Gianna French

Doctoral Researcher

Supervised by Dr Caroline Levitt

Advised by Dr Tom Young

Supported by the Tavolozza Foundation

My research focuses on nineteenth-century British drawings, with particular attention to representations of the supernatural and the macabre. Alongside my academic research, I work at the Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford) and have held roles at the National Gallery, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, delivering complex projects across valuations, research, and digital engagement.


Research Interests

  • History of Belief
  • 19th and 20th century drawings
  • Material Culture
  • Magic and the Occult
  • British Folklore

Conference Papers

  • ‘A Visual Séance: Materializing the Spectral Imagination in Pre-Raphaelite Drawings’, Folklore and the Senses, The Folklore Society Annual Conference in collaboration with the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork, Ireland, June 2025.

Publications

  • ‘Ecclesiastes 9: The Certainty of Death’, in The Visual Commentary on Scripture, ed. by Ben Quash (London: The Visual Commentary on Scripture Foundation), forthcoming (2025).
  • Online catalogue entry, Emilio Greco – Study for a Female Nude from the series ‘Bathers’, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, November 2023.

Grants & Awards

  • Tavolozza Foundation PhD Scholar, 2025–2029
  • Eve Borsook Legacy Fund, 2025
  • Friends of the Courtauld Institute Fund, 2025
  • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), 2024, 2025
  • Association for Art History, 2024

Education

  • MA Christianity & the Arts, King’s College London in association with the National Gallery (2017–2018)

Citations