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

The Decorative Arts Trust’s Emerging Scholars Colloquium takes place this Sunday, on the heels of the group’s Antiques Weekend, an annual foray into New York’s Americana Week:

The Decorative Arts Trust’s Emerging Scholars Colloquium
Park Avenue Armory, New York, 21 January 2024

Photo from the 2023 Emerging Scholars Colloquium in the Park Avenue Armory’s Board of Officers Room (via the Instagram account of The Decorative Arts Trust).

The Decorative Arts Trust is excited to host its 8th Annual Colloquium featuring young scholars in the decorative arts field. The registration fee for the colloquium is $25; Decorative Arts Trust membership is not required to attend. The event is generously sponsored by Classical American Homes Preservation Trust and Mr. & Mrs. Donald B. Ayres III. Registration is available here.

p r o g r a m m e

9.00  Coffee and bagels

9.30  Welcome by Benjamin Prosky, President, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust

Introductions by Catherine Carlisle, Manager of Educational Programs, Decorative Arts Trust
• Follow the Hearth: Retracing the Spatial History of Edgewater’s Dining Room Mantelpiece — Lauren Drapala (PhD candidate, Bard Graduate Center, and William L. Thompson Collections Fellow, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust)
• An Artifact of Afro-America: A Blanket Chest by Brooks Thompson — Neil Grasty (Undergraduate Student, Morehouse College, and Curatorial Intern, High Museum of Art)
• Loud and Clear: Glass and Obscured Narratives at the New Orleans Museum of Art — Laura Ochoa Rincon (Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow, New Orleans Museum of Art)
• Does Architecture Move? The Mahadol Palanquin of 18th-Century Gujarat and Marwar — Krishna Shekhawat (PhD Student, University of California, Berkeley)
• ‘Dressing Up’ Egypt: Performing Race and Late 19th-Century Egyptomania — Lea Stephenson (PhD Candidate, University of Delaware)

11.30  Concluding remarks by Matthew Thurlow, Executive Director, Decorative Arts Trust

From Nunez Community College, with registration available at Eventbrite:

The 9th Annual Battle of New Orleans Historical Symposium
Nunez Community College, Chalmette (New Orleans), 5–6 January 2024

The 9th Annual Battle of New Orleans Historical Symposium will take place January 5th and 6th in Chalmette, Louisiana, at Nunez Community College (on Friday) and at the St. Bernard Council Chambers (on Saturday).

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9.00  Coffee

9.30  Welcome and Opening Remarks — Tina Tinney

Attributed to José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza, Portrait of Captain Joseph Bernard Vallière d’Hauterive, ca. 1791–95, oil on canvas (Little Rock: Historic Arkansas Museum). Vallière d’Hauterive was the Grenoble-born commandant of the Arkansas Post from 1787 to 1790; this portrait was likely painted upon his return to New Orleans.

9.45  Morning Talks
• Overview of Battle of New Orleans — William Hyland
• ‘Nothing Pleases Them So Much as the Uniform’: Martial Culture and Military Life in Early Louisiana — Philippe Halbert
• The Past as Prelude: The Impact of Spain and the Galvez Expedition on the American Victory in the Battle of New Orleans — Bradford Waters

12.15  Lunch

1.30  Afternoon Talks
• ‘Pirate City’: Tracing Property Records of Selected Members of Jean Laffite’s Baratarian Pirate Syndicate who Played Prominent Roles in the War Effort of the Winter of 1814–15 — Ina Fandrich
• What if New Orleans had been Taken by the British in 1815? — Harold Youmans

4.00  Wine and Cheese Reception

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10.00  Welcome — Katherine Lemoine

10.05  Morning Talks
• A Reminiscence of the Battle of New Orleans by Bernard de Marigny — William Hyland
• Native American Influence in the Battle of New Orleans: Houma Indians in Louisiana — Colleen Billiot
• Scottish Heraldry: A Window into a Culture — Christen Raby Elliot

12.45  Closing Remarks — William Hyland

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From The Furniture History Society, with registration at Eventbrite:

The Furniture History Society Early Career Research Symposium
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 24 January 2024

The Furniture History Society is delighted to hold its seventh Early Career Research Symposium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Wednesday, 24th January. The symposium is part of our Early Career Development (ECD) programme and presents current research by emerging scholars in the fields of furniture history, the decorative arts, and historic interiors. The wide range of papers reflects the variety of interests among young scholars with speakers from Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, and the United States. We welcome curators, dealers, academics, members of the Furniture History Society, and anyone interested in the decorative arts and the history of interiors to join us for this symposium to enjoy the fascinating medley of topics, ranging from the 1650s to the 1950s. The event is free, but it is necessary to register here on Eventbrite by midnight Sunday, 21st January to secure a place. This event is neither being recorded nor livestreamed.

The day is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Oliver Ford Trust.

p r o g r a m m e

9.30  Welcome

9.45  Morning Session A
• Cynthia Kok (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) Ebonyworkers in 17th-Century Amsterdam
• Bridget Griffin (The Attingham Trust, London), Crafting Connections: Mapping the Lives and Trade Networks of British and Irish Immigrant Furniture Makers in North-Eastern Port Cities of Early America
• Grace Ford-Dirks (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Exploring the Lives and Meanings of an 18th-Century Caribbean Armoire

11.15  Break

11.45  Morning Session B
• Noah Dubay (Bard Graduate Center, New York), Comfort, Convenience, and Convalescence: How the Fauteuil de Malade Changed 18th-Century France
• Geoffrey Ripart (Bard Graduate Center, New York), The Road from Rome to Paris: Sourcing Rare Marbles at the End of the Ancien Regime and the Rise of French Taste for Objets d’Art Made from Stone, 1760–1810

12.45  Lunch Break

1.45  Afternoon Session A
• Romana Mastrella (University of La Sapienza, Rome), Collecting Fireplaces
• Justine Gain (École de Louvre, Paris), When the Furniture Matches the Architecture: The Birth of French Eclecticism through the Oeuvre of Jean-Baptiste Plantar (1790–1879)
• Laura Jenkins (Courtauld Institute of Art, London) From Galerie to Ballroom: Gilbert Cuel at 1 West 57th Street

3.15  Break

3.45  Afternoon Session B
• Karolina Kourilova (Masaryk University, Brno), Design behind the Iron Curtain: Furniture Industry Development in Post-War Czechoslovakia
• Melania Andronic (University of La Sapienza, Rome), Rational Furniture: A Chair Is Made for Sitting

4.45  Closing Remarks

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Images: Detail of a fireplace, 1785, by Luigi Valadier in the Sala della Flora on the first floor of the Villa Borghese in Rome. Detail of a cabinet attributed to Herman Doomer, Amsterdam ca. 1640–50 (New York: The Met). Detail of a drawing by Jean-Baptiste Plantar in the Album d’une centaine de dessins d’architecture, Paris, ca. 1855 (held online by the Institut national d’histoire de l’art). Detail of the Galerie dorée at the Hôtel de Toulouse (now Banque de France), decorated by Robert de Cotte and Francois-Antoine Vasse, 1713–17 (photo by Guilhem Vellut).

From Colonial Williamsburg:

76th Annual Antiques Forum: Domestic Affairs
Online and in-person, Colonial Williamsburg, 23–27 February 2024

Registration due by 1 February 2024 (virtual registration by 10 February)

From London to Nova Scotia, New England to Virginia and the Carolinas, the Mid Atlantic to the Gulf South: all make an appearance at Colonial Williamsburg’s 76th Annual Antiques Forum: Domestic Affairs. Join us as we explore fashions, furnishings, and the familial while traveling through time and space and delving into houses and histories. We will journey through public and private collections, revealing new research, revitalized spaces, and the fascinating stories that are told by objects, architecture, and interiors.

On opening day of this year’s Antiques Forum, we are joined by Tim Whittaker, former Director of The Spitalfields Trust, who introduces the visionaries and eccentrics who saved the Georgian architectural legacy of East London. Robert Leath, Executive Director of Edenton Historical Commission, then dives into four centuries of North Carolina History as he examines the story of Hayes Plantation. Chief Curator Adam Erby reveals recent discoveries from Mount Vernon, and architectural paint conservator Maeve Woolley Delph peels back the layers on the interior paint restoration of Wilton House Museum. Trevor Brandt from Americana Insights and Colonial Williamsburg’s Associate Curator of Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture, Kate Teiken Rogers round out our visit to houses and objects as they take a deeper look at spiritual labyrinths in Pennsylvania German fraktur and portraiture of early Williamsburg residents, respectively.

On Sunday, Cynthia Cooper from the McCord Stewart Museum reveals the unlikely travels of an 18th-century dress from Virginia to Quebec City. We then travel to Mississippi as Jefferson Mansell, Historian with the Natchez National Historical Park, looks at the rise of the of the Natchez suburban estate. In the afternoon, attendees are invited to venture to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for an update on recent acquisitions in the foundation’s collection, with mini-lectures by Colonial Williamsburg’s Curator of Furniture Tara Chicirda; Senior Curator of Mechanical Arts, Metals, and Numismatics Erik Goldstein; and Curator of Costumes and Textiles Neal Hurst. Following afternoon refreshments, lectures resume in the Virginia Room of the Lodge with the Carolyn and Michael McNamara Young Scholars Series, sponsored by The Decorative Arts Trust and featuring emerging scholars Ahmauri Williams-Alford (Telfair Museum), Henry Beard (Old Salem), and Cecelia Eure (Winterthur). The Annual Forum Shields Tavern Barbecue, sponsored by Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, concludes the day.

We explore indoors and out, above ground and below on Monday with independent scholar Errol Manners addressing “Ceramics and the Garden: Display, Delight, and Consumption,” and Drayton Hall’s Director of Archaeology Luke Pecoraro investigating Drayton Hall’s designed landscape. Colonial Williamsburg’s Director of Archaeology Jack Gary and Associate Curator of Ceramics and Glass, Angelika Kuettner then join our guest speakers on stage to discuss garden ceramics, archaeology, and historic preservation. In the afternoon attendees are invited to an open house at Custis Square to see the ongoing garden archaeology project and join Colonial Williamsburg’s Nation Builder Kurt Smith for a fascinating look at “Thomas Jefferson and English Gardens,” inspired by the visits of both men spanning different centuries. The Margaret Beck Pritchard Associate Curator of Maps and Prints, Katie McKinney, will end the day with a look at Robert Furber, his prints, and their influence on garden and floral arrangement design in the 18th century and today.

Our final day of lectures ventures to New England and the Mid-Atlantic with Historic Deerfield’s Amanda Lange looking at ceramics for the American home. Montgomery County Pennsylvania’s Daniel Hiester House is the subject of this year’s Collectors Talk, given by scholar and owner Lisa Minardi, while Matthew Skic, Curator of Exhibitions, Museum of the American Revolution, takes a look at the material world of the Forten Family of Philadelphia. Brenton Grom, Director of Connecticut’s Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum discusses how the spectacle of house museums can bring us together, and architectural historian Willie Graham gives our closing keynote highlighting remarkable discoveries during the restoration of Cloverfields, one of Tidewater Maryland’s grandest houses. A night to remember follows with live entertainment for the closing dinner.

Images from the Forum Flyer: Top Left: Detailed shot of a three-piece Court Suit, Warsaw, Poland, 1787–95, silk, linen, wool, iron, silver, gold, garnets, wood, paper (Transfer from The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA, 2023-21,1-3). Bottom Left: Portrait of Helen M. Eddy, Joseph Whiting Stock, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1845, oil on canvas (Bequest of Abby M. O’Neill, 2018.100.3). Top Middle: Three-piece Court Suit, Warsaw, 1787–95, silk, linen, wool, iron, silver, gold, garnets, wood, paper (Transfer from The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA, 2023-21,1-3). Bottom Middle: Hong Bowl, Jingdezhen, China, ca. 1787–88, hard-paste porcelain (Museum Purchase, The Joseph H. and June S. Hennage Fund, 2023-4). Top Right: Portrait of Major General Alexander Finley Whitaker possibly by John Bradley, New York, ca. 1835, oil on mattress ticking (Museum Purchase, Hank and Dixie Wolf in honor of Margaret Beck Pritchard and Laura Pass Barry, 2023.100.1). Bottom Right: Armchair, London, 1763–67, mahogany (Museum Purchase, 1959-351,3).