud’s 1794 Frescoes in London’s Guildhall,” to be published in The British Art Journal.

 

Articles (Invited)

"Zoffany's Sojourn in India," in From Thames to Hooghly: Calcutta Heritage, 1690-1990, a special issue of Highlights: Notes, News and Views in Arts, History and Letters of India, V, 1990, pp. 57-59.

"James Barry" and "Gilbert Stuart," entries in International Dictionary of Art and Artists, edited by James Vinson, St. James Press, Chicago and London, 1990, vol. 1, pp. 40-42, 809-810.

"James Barry," entry in The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner, London and New York, 1996, vol. 3, pp. 284-7.

"James Barry" and "James Jefferys," entries in A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, Yale University Press, London and New York, 1997, pp. 55-6, 552-3.

Three catalogue entries on Zoffany in 1803: Wende in Europas Mitte, Museem der Stadt Regensburg, 2003.

“James Barry,” entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol. 4, pp. 134-9.

Foreword to Penelope Treadwell’s book Johan Zoffany: Artist and Adventurer, 2009.

Foreword to “A genius of first rank, lost to the world”: Prints by James Barry from the Collection of William L. Pressly, C. G. Boerner, New York City, 2005.

 

Reviews and Lectures (not included)            

Publications

James Barry: the Artist as Hero
The Life and Art of James Barry
The Artist as Original Genius: Shakespeare's “Fine Frenzy” in Late-Eighteenth-Century British Art
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library
The French Revolution as Blasphemy
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