Chloe Ward

Dr. Chloe Ward is a Senior Lecturer in the History of British Art at Queen Mary University of London, affiliated with the School of History. Her expertise spans Victorian and Edwardian art, with a focus on political art, activist art, and the history of British drawing and illustration. She holds an MPhil and PhD from King’s College, Cambridge, and previously served as a Curatorial Fellow at Watts Gallery. Her research explores the intersection of art and social theory, particularly how art functions as a political tool.

Dr. Ward’s research interests include the intellectual history of 19th-century art, activist art from 1845–1918, Victorian drawing practices, periodical illustration, and the transatlantic exhibition of British art. She has curated exhibitions like Art and Action: Making Change in Victorian Britain and Brothers in Art: Drawings by Watts and Leighton at Watts Gallery. She has also appeared on BBC programs discussing Victorian art history.

Her work has been supported by grants from the AHRC, Royal Historical Society, and Paul Mellon Centre. Notable publications include her monograph The Drawings of G. F. Watts (2015) and articles analyzing suffrage imagery, 19th-century exhibitions, and Irish nationalist illustration. She is currently completing a book on the social theory of Victorian painting.