Lecture | Adrienne Childs on Pearls and Blackamoors
Presented by the Lewis Walpole Library and the Wadsworth Atheneum:
Adrienne Childs | Pearl Drops and Blackamoors: The Black Body and Pearlescent Adornment in European Art
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 10 October 2024, 6pm
Nicolaes Berchem, A Moor Offering a Parrot to a Lady (detail), ca. 1660–70, oil on canvas (Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1961.29).
European artists of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries often depicted Black figures wearing pearl ornaments. The contrast evoked notions of luxury, distant lands, and exoticism. Art historian and curator Adrienne L. Childs, PhD explores the complexities of subjugating and enslaving Black bodies in one context and using their images to showcase luxuries in another. Before the lecture, meet at 5pm in the galleries to view works from the museum’s European art collection. Free and open to the public with registration encouraged.
The lecture is offered in connection with the exhibition The Paradox of Pearls: Accessorizing Identities in the Eighteenth Century, curated by Laura Engel, Professor, Duquesne University, on view at the Lewis Walpole Library until 31 January 2025.
Adrienne L. Childs is an independent scholar, art historian, and curator. She is Senior Consulting Curator at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Her current book project is an exploration of Black figures in European decorative arts entitled Ornamental Blackness: The Black Figure in European Decorative Arts, forthcoming from Yale University Press (2025). She is co-curator of Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest for The Phillips Collection (on view until September 2025). She recently co-curated The Colour of Anxiety: Race, Sexuality and Disorder in Victorian Sculpture at The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, England. She was the guest curator of Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition at The Phillips Collection in 2020. Childs was awarded the 2022 Driskell Prize from The High Museum of Art in recognition of her contribution to African American art and art history. She holds a BA from Georgetown University, an MBA from Howard University, and a PhD in the History of Art from the University of Maryland. Currently, Childs serves as the Distinguished Scholar at the Leonard A. Lauder Center at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Talk | Philippa Tudor on Huguenot Records at Lambeth Palace Library
From Eventbrite:
Philippa Tudor | Huguenot Records in Lambeth Palace Library: Cataloguing Complexity
Lambeth Palace Library, London, 2 October 2024, 5.30pm
Registration due by 30 September 2024
Philippa Tudor will be talking about her work as a volunteer at LPL cataloguing the Huguenot records.
The term ‘refugees’ was first used to describe the 50,000 Protestants who fled to England from France in the 16th–18th centuries. The miscellany of related records in Lambeth Palace Library sheds light on the experiences of Huguenots in England, as well as attempts to secure the release of those condemned to the French galleys. All are welcome, but anyone wishing to attend must book an individual ticket or email archives@churchofengland.org no later than Monday, 30 September.
Philippa Tudor, who completed her doctorate in the literature of the early Reformation in England, is a volunteer cataloguer and friend of Lambeth Palace Library, working on a finding aid to its Huguenot-related resources.
Lecture | Miriam Schefzyk on German Cabinetmaker in 18th-C. Paris
Jean-Francois Oeben and Roger Vandercruse, Tabletop of a mechanical table, ca. 1761–63, oak veneered with mahogany, kingwood, and tulipwood, with marquetry of mahogany, rosewood, holly, and various other woods; gilt-bronze mounts; imitation Japanese lacquer; replaced silk (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.60.61).
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This fall at BGC:
Miriam Schefzyk | Parisian Dreams: German Migrants and Cabinetmaking in 18th-Century Paris
A Françoise and Georges Selz Lecture on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture
Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2 October 2024, 6pm
Paris has long been a privileged destination for many, but there was a particularly significant migration that began in the seventeenth century and gathered strength during the eighteenth century: that of German cabinetmakers. Hardworking and aspiring to wealth, recognition, and a better life, these numerous artisans made Paris into the most important center in the furniture and luxury trade of the time. Many of them rose to important positions as masters or leaders in the guild, and some even obtained royal privileges and titles. Their furniture was regarded as the incarnation of French taste and is still viewed as evidence of the supremacy of French decorative arts today. In this lecture, Miriam Schefzyk will examine the living and working conditions of these artisans and how their background as migrants significantly shaped the framework in which these extraordinary pieces of furniture were created.
$15 General | $12 Seniors | Free for people associated with a college or university, people with museum ID, people with disabilities and caregivers, and BGC members.
Miriam E. Schefzyk is the associate curator of decorative arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum and previously worked at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin. She studied art history at the universities of Marburg, Berlin, Münster, and Paris, earning a PhD in a joint French-German doctoral program. A specialist of French decorative arts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, her research focuses on Parisian furniture, artistic transfer, social history, and materiality. Her book Migration und Integration im Paris des 18. Jahrhunderts: Martin Carlin und die deutschen Ebenisten (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2022) was awarded the Marianne Roland Michel Foundation Prize for its important contribution to French art and will soon be published in French.
Lecture | Mia Jackson on the Birds of Louis-Denis Armand
Louis-Denis Armand, Parrots, ca. 1750–70
(Paris: Galerie Dragesco-Cramoisan)
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This fall at BGC:
Mia Jackson | Flights of Fancy: The Birds of Louis-Denis Armand (1723–1796)
A Françoise and Georges Selz Lecture on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture
Bard Graduate Center, New York, 11 December 2024, 6pm
Mia Jackson will talk about her recent exhibition, Flights of Fancy, the first ever survey of the life and work of the recently rediscovered Sèvres painter Louis-Denis Armand (1723–1796), now celebrated as one of the foremost painters of birds. Very few artisans from the eighteenth century have left us such a detailed biography; over thirty drawings by Armand survive, and research into the drawings and their inscriptions (by Jackson and collaborator Bernard Dragesco) has revealed a wealth of detail about the artist, his life, his work, and even his political opinions.
Mia Jackson has been curator of decorative arts at Waddesdon Manor since 2017. She studied French and Philosophy at the University of Oxford then completed an MA in eighteenth-century French decorative arts at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her doctoral thesis entitled “André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) and Paper: Prints and Drawings in the Workshop of an Ébéniste du Roi” was completed at Queen Mary, University of London in 2016. She previously worked in the Prints and Drawings Department at the British Museum, the Wallace Collection, and English Heritage. Eighteenth-century France is her area of expertise, in particular the links between works on paper and the decorative arts.
Exhibition | The Paradox of Pearls
Opening next month at The Walpole Library:
The Paradox of Pearls: Accessorizing Identities in the Eighteenth Century
The Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT, 27 September 2024 — 31 January 2025
Curated by Laura Engel
William Hoare, Portrait of Maria Walpole, ca. 1742, pastel on paper (The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, LWL Ptg. 152).
Pearls figure prominently in pictures of celebrated and imagined figures across the eighteenth century. Adorning royalty, celebrities, servants, and in fashion plates, the mysterious, opaque, and gleaming white accessory aligns with the mutable, seductive, and threatening emergence of new forms of identity. Worn as jewelry, as embellishments to the body and dress, or embedded in the settings of precious objects—pearls accessorize, highlight, colonize, and perform. As one of the most sought-after commodities of the early modern colonial enterprise, a precious jewel tied to bondage and violence, pearls have a baroque and complex history. Drawing from materials in the Lewis Walpole Library this exhibition will explore the ‘paradox of pearls’ by considering how the varied and often contradictory meanings of this jewel appear in period images and the ways in which practices from the past connect us to the powerful presence of pearls today. The exhibition is curated by Professor Laura Engel of Duquesne University.
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Curator Talk with Laura Engel
The Lewis Walpole Library, 16 November 2024, 2pm
From Queen Elizabeth I to Harry Styles, the legacy of pearls is a story about self-fashioning. Pearls feature prominently in many pictures of celebrated figures from the past. Worn as jewelry—as embellishments of the body and apparel, or embedded in the settings of precious objects—pearls illuminate ideas about beauty, power, and style. Drawing upon materials in the Lewis Walpole Library, this talk considers how the varied and often contradictory meanings of this jewel were represented in period images and the ways in which practices from the past connect us to the enduring presence of pearls today. Space is limited, and advance registration through the Farmington Libraries site is required. Registration link forthcoming.
Lecture | Cynthia Chin on Recreating a Martha Washington Gown
Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company, detail of the reproduced silk used in Cynthia Chin’s replica of a gown owned by Martha Washington
(Image courtesy of Cynthia Chin)
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Upcoming at the Wadsworth Atheneum:
Cynthia Chin | Off the Dressmaker’s Needle: Recreating Martha Washington’s Purple Silk Gown and Recovering the Lives Within
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, 15 September 2024, 2pm
Cynthia Chin, Gown and petticoat, 2024, Silk, linen, and wool. The gown is a reproduction of a garment owned by Martha Custis Washington. The original was made in the the early 1760s when Washington was in her thirties, remade around the time of the American Revolution (1775–1783), and possibly worn during her tenure as First Lady (1789–1797). The original gown is now in the collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society.
The recent work of art and material culture historian Cynthia Chin involves an in-depth study of a purple silk gown owned by Martha Custis Washington (1731–1802). Chin reveals how her research and recreation of the textile and garment illuminate the stories of the people who made, wore, and cared for it. Join us before the lecture to view Chin’s colorful replica of Washington’s gown, on view in New Nation, Many Hands. Free with reservations encouraged.
As Dr. Chin notes in her Maker-Scholar Statement: “Recreating this garment as it may have appeared when new, unworn, and unaltered honors the forced labor of the enslaved seamstresses who tended the original object, including Caroline Branham (1764–1843), Charlotte, and Ona ‘Oney’ Judge (1773–1838). I commissioned the textile specifically for this project. It was reproduced by the Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company in Suffolk, UK. This gown and its replication methodology reveal new evidence of how the original dress changed over its lifespan, and how Martha Washington may have appeared when she was young. It remembers all unseen and forced labor—the ‘many hands’ that created our new American democracy.”
Cynthia E. Chin is an art and material culture historian of Vast Early America and Britain in the eighteenth century, specializing in dress, textiles, identity, and collecting. As a researcher at the University of Glasgow, Cynthia examines collections of dress, textiles, and art from around 1600 to 1830 in order to understand how private collections, individual collectors, and museum acquisitions strategies shaped notions of ‘early America’.
Presented with support from the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Fund at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Lecture | Ned Lazaro on the Mourning Embroidery of Elizabeth Bennett
Elizabeth K. Bennett, Mourning Picture, 1801–07, polychrome silk embroidery, metallic threads, gouache and watercolor paints, plain-weave silk ground (Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, gift of Miss Jane W. Stone, 1938.236).
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Upcoming at the Wadsworth Atheneum:
Ned Lazaro | The Mourning Embroidery of Elizabeth K. Bennett
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, 8 September 2024, 1pm
Needlework was an important part of a young girl’s education in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America. Mourning embroideries often depicted figures overcome with sadness and weeping willow trees. Ned Lazaro, Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles, discusses the ongoing significance of a particular example. Free with museum admission.
Roundtable | The Study of Collecting: Past, Present, and Future
Frans Francken the Younger, The Cabinet of a Collector with Paintings, Shells, Coins, Fossils, and Flowers, 1619, oil on panel, 56 × 85 cm
(Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp)
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From the programme flyer:
Roundtable Discussion | The Study of Collecting: Past, Present, and Future
Institute of Advanced Studies Forum, University College London, 10 September 2024, 14.00–16.00
Begun in 1989, the Journal of the History of Collections has played a pivotal role in the development of the study of collecting. A multidisciplinary field by nature, the study of collecting began, arguably, with research into the early modern period and such cabinets of curiosities as those belonging to Hans Sloane and Ulisse Aldrovandi. With 35 complete volumes of the Journal now having been published, the time is ripe for a look at the past, present, and future of the field. This will also be an occasion to mark the appointment of Christina M. Anderson as Editor in Chief and the recent retirement of the Journal’s Founding Editor, Arthur MacGregor.
The UCL Centre for Early Modern Exchanges, together with the Journal of the History of Collections, is hosting a roundtable discussion to explore themes that have developed in the field over the past 35 years and to identify new ones that are emerging. In doing so, the event aims to consider not only traditional methodologies but also new approaches that have been developed in the humanities, social sciences, museum studies, heritage, art market, etc., in recent years. It also seeks to address the ways in which early modern cabinets of curiosities have inspired contemporary museums, magazines, and bloggers.
Short presentations (5–10 minutes) will be given by members of a panel, to include Paula Findlen (Stanford University), Anne Gerritsen (University of Warwick), Anna Garnett (Petrie Museum), Mark Carine (Natural History Museum), and Hélia Marçal (UCL History of Art), among others. These overviews will be followed by a moderated panel discussion and questions from the audience. Refreshments will be provided. For catering purposes, rsvp to editorjhc@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you there!
Lecture Series | Bénédicte Savoy on Returning Looted Heritage, 1815
This fall at the Prado (as noted by Nina Siegal in The New York Times) . . .
Bénédicte Savoy | Returning Looted Heritage: 1815, The Dismantling of the Louvre and the Rebirth of Museums in Europe
La recuperación del patrimonio saqueado: 1815, el desmantelamiento del Louvre y el renacimiento de los museos en Europa
Online and in-person, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 7, 14, 21, and 28 November 2024
Bénédicte Savoy (Photograph by Maurice Weiss).
Between 1794 and 1811, successive French governments seized “works of art and science” from different states of Europe. This policy of appropriation, made legitimate by the belief that works of art, the natural by-product of freedom, should be returned to the land of liberty (i.e., France), gave rise to a major flow of cultural objects (paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, exquisite incunabula, etc.) from the countries involved towards France.
The vast majority of these objects, grouped together in the Louvre and the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, were claimed by and returned to their rightful owners after the fall of the Empire (1814–1815). The restitution of 1815, a major historical and cultural event in Europe, mobilized the European intelligentsia and had a major impact on the cultural geography of the continent. The passions unleashed at the time fueled the European historiography of disentailment and confiscations during the 19th century. Most of the arguments exchanged then continue even now to structure the contemporary debate on restitutions. The lectures seek to identify the transnational concerns and consequences of this important event. Lectures will be given in French with simultaneous Spanish translation.
7 November — Reclaiming Cultural Heritage
The first lecture delves into the concept of restitution, especially from the point of view of those persons who traveled to Paris in 1815 with the intention of demanding the return of the plundered treasures. We shall study the relationship between post-conflict gestures of restitution and processes of reclaiming the objects of value. Among the key ideas to be discussed are the following: What steps are taken to actually reclaim the works of art? Who takes the initiative? In what circumstances? What resistance strategies are carried out by the possessing institutions?
14 November — The Interplay of Law and Morality
This lecture examines the complex relationship between legal principles and moral considerations as evidenced in the 1815 restitution debates. These discussions have profoundly influenced contemporary perspectives on repatriating looted assets. We contrast the legalists, who argue from a legal standpoint against the repossession of goods by Napoleon’s adversaries, with the moralists, who champion the rights of nations to their heritage and advocate for cultural justice. The enduring tension and the relevance of these two-century-old arguments will be critically analysed.
21 November — The Dilemma of Universality
In 1814 and 1815 European intellectuals praised the Louvre’s model for its intellectual, emotional, and historical significance while acknowledging the ethical dilemma it posed: the presence of these treasures in the museums in Paris was possible only because of their absence from other cities. This session explores the paradox of the universal museum concept and the ensuing debate over whether cultural assets should be centralized or dispersed to foster cultural development. The dismantling of the Louvre and the debates it sparked offer insights into museum discourse that echo through subsequent decades.
28 November — Paths to Reconnection
Following the upheaval of 1815, within a drastically transformed geopolitical landscape, there ensued diverse approaches to cultural reappropriation. They varied from nation to nation, community to community, spilling over even to academies and universities. The return of artworks to their places of origin opened up then, as it continues to do now, the possibility of finding a multitude of destinations beyond that of museums, including their reinstatement in original locations such as churches. This lecture will address how societies navigate the post-conflict recovery of their heritage and the time it takes to determine the rightful place for these works of art.
Devoted to the study of the processes of restitution of cultural property to countries looted by France during the Napoleonic period, the 12th Cátedra del Prado is led by Bénédicte Savoy, professor for Modern Art History at the Technische Universität Berlin. Between 2016 and 2021 Savoy also held a professorship at the Collège de France in Paris, where she taught the cultural history of artistic heritage in Europe from the 18th century to the 20th century. Her research focuses on museum history, Franco-German cultural transfer, Nazi looted art, and research on postcolonial provenance. In 2018 Professor Savoy wrote the report On the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage together with Senegalese scholar Felwine Sarr. This report was commissioned by Emmanuel Macron, President of France. She has received numerous awards for her research, academic activities, and teaching, including the 2016 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation and, most recently, the Berlin Science Prize. She is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a Knight of the French Legion of Honor and a member of various other institutions, advisory boards, and committees. Her most recent publications include the book Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat, which has been translated into several languages, and the joint publication Atlas der Abwesenheit: Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland (Atlas of Absence: Cameroon’s Cultural Heritage in Germany).
Online Talk | Hannah Carlson on Pockets and Gender
As noted at Events in the Field, maintained by The Decorative Arts Trust:
Hannah Carlson | Objects Up Close: Gendering Pockets and Purses
Online, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, 10 July 2024, 10.30am EDT
Pocket (Lady’s pocket), United States, 1780–1840, linen, wool, and silk (woven, embroidered, crewelwork), 56 × 39 cm (Winterthur, 1966.1126).
Explore the fascinating history of women’s and men’s pockets in this virtual lecture featuring a tie-on pocket in Winterthur’s collection. Through the 18th century, women used the tie-on pocket, an accessory worn under the skirt and wrapped around the waist. Men had pockets integrally stitched into the three-piece suit. Hannah Carlson, Winterthur summer research fellow and senior lecturer in the apparel design department at the Rhode Island School of Design, will explore the ‘pocket question’ and politics of individual preparedness and privacy.
Register for this free event here»
Hannah Carlson teaches dress history and material culture at the Rhode Island School of Design. After training as a conservator of costume and textiles at the Fashion Institute of Technology, she received a PhD in material culture from Boston University. She is the author of Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close (Algonquin Books, 2023).
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