Dr Samuel Raybone

I am a historian of art and visual cultures, specialising in the history and historiography of Impressionism; nineteenth-century photography; and ephemera (transient, disposable images like postage stamps, restaurant menus, and trade cards). I take an interest in critical theory, most recently Walter Benjamin's writings on modern historicity, temporality, and aesthetics.

My book, Gustave Caillebotte as Worker, Collector, Painter re-interprets the career of this once-forgotten painter by foregrounding his compulsions to work and to collect.

My present research examines intersections of class, disability, and masculinity in nineteenth-century medical photography; transnational and decolonial approaches to Impressionism, focusing on the complex relationships between transnational circuits and national imaginaries in the collection, display, and reception of Impressionism in Wales; and ephemera as evidence for an alternative aesthetics of modernity.

I teach broadly on European art and visual culture in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries; global modernities and modernisms; photography from 1839 to the contemporary; critical theory and research methodologies; and art historiography.