Lecture | Paris Spies-Gans on Imprints and Erasure
Image for the talk taken from Marie-Françoise Constance Mayer La Martinière (possibly with Pierre-Paul Prud’hon), Innocence Prefers Love to Wealth (L’Innocence préfère l’Amour à la Richesse), 1804, oil on canvas, 243 × 194 cm (St. Petersburg: Hermitage Museum).
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Next month at Harvard:
Paris Spies-Gans | Zerner Lecture — Imprints and Erasures: A New Story of Art
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 23 April 2024, 6.00pm
In countless ways, women have been erased from the history of art. Their exhibited works have been reattributed to their male peers; their once-collected paintings have been left to deteriorate in museum storerooms; and many art historical accounts have questioned their very ability to create “great” art. We can even track the gradual removal of women’s names from the historical record in moments of deliberate, posthumous eradication. However, a growing mountain of evidence demands we recognize that women artists may have always existed—and were often quite prominent in their own places and times. In her lecture, Paris Spies-Gans will share this troubling history and present a series of recent discoveries to challenge the powerful, gendered assumptions that continue to inflect our views of the past. By recovering the traces of women artists—the imprints they left behind—we can update essential parts of art history’s most enduring narratives.
Paris A. Spies-Gans is a historian of art with a focus on women and the politics of artistic expression. She holds a PhD in History from Princeton University, an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and an AB in History and Literature from Harvard University. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Harvard Society of Fellows, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and the Yale Center for British Art, among other institutions. Her first book, A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760–1830, was published by Yale University Press in 2022. It has won several prizes in the fields of British art history and eighteenth-century studies, and was named one of the top art books of 2022 by The Art Newspaper and The Conversation. She is currently working on her second book, A New Story of Art (Doubleday/Penguin Random House).
Call for Papers | The Face in 18th- and 19th-C Public Sculpture
Excerpted from the Call for Papers at ArtHist.net, which includes the French:
The Intimate and the Public: The Face in 18th- and 19th-Century Public Sculpture in France and the German Sphere
L’intime face au public : le visage dans la sculpture publique des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles en France et dans la sphère germanique
Institut National d’histoire de l’Art, Paris, 25–26 November 2024
Proposal due by 15 May 2024
This study day devoted to sculpture will focus on one element in particular: the face. As an essential part of the sculpted figure, the face has the dual role of enabling identification and expression. This dual role became more apparent in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the rise of portraiture, as well as the interest in the inner self and more broadly, the intimate. The aim of this exhibition is to draw a parallel between two contradictory concepts: the intimate and the public. As sculpture is the art par excellence of the public space, the aim is to confront the face, which is intimate, with the imperatives of public sculpture. The subject is all the more relevant given that statues in public spaces were subject to constantly changing decorum throughout the 19th century. The portrait was and remains the preferred type of statuary, whether full-length or in bust form. As a means of honouring a person, a propaganda tool, and an official image, the sculptural face had many functions, which began to take shape in the 18th century and became clearer in the 19th, as sculpture shifted from a religious and royal function to a civic one. Oscillating between idealisation and resemblance, the figuration of the face in the sculptural medium is a questionable concept in the Franco-German 18th and 19th centuries. In addition to the similarities in their artistic and textual origins, these two geographical areas will enable us to examine the artistic circulations that took place, and above all to analyse how political developments, which affected both France and the Germanic sphere, led to a national affirmation that was embodied in public sculpture. The aim of this study day is to examine the representation of the face in Franco-German public sculpture in the 18th and 19th centuries, analysing its theories, practices, techniques, possible typologies and the way it is perceived by the viewer. . . .
The aim of this study day is to return to a motif that is already well known and studied, the face, but this time by analysing it as an element at the junction of two spheres—the intimate and the public—through a body of sculpture. In addition to the obvious lack of studies devoted to this art form, the choice of focusing on sculpture is justified above all by its coherence with the areas of research: sculpture is mainly used to represent figures, and therefore faces, and it is the art form par excellence used in the public space.
Written submission must address one of these 8 major themes:
• The role of the face in the sculpture of public spaces
• Theories and practices of facial representation
• The relationship between the intimate and the public
• Individualisation and typology of faces
• The relationship between the face of a sculpture and the urban space
• Technique and materiality of sculpture
• Destruction or alteration of the face of a contested statue
• The gaze of the sculpture and/or the viewer / the sculpted figures in relation to each other
This call is open to all researchers, whatever their discipline or status, and we particularly encourage young researchers. Proposals for papers in English or French (maximum 300 words, accompanied by a brief bio-bibliographical presentation) should be sent before 15 May 2024 to the following address: sculptureparis24@gmail.com. The selection committee will respond to proposals by 20 June 2024.
Organizers
• Justine Cardoletti, doctoral student in art history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, justine.cardoletti@gmail.com
• Emilie Ginestet, doctoral student in art history at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, emilie.ginestet8@gmail.com
• Sarah Touboul-Oppenheimer, doctoral student in art history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, sarahtoub.st@gmail.com
Call for Papers | Human and Nature Interactions
From the Call for Papers:
Human and Nature Interactions in History: The Impact of Climate, Environment, and Natural Phenomena on Human Life
Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters, Kurul Odası, 28–29 May 2024 (with opportunities for virtual presentations)
Proposals due by 26 March 2024
Over the course of history, the fact that humans have been faced with the impact of the environment in which they live and that the relationship between humans and nature directly or indirectly has governed cultural, economic, and social structures and artistic currents has been a common problematic that concerns various disciplines. The fact that humans were subjected to compulsory guidance by nature, of which they were inclined to take control in the making of civilizations and cities, has been one of the main issues determining the historical and current agendas in varying degrees and forms.
This symposium will discuss the ways in which the natural environment shapes new habitations, the impact of the natural structure on the essential elements of the city such as architecture and settlement patterns, and how the diversity of fauna and flora affects social, cultural, emotional, and economic development or deprivation. In addition, it aims to examine the drawbacks such as water shortages, droughts, floods, fires, earthquakes, epidemics, storms, and forced migrations. In this context, it is expected to receive papers that can evaluate the manifold reflections of these phenomena that might positively or negatively affect, change, or give direction to the historical course.
Organized by the History Research Center, this free symposium aims to bring together experts from diverse fields, including environmental science, geography, historical geography, literature, economics, cultural heritage, history, and art history. If you would like to participate in the meeting with a paper, please send a short CV and an abstract of 200–300 words to tam@istanbul.edu.tr. The event will be held in a hybrid format, with both physical and online opportunities to present.
Conference | York and the Georgian City
Nathan Drake, The New Terrace Walk, York, ca. 1756, oil on canvas, 76 × 107 cm
(York Art Gallery)
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From the York Georgian Society:
York and the Georgian City: Past, Present, and Future
King’s Manor, York, 18 May 2024
This conference aims to re-evaluate the notion of York as a Georgian city, one of the founding premises of the York Georgian Society in 1939. It will examine to what extent York can be described as a ‘Georgian’ city, and whether that label is relevant or meaningful in the present day. This is the first conference organised by the York Georgian Society in conjunction with the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of York. It will be held in the beautiful and historic King’s Manor just outside the city walls, historically the most important building in York after the Minster.
Keynote lectures will be given by Professor Rosemary Sweet of the University of Leicester and Madeleine Pelling, historian, writer, and broadcaster. Others speakers are from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of York: Professor Jon Mee, Dr Matt Jenkins, and PhD students Constance Halstead and Rachel Feldberg. The day ends with a round table to discuss issues raised on the day and a reception. Tickets cost £5 for students, £15 for members of the Society and University of York staff, and £25 for others. The price includes morning coffee, a light lunch, afternoon tea, and a reception.
p r o g r a m m e
10.15 Registration and coffee
10.50 Introduction — Charles Martindale (University of Bristol) and Jim Watt (University of York)
11.00 First Keynote
Chair: Charles Martindale
• Rosemary Sweet (University of Leicester) — When Did York Become Georgian?
12.00 First Panel: University of York Student Papers
Chair: Jon Mee
• Rachel Feldberg — Sense and Sociability: Jane Ewbank’s Critical Engagement with Georgian York
• Constance Halstead — Different Cities, Different Sensibilities: The Influence of Social Milieu on Anne Lister’s Discussion of Her Journal
12.50 Lunch
2.00 Second Keynote
Chair: Adam Bowett
• Madeleine Pelling (historian, writer, and broadcaster) — Writing on the Wall: Graffiti, Rebellion, and the Making of 18th-Century Britain
3.15 Second Panel
Chair: Jim Watt
• Matt Jenkins (University of York) — An Archetypal Georgian City?: Contradictions and Conformity in 18th-Century York
• Jon Mee (University of York) — Manchester College, York, 1803–40: An Outpost of Rational Dissent in an Anglican City
4.15 Tea
4.45 Roundtable
Chair: Charles Martindale
• Rosemary Sweet, Madeleine Pelling, Adam Bowett, and Peter Brown (formerly Director of Fairfax House)
5.30 Reception
New Book | Writing on the Wall
From Profile Books:
Madeleine Pelling, Writing on the Wall: Graffiti, Rebellion, and the Making of Eighteenth-Century Britain (Profile Books, 2024), 352 pages, ISBN: 978-1800811997, £25.
What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can—if you know where to look. Hear the voices of the eighteenth century in this eye-opening new history of Britain’s most tumultuous period, told through its graffiti.
A brilliant new cultural history of the long eighteenth century, Writing on the Wall is told through the marks its citizens left behind, bringing into focus lost voices from the highest to the lowest in society. From the centre of London to the islands of the Caribbean, Pelling goes in search of graffiti, evidence of how ordinary people experienced the world-changing events that defined their lives—from political prisoners to sex workers, homesick sailors, Romantic poets, and the artisans of the industrial revolution. Here are lives, loves, triumphs, and failures, scratched into the walls of prisons and latrines, chalked up on doors, and etched into windows. The names of their creators may be lost to history, but together they tell the real story of Britain’s most rebellious and transformative century.
Madeleine Pelling is a cultural historian, author and broadcaster. She holds a PhD from the University of York and has held research fellowships at the universities of Yale, Edinburgh, and Manchester. She is co-host of History Hit’s After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal, a podcast that shines a light on the shadier corners of the past and which brings a rigorous historical lens to folklore and true crime. She is also a regular contributor for television, most recently for Titanic in Colour (Channel 4, 2025), Mayhem! Secret Lives of the Georgian Kings (2025), Queens that Changed the World (Channel 4, 2023), and Who Do You Think You Are? Australia (Warner Bros, 2023). Her words appear in The Guardian, The Independent, BBC History Magazine, and History Today.
New Book | A House Restored
From W.W. Norton:
Lee McColgan, with a foreword by Roy Underhill, A House Restored: The Tragedies and Triumphs of Saving a New England Colonial (New York: Countryman Press, 2024), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-1682688366, $25.
Shop Class as Soulcraft meets A Place of My Own in this lyrical meditation of a woodworker steadfastly repairing a historic home.
Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs it needs. A small kitchen fix reveals that the structure’s rotten frame could collapse at any moment. In a bathroom, mold appears and spreads. He fights deteriorating bricks, frozen pipes, shattered windows, a punctured foundation, and even an airborne chimney cap while learning from a diverse cast of preservationists, including a master mason named Irons, a stone whisperer, and the Window Witch. But can he meet his deadline before family and friends arrive, or will it all come crashing down? McColgan’s journey expertly examines our relationship to history through the homes we inhabit, beautifully articulating the philosophy of preserving the past to find purpose for the future.
Lee McColgan has worked on Boston’s Old North Church, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, and other buildings. His work has appeared in Architectural Digest, The Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives with his wife in the Loring House in Pembroke, Massachusetts.
New Book | Royalty and Architecture
From Stolpe Publishing:
Clive Aslet and Frank Salmon, eds., Royalty and Architecture: Visions and Ambitions of European Monarchs and Nobility (Stockholm: Bokförlaget Stolpe, 2024), 250 pages, ISBN: 978-9189425958, £35.
It is well known that, throughout history, royalty have built castles, fortresses, and entire cities. However, less consideration has been given to individual monarchs who pursued an interest in architecture and in some cases acted as architects. Recent research on Gustav III of Sweden (1746–1792) has shown that he was in fact the architect for a number of important building projects. George III of England (1760–1820) also had a great interest in architecture, and his drawings and sketches have been preserved. Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) was greatly involved in shaping the palace and garden at Versailles. And Stanislaw II August’s (1732–1798) interest in architectural work had a major impact on the neoclassical style in Poland. This richly illustrated book provides additional examples and perspectives on the importance of monarchs for architecture and architectural policy. Along with essays by Aslet and Salmon, the volume includes contributions from leading international scholars: Barbara Arciszewska (Warsaw University), Basile Baudez (Princeton University), Julius Bryant (Victoria and Albert Museum), John Goodall (Editor of Country Life), Elisabeth Kieven (Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome), Jarl Kremeier (Berlin), Rebecca Lyons (Royal Academy of Arts), Magnus Olausson (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), Emily Roy (National Trust), Ian Thompson (University of Newcastle), and Simon Thurley (Chair of the National Heritage Lottery Fund). An essay has also been prepared from the late David Watkin’s 2004 book on King George III as architect.
Clive Aslet is an award-winning writer and journalist who has published over twenty books.
Frank Salmon is Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, having served as President of the College from 2015 to 2019.
New Book | John Carr of York: Collected Essays
From PHP and The University of Chicago Press:
Ivan Hall, edited by Kenneth Powell, John Carr of York: Collected Essays (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2024), 500 pages, ISBN: 978-1399959155, £50 / $60.
An introduction to the life and mind of one of England’s most significant architects.
John Carr of York (1723–1807) was one of the most prolific and significant architects of the eighteenth century, with an output of more than four hundred designs, which range from simple gateways to the grandest schemes. Highly successful in his day, he had a recognizable style that was sensitive to the latest fashions as they continued to change. His ability to create beautiful buildings and marry this with a practical approach to both the purpose of the building and the budget of his clients won him many commissions.
Carr was born in Yorkshire in the North of England and remained there for the duration of his career. Because of this, he has often been overlooked as an architect, and his extensive output has defeated many attempts to write a complete study of his work. Although not a comprehensive review, John Carr of York seeks to situate Carr as an architect of national significance. It includes photographs and covers overarching themes such as landscape and color and some commissions in more detail.
Ivan Hall, FSA is a British architectural historian specialising in the architecture of John Carr.
Kenneth Powell is an architectural critic, historian, and consultant.
New Book | Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830
From Yale UP:
Steven Brindle, Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830 (London: Paul Mellon Centre, 2024) 592 pages, ISBN: 978-1913107406, $75.
A major new history of architecture in Britain and Ireland that looks at buildings and their construction in detail while revealing the cultural, material, political, and economic contexts that made them
Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830 presents a comprehensive history of architecture in Britain during this three-hundred-year period. Drawing on the most important advances in architectural history in the last seventy years, ranging across cultural, material, political, and economic contexts, this book also encompasses architecture in Ireland and includes substantial commentary on the buildings of Scotland and Wales. Across three chronological sections—1530 to 1660, 1660 to 1760, and 1760 to 1830—this volume explores how architectural culture evolved from a subject carried solely in the minds and skills of craftsmen to being embodied in books and documents and with new professions—architects, surveyors, and engineers—in charge. With chapters dedicated to towns and cities, landscape, infrastructure, military architecture, and industrial architecture, and beautifully illustrated with new photography, detailed graphics, and a wealth of historic images, Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830 is an invaluable resource for students, historians, and anyone with an interest in the architecture of this period.
Steven Brindle is senior properties historian at English Heritage and publishes widely on the history of architecture and engineering, with major works including Brunel: The Man Who Built the World and, as editor, Windsor Castle: A Thousand Years of a Royal Palace.
Upcoming | Dinah Memorial Unveiling, Stenton, Philadelphia
Karyn Olivier, Dinah Memorial, Stenton, Philadelphia, 2024. Nearly finished in this view, the memorial incorporates two brass plaques (one from 1912 and a new one), a small reflecting pool, and questions for both visitors and Dinah herself.
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I hope that Stenton’s Dinah Memorial Project garners the coverage it deserves in the coming weeks; what a compelling, important story! From the press release. . . –CH
Dinah Memorial Unveiling Celebration
Stenton Museum, Philadelphia, 20 April 2024, 2–4pm
On 20 April 2024, The Dinah Memorial, Philadelphia’s first monument dedicated to a formerly enslaved woman, will be unveiled on the grounds of Stenton, where she labored and was buried. This memorial is the physical culmination of Stenton’s Dinah Memorial Project, funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, a years-long community engagement discussion.
Dinah’s complex life-story has been uncovered in archival sources in the Quaker Collection at Haverford College as well as in the Logan and related family papers collections at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Letters between family members, almanacs, ledgers, legal documents, and an investigation by the Quaker Meeting provided information that allowed Stenton staff to map Dinah’s life from her childhood in the home of Hannah Emlen, who would marry William Logan, to her death and burial in 1805. Though long celebrated for her storied role in saving Stenton from intended burning during the Revolutionary War, Stenton knew that there was more to Dinah than the ‘faithful slave’ narrative for which she was honored on a plaque erected in Stenton Park in 1912. This new memorial, a space in the Stenton landscape designed for questioning and reflection, conceived by acclaimed Philadelphia artist Karyn Olivier, seeks to rebalance Stenton’s historical interpretation, bringing to light the realities of Northern slavery and enslavement by Quakers while highlighting the fullness of Dinah’s humanity.
Executive Director Dennis Pickeral noted that “the Dinah Memorial Project has been transformative for the museum, revealing ignored and untold stories and histories of individuals who were enslaved and labored at Stenton, and for what the project has meant for the museum’s relationship with the surrounding community, who helped create the Dinah memorial and are now partners in charting Stenton’s course for the future.”
The unveiling falls on Stenton’s second annual Dinah Day celebration commemorating her requested release from bondage on 15 April 1776. Visitors can register here to attend the event.
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Built for James Logan, William Penn’s Secretary, between 1723 and 1730, Stenton is located in the historic Logan section of Philadelphia, at 4601 North 18th Street, four blocks east of Wayne Junction. The house is open for tours Tuesday through Saturday, from 1.00 to 4.00pm, April through December, and by appointment throughout the year. Stenton is a member of Historic Germantown, a consortium of nineteen cultural attractions and historic sites located in Northwest Philadelphia.
r e l a t e d p r o g r a m m i n g , r e c e n t a n d u p c o m i n g
Conversation with Memorial Artist Karyn Olivier and Remember My Name: Dinah’s Story Film Screening
Stenton, 2 February 2024, 6pm
The evening features Karyn Olivier, the artist who designed the Dinah Memorial, and a screening of Remember My Name: Dinah’s Story, a film written by Robert Branch and performed by Irma Gardner-Hamond and Marissa Kennedy.
Adrienne Whaley | A Glimpse into Dinah’s World: Revolutionary Black Philadelphia
Zoom, 22 February 2024, 6.30pm
Adrienne Whaley, Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Museum of the American Revolution, constructs Philadelphia through the eyes of Dinah. A recording is available here»
Laura Keim | From Archival Discoveries to Monumental Construction
Facebook Live, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1 March 2024, 4pm
Laura Keim has served as the Curator for Stenton since 1999. Images of archival sources for Dinah are available here. A recording of Keim’s presentation from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is available here»
Amy Cohen | Black History in Philadelphia
Stenton, 4 April 2024, 12.30pm
After twenty years teaching social studies, Amy Cohen became Director of Education for History Making Productions and is a contributing writer for Hidden City Philadelphia. She’ll discuss her new book Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape: Deep Roots, Continuing Legacy (Temple University Press, 2024).
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