Lecture | Douglas Fordham on Aquatint Empires
Thomas Daniell, “Part of the Kanaree [Kanheri] Caves, Salsette,” handcoloured aquatint, from Oriental Scenery, 1799.
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This week at the Paul Mellon Centre:
Douglas Fordham, Aquatint Empires
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 18 May 2016
This talk considers the importance of what used to be known as ‘English Coloured Books’ to the conceptualization and visualization of the British Empire. Particular attention will be given to aquatint as a medium, and the ways in which this tonal intaglio process encouraged certain types of visual themes, historical narratives, and viewer responses. Making particular use of the J.R. Abbey collection of ‘Travel in Aquatint and Lithography’ in the Yale Center for British Art, this project explores the production and reception of three ambitious and beautifully illustrated publications: Thomas Daniell’s Hindoo Excavations (1803), William Alexander’s Costume of China (1805), and Samuel Daniell’s African Scenery and Animals (1804–05). This talk asks what these publications might reveal about Britain’s place in the world following the Treaty of Amiens. More broadly, it considers seriality as empire: how did elaborate aquatint publications colour British visions of Africa, Asia, and beyond?
Douglas Fordham is the author of British Art and the Seven Years’ War: Allegiance and Autonomy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010) and a co-editor with Tim Barringer and Geoff Quilley of Art and the British Empire (Manchester University Press, 2007). He has published articles relating to British art, visual culture, and empire in Art History, The Art Bulletin, Representations, Oxford Art Journal, and elsewhere.
All are welcome! However, places are limited; so if you would like to attend, please book a place in advance. The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception. Wednesday, 18 May 2016, 6:00–8:00pm.
New Book | Life in the Country House in Georgian Ireland
From Yale UP:
Patricia McCarthy, Life in the Country House in Georgian Ireland (London: The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2016), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0300218862, £45 / $75.
For aristocrats and gentry in 18th-century Ireland, the townhouses and country estates they resided in were carefully constructed to accommodate their cultivated lifestyles. Based on new research from Irish national collections and correspondence culled from papers in private keeping, this publication provides a vivid and engaging look at the various ways in which families tailored their homes to their personal needs and preferences. Halls were designed in order to simultaneously support a variety of activities, including dining, music, and games, while closed porches allowed visitors to arrive fully protected from the country’s harsh weather. These grand houses were arranged in accordance with their residents’ daily procedures, demonstrating a distinction between public and private spaces, and even keeping in mind the roles and arrangements of the servants in their purposeful layouts. With careful consideration given to both the practicality of everyday routine and the occasional special event, this book illustrates how the lives and residential structures of these aristocrats were inextricably woven together.
Patricia McCarthy is an independent architectural historian based in Dublin.
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C O N T E N T S
Introduction
1 Approaching and Arriving
2 Crossing the Threshold
3 Dining
4 Public Rooms
5 Family Spaces
6 Servants and Privacy
Notes
List of Inventories
Glossary
Index
Acknowledgments
Call for Papers | Art and War
From H-ArtHist:
Art and War: New Perspectives
The Frick Collection, New York, 16 September 2016
Proposals due by 16 June 2016
The Frick Collection is pleased to invite submissions for Art and War, a symposium that will accompany the special exhibition Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France. On view from July 12 to October 2, 2016, the exhibition presents a selection of Jean-Antoine Watteau’s little-known drawings and paintings of military life. In these works, Watteau eschews martial glory in favor of depicting more mundane aspects of life on the front: fatigue, boredom, simple diversions. Prompted by Watteau’s singular vision of war, The Frick Collection solicits 25-minute papers that consider the relationship between art and war in ways both direct and oblique, across all media, geographic regions, and time periods. We welcome a range of approaches that engage critically with the historical and theoretical problems posed by the relationship between art and war.
Questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to
• What representational pressures and aesthetic challenges has war created?
• Where have artists located themselves in, away from, or after ‘the fight’?
• How can art convey the experience of war—not only the violence of battle, but also its impact on everyday life?
• How has art glorified, condemned, or otherwise commented on war?
• What can we learn from examining this relationship in an age of perpetual war?
Please send a 250-word abstract and CV by Thursday, June 16, 2016, to Caitlin Henningsen (henningsen@frick.org) and Aaron Wile (wile@frick.org). Proposals from emerging scholars are particularly encouraged.
Call for Papers | HECAA Session at UAAC, 2016
Thanks again to Christina Smylitopoulos, HECAA is scheduled to be represented at this year’s UAAC Conference! Details and a full list of panels (65 in all) are available here»
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Universities Art Association of Canada / l’association d’art des universités du Canada
Université du Québec, Montréal, 27–30 October 2016
Proposals due by 24 June 2016
HECAA Open Session (Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture)
The objective of this society is to stimulate, foster, and disseminate knowledge of all aspects of visual culture in the long eighteenth century. This HECAA open session welcomes papers that examine any aspect of art and visual culture from the 1680s to the 1830s. Special consideration will be given to proposals that demonstrate innovation in theoretical and/or methodological approaches. Please email proposals for 20-minute papers to Dr. Christina Smylitopoulos (University of Guelph), csmylito@uoguelph.ca.
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