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From ArtHist.net and the conference website:

(Re)Searching Connections: Artists’ International Social Networks, 1750–1914

Academia Belgica, Rome, 30 September — 1 October 2025

Registration due by 20 September 2025

This two-day international academic conference presents recent and ongoing research into the social networks of artists who lived, studied, and worked abroad between 1750 and 1914. Embracing a broad chronological and geographical scope, it brings together insights from various global contexts. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue across art history, sociology, and digital humanities, and by connecting diverse methodologies and findings across specializations, we aim to deepen our understanding of the transnational social connections that ‘make’ art history.

The conference is organized by Musea Brugge in collaboration with the Academia Belgica. Free registration is available here before 20 September 2025.

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10.00  Welcome — Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)

10.05  Introduction — Cécile Evers (Academia Belgica)

10.15  Keynote Lecture
• France Nerlich (Musée d’Orsay) — Between Legacy and the Living: Artistic Dialogues in a Transnational Europe

11.15  Session 1 | Navigating National Identities
Chair: Christine Dupont (House of European History)
• Thijs Dekeukeleire (Musea Brugge) — The Writing’s on the Wall: Mentorship, Mobility, and the Bruges-Rome Artistic Network, ca. 1800
• Cécilia Hurley-Griener (École du Louvre) — Réseaux superposés: Espaces et sociabilités dans la Rome du XIXe siècle
• Julia A. Sienkewicz (Roanoke College) — Networking and the Making of a Transnational Sculptor: The Social Sites of Luigi Persico

14.15  Session 2 | Networks’ Sources
Chair: Veerle Thielemans (INHA-Institut national d’histoire de l’art)
• Virginie D’haene (Museum Plantin-Moretus) — Achieving Ideals: The Social Network behind Andries Lens’s Neoclassicism
• Lucie Montassier (Université de Poitiers) — Reconstituer les réseaux des artistes femmes: Les approches cartographiques
• Ieva Kalnača and Aija Zandersone (Latvian National Museum of Art) — Mapping a Network: Documenting Latvian and Spanish Artistic Connections in Paris, 1900–1914

16.15  Session 3 | The Studio as a Social Hub
Chair: Laura Overpelt (KNIR-Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome)
• Oriane Poret (Université Lyon 2/LARHRA) — Beasts on Loan: Global Networks and the Economy of 19th-Century Animal Art
• Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes/LARHRA) — In the Light of Batoni’s Studio: Artistic Networks and the Circulation of Drawing Practices between Rome and German Art Academies

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10.00  Introduction – Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)

10.15  Keynote Lecture
• Giovanna Ceserani (Stanford University) — ‘Here in the Proper Center for Gentlemen of [t]his Profession’: Artists in 18th-Century Rome

11.15  Session 4 | From Data to Networks
Chair: Eva Geudeker (RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History)
• Mayken Jonkman (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) — Paris Intimates: The Role of Connections for Dutch Artists’ Success in the French Capital, 1774–1914
• Fien Messens (Ghent University and KBR-Royal Library of Belgium) — Networking over a Bowl of Onion Soup: A Data-driven Perspective on the Artist François-Joseph Navez in Rome
• Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana), Gaetano Cascino (Università della Svizzera italiana and Università Roma Tre), and Luca Piccoli (Università della Svizzera italiana and Sapienza Università di Roma) — For a map of Artistic Sociability inside the Museo di Roma: 19th-Century Visiting Experiences and Networks

14.15  Session 5 | Academies as Anchor
Chair: Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)
• Gabriel Marques (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa – FCSH) — National Academies and Artistic Communities in Rome: The Portuguese Pensioners of the 1820s–1830s
• Dominiek Dendooven (Merghelynck Museum and Yper Museum) — A Transnational Network to ‘Revive Flemish Art’: Bruges and Rouen in the 18th Century

15.45  Session 6 | Collaboration across Borders
Chair: Evelien De Wilde (Musea Brugge)
• Nina Reid (Radboud University) — The Power of the Print: International Etching Societies during the Fin-de-siècle
• Iliana Mejias-Ojajärvi (University of Helsinki) — Russian Artists’ Exhibition Activities in Helsinki, 1890–1911: Organization, Artistic Exchange, and Transnational Connections

16.45  Closing Keynote Lecture
Giovanna Capitelli (Università Roma Tre) — Transnational Sources for Studying the Cosmopolitan Art World of Early 19th-Century Rome

18.00  Reception