Enfilade

From the DFK:

Portraiture in 18th-Century Europe: Artwork—Social Practice—Circulation
Le portrait au XVIIIe siècle en Europe: Œuvre d’art—pratique sociale—objet de transfert
Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris, 11–12 March 2024

Organized by Markus Castor, Martin Schieder, and Marlen Schneider

Alexandre Roslin, Self-Portrait with the Artist’s Wife Marie-Suzanne Giroust Painting a Portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill, detail, 1767, oil on canvas, 131 × 99 cm (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, NM 7141).

Whether a manifestation of political power, expression of intimate feelings, an embellishing masquerade, or a faithful likeness, the art of portraiture in the Age of Enlightenment was marked by exceptional diversity throughout Europe. Between the apogee of absolutism and the political, social, and intellectual upheavals of the revolutionary era, it became a mirror of a society in full mutation. The differentiation of taste, changes in the art market, and the gradual establishment of public exhibitions were decisive factors contributing to the variety of effigies. Finally, the criticism of portraiture that flourished at the same time as this artistic genre, wrongly considered as ‘minor’, testified to the growing tension between its social functions and its claim to be a work of art in its own right.

The aim of the symposium is to study portraiture from a multifaceted perspective, tracing its social, theoretical, artistic, and material conditions. Focusing on its development during the Enlightenment in the French context, we also wish to open the discussions up to a European perspective. What concepts and themes shaped the debates surrounding portraits? How did the usages and functions of portraits evolve, and what were the consequences for the production and materiality of these objects? By what means and networks did portrait modes circulate in the various European artistic centers? We intend to shed light on these different aspects in their interdependence, in order to better understand the complex success story of portraiture in the 18th century.

Concept and Organization
Markus A. Castor (DFK Paris), Martin Schieder (Universität Leipzig), and Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes/LARHRA)

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Speakers are assigned 45-minute slots; specific times, along with breaks, are available here»

14.30  Opening remarks by Peter Geimer (Director of the DFK Paris) and introduction by Markus Castor, Martin Schieder, and Marlen Schneider

15.00  I | Social Practices
Moderation: Martin Schieder
• Elise Urbain Ruano (Musée royal de Mariemont), Portraits transgressifs et modes négligées
• Gerrit Walczak (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München), Silk, Lace, and Deception: The Rococo Dummy Board Princesses of Georg David Matthieu
• Lara Pitteloud (Université de Neuchâtel), S’entourer de portraits « regardés comme uniques » : le cas parisien du Comte de Baudouin
• Philippe Bordes (Université Lumière Lyon 2 / LARHRA), Le piège de la célébrité sous la Révolution: les portraits de députés par Adélaïde Labille-Guiard et Jean Louis Laneuville

18.30  Conférence du soir
• Melissa Hyde (University of Florida), Gifted: Women, Portraiture, and the Art of Friendship

Drinks reception

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9.30  II | Circulations and Transfer
Moderation: Markus Castor
• Hannah Williams (Queen Mary University of London), Linked Lives: Portraits as Traces of Colonial Networks in Paris’s 18th-Century Art World
• Ulrike Kern (Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main), License to Portrait: Annexation of a Genre in Early 18th-Century British Art Theory
• Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes / LARHRA), Portraits à la française? Appropriations et détournements du portrait déguisé entre Paris et Berlin
• Agata Dworzak (Jagiellonian University, Cracovie), Representation and Creation: The Tradition of Portraiture of Church Hierarchs in Central and Eastern Europe in the Second Half of the 18th Century: A Case Study of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

12.45  Lunch break

14.00  III | Theories and Techniques
Moderation: Marlen Schneider
• Marianne Koos (Universität Wien), Resemblance as a Passing Quality: Liotard, La Tour, and the Question of le faire in 18th-Century Portraiture
• Juliette Souperbie (Université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès), L’artiste à l’œuvre: Une mise en abyme du portrait au XVIIIe siècle
• Andreas Plackinger (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), Zwischen Konventionsbruch, Kunsttheorie und Sociabilité: Plastische Bildhauerselbstporträts im Frankreich des späten Ancien Régime
• Jan Mende (Stadtmuseum Berlin), Die Porträtbüste geht in Serie: Neue Technologien und preiswerte Werkstoffe um 1790
• Amy Freund (Southern Methodist University), Who/What is a Self? Animal Portraiture in 18th-Century France

18.15  Conclusion and perspectives