Clare Willsdon

• Professor of the History of Western Art, University of Glasgow

Research interests

European painting 1800-1940, with special interest in art, gardens and the natural environment; Impressionism in Europe and North America; and mural painting;
Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, the Fin-de-siècle, and Vienna Secession;
contextual and thematic methodologies.

Key publications include the first survey and critical interpretation of 19th/20th-century mural painting in any country (Mural Painting in Britain 1840-1940, awarded the Historians of British Art prize, 2003), and In the Gardens of Impressionism (nominated for the National Library of Scotland/Saltire Society 'Research Book 2005', and 'Sir Banister Fletcher Best Book in the Arts 2005-6' awards). Exhibition work includes Academic Adviser for Impressionist Gardens (National Gallery of Scotland and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2010-11) and Country Gardens (Broadway Arts Festival, 2012), and a Curatorial Consultancy for Painting the Modern Garden (Cleveland Museum of Art and Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2015-16). Other exhibitions to which I have contributed include Gartenlust (Belvedere, Vienna, 2007), Renoir (Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2008), Monet (ARoS Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, 2015-16), Whistler and Nature (travelling, Hunterian 2018-19), and Bright Edge Deep (, part of the COP26 Virtual Peatlands Pavilion, 2021). I was a member of the international seminar panel established 2008 by the House of Lords Works of Art Committee in connection with the first mural commission for the Houses of Parliament since 1925, and have advised numerous other organisations, including Historic England, Survey of London, Kunsthaus Zürich, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum Japan, etc.

Forthcoming publications include an essay in the Impressionism across Fields conference proceedings, University of Paris (see below), another in New Directions in Whistler Research (Routledge, 2026, see below), a chapter on the murals of the important Austro-Hungarian emigré artist George Mayer-Marton (Liverpool University Press), and a catalogue essay for a major international exhibition on Monet (Munch Museum, Oslo).

I won the University of Glasgow 'Engaged Researcher of the Year' Award, 2016, and was shortlisted for the University's 'Best Collaboration (Arts & Culture)' Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement Award, 2020.

I have given many public lectures (National Gallery, London; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Petit Palais, Paris, etc) and have contributed to BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Scotland, Radio Deutsche Welle and STV programmes on the arts, as well as the 'Exhibition on Screen' films 'Painting the Modern Garden', 2016 and 'Van Gogh's Sunflowers', 2021. Recent papers include 'Impressionist gardens at Argenteuil and Pontoise as spaces of artistic renewal' at the Impressionism across Fields interdisciplinary conference marking the 150th anniversary of Impressionism (Musée d'Orsay, Paris and University of Paris, 2024; see Impressionism Across Fields. New Interdisciplinary Perspectives. (Day 1)); 'Sounding the Garden with Whistler, Mallarmé and Monet' at the New Directions in Whistler Research conference (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen and University of Rouen, 2024); and 'Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: the living and the dead', at the 'Discovering Degas' symposium (University of Glasgow and Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 2024; see

• –present Professor of the History of Western Art, University of Glasgow

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