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Professor Neil Kent

Institute Associate

Biography

The photograph shows bronze and plaster sculptures of me done by Elena Burlakova, for exhibitions at the St Petersburg State Institute of Art, Sculpture and Architecture (The Russian Academy of Art), where I am based.

Career

Associate, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.
Professor of European History and Culture, St Petersburg State Academic Institute of Art, Sculpture and Architecture (The Russian Academy of Art).
Formerly Member of the Board of the Finnish Institute, London.
Nordic Cultural Foundation Project Leader for Research into the Social and Cultural History of Lapland.

Qualifications

Fluent in the Nordic, Finnic, Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages. Also some literary knowledge of Latin, Classical Greek, Turkic languages, Hungarian, Celtic languages, Arabic and Haitian Creole. Currently learning Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

Publications

Commissioned publications are shown here.

Books awaiting publication

Completed and awaiting publication: A Cultural and Social History of the Sámi People in the Nordic Countries and Russia, Hurst and Company, 2012.
Completed and awaiting publication: Italy. A Social and Cultural History. 1750-1900.
The Chinese, Japanese, Serbian, Italian and Spanish editions of A Concise History of Sweden, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
A Cultural and Literary History of St Petersburg Signal Books/Oxford University Press (New York), 2012.

Books published

'Sweden as Ethical Diplomat' Images of Sweden, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, Stockholm 2011.
A History of Trieste, Hurst and Company, 2011.
Студия «A History of the Russian Orthodox Church in England» альманах русский мир. пространство русской културы 2011.
Студия «Classic Art Ark» альманах русский мир. пространство русской културы 2010.
Влияние итальянской культуры в Скандинавии в XVIII в., Санкт Петерборг и Севернои Европы 2009.
A Concise History of Sweden, Cambridge University Press, 2008. Portuguese edition, 2011.
«Карл Людвилг Знгел и Архитектура имперсково Хельсинки» Санкт Петерборг и Севернои Европы 2008.
Helsinki. A Cultural and Literary Companion, Signal Books, Oxford 2004.
Numerous entries in Encyclopaedia of the Arctic (Fitzroy Dearborn) 2004.
The Soul of the North: a Social, Cultural and Architectural History of the Nordic Countries, Reaktion Books, London 2000 and (in paperback) 2001.
2001. (Johan Schloemann wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 10 January 2001, that it was 'an impressive treasure house for the understanding of the Nordic countries.')'Italian Culture and Gustaf III's Sweden' The Influence of Italy on Northern European Culture, Shearer West, ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999. (Jonathan Keates called it a 'landmark' in its field in the Times Literary Supplement on 30 July 1999.)
2000. (Paul Binding, in a favourable four page review in The Sunday Telegraph Book Supplement on 9 July of that year wrote, 'Kent...builds up for us many-layered pictures of particular social groups, and even of isolated pockets contradicting most assumptions about the larger whole, all complex and with deep-reaching roots. By doing so, he relates the North more closely to other Western societies.)
The Dictionary of Art London 1996 (Numerous entries on Nordic culture in this vast multi-volume work, published by MacMillan).
Finland and Finnish Lapland: a bibliography (Compiled with William Mills, Sylva Gethin and Rosemary Graham) Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge 1992.
Light and Nature in Late 19th Century Nordic Art and Literature, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Ars Suetica 13, Uppsala 1990.
The Triumph of Light and Nature: Nordic Art 1740 - 1940, Thames and Hudson, London: 1987 (reprinted in paperback in 1992). (Marina Vaizey wrote in the Sunday Times, on 10 January 1988: Comparing it to a Hayward Gallery publication, she states, 'Even more substantial and much more inclusive is Neil Kent's first book, The Triumph of Light and Nature, which relates northern art to its own cultural and political milieux.... This is the best specific introduction to the entire period...that we have.'

Articles

Since 2009, various articles in The St Petersburg Times.
Since 2003, numerous articles in Pod Klutch, the Russian language architectural journal, St Petersburg.
2002-2006, monthly column and feature articles in Krasni, the Russian language cultural journal, St Petersburg.
'National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and Scandinavian Countries' Times Literary Supplement London: 20 April 2001.
'Delacroix and Greuze in Denmark' antiques.co.uk: 7 August 2000.
'Mystical Islands and Arcadian Idylls: German Symbolism and its Social Context' antiques.co.uk: 28 June 2000.
'Wild Country' Canadian Landscape Painting' antiques.co.uk: 6 June 2000.
'Scandinavia and Germany. 1800-1914' Times Literary Supplement, London: 17 July, 1998.
'Peter Høeg and Miss Smilla's Sensitivity to Snow' Polar Record, Cambridge: Spring 1995.
'Alaskan and Circum-polar Art' Polar Record, Cambridge: Autumn 1994
'August Strindberg as an Artist' LEIF. Journal for Culture, Helsinki, Part 1: Winter 1994; Part 2: Spring 1995
'The Finnish Forest' Kymmene Publication Papers Review 1 Helsinki: 1994
'The Role of the Arctic in the Identity of the North' LEIF. Journal for Culture, Helsinki: January 1993
'Christen Købke's Drawings' Apollo, London: April 1993
'Finn de Siecle' Times Literary Supplement, London: April 1993
'Edvard Munch at the National Gallery in London' commissioned by Burlington Magazine, London 1992
'Royal Treasure House. Christian IV's Rosenborg Castle' Antique Collector, London: November 1992
'Danish and English 19th Century Painting' Danes Abroad
'Anders Zorn as an Etcher' Apollo, London: July 1991
'Scandinavian Modernism in Russia' Apollo, London: August 1990
'Landscapes from a High Latitude' Apollo, London: April 1990
'Nordic Art' Christies International Magazine London: March 1989
'Axel Törneman' Link, London: May 1989
'Cecilia Sidenbladh: Ty så roar mig att måla. C.J. Almqvist och de visuella konstarterna' Scandinavica, Vol.27, No.2, Norwich, November 1988
'Nordic Art' Country Life, London: September 17, 1987
'Scandinavian Moods' Country Life, London: September 17, 1987
'Eugen, Prince of Sweden' The Antique Collector, London: August 1986
'European Furniture in Stockholm' The Antique Collector, London: July 1985
'Eighteenth-Century English Furniture in Copenhagen' The Antique Collector, London: January 1985
'Queen Christina of Sweden' The Antique Collector, London: November 1984
'Heinrich Hirschsprung and the Skagen Painters' The Antique Collector, London: September 1984
'Silver. Scandinavian Silver Tankards' The Antique Collector, London: March 1984
'Married Couples in Portraiture' The Antique Collector, London: February 1984
'Architecture of the Old Westminster Bridge: Charles Labelye (1705-82)' Country Life, London: November 10, 1983

Scott Polar Research Institute

University of Cambridge