Symposium | The French Influence in Newport
From Newport Mansions:
The French Influence in Newport
Rosecliff and Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island, 6–7 November 2025
French art, architecture, design and cuisine permeated the lifestyles of the Gilded Age elite as they looked to the French aristocracy for inspiration. Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, modeled the architecture of Alva Vanderbilt’s Marble House after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Horace Trumbauer’s inspiration for The Elms came from the 18th-century Château d’Asnières, while Stanford White’s design for Rosecliff incorporated elements of another Versailles palace, the Grand Trianon. Furniture maker and interior designer Jules Allard et Fils furnished Newport’s summer ‘cottages’ with treasures inspired by and imported from France, and French chefs created magnificent culinary confections. Learn about all of this and more during the symposium’s morning lectures and guided afternoon tours (Thursday at Rosecliff and Friday at Marble House). Registration includes special access to the exhibition Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light at Rosecliff.
Scholarships are available to assist undergraduate and graduate students interested in attending the symposium.
t h u r s d a y , 6 n o v e m b e r
Speakers
• Keynote Speaker: Mathieu Deldicque, Chief Curator and Museum Director of Château de Chantilly
• Margot Bernstein, Private Collection Curator
• Becky Libourel Diamond, Food Culture Historian
• Leslie Jones, Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator, the Preservation Society
• Laura Bergemann, former Preservation Society Conservation Research Fellow and PhD candidate at Vanderbilt University
• Théo Lourenço, Preservation Society Curatorial Research Fellow
f r i d a y , 7 n o v e m b e r
Speakers
• Justine De Young, Associate Professor and Chair of the History of Art Department, Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) in New York City
• Natalie Larson, Interior Textile Historian, Historic Textile Reproductions LLC
• Nadia Albertini, French Heritage Society Scholar, Franco-Mexican embroidery and textile designer
• Bob Shaw, HBO’s The Gilded Age Production Designer
Conversations | Regarding History: American Art in Perspective
From The Met:
Regarding History: American Art in Perspective
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1 November 2025
Join curators, academics, and artists to mark the end of the American Wing’s 100th anniversary with dynamic conversations and presentations that explore multilayered interpretations of American art and history. Discover how diverse institutions and individuals are bringing history to life for audiences through a variety of engaging approaches that activate digital technologies, showcase innovations in visual and material object-based displays, and center the power of place and the potential for contemporary artistic interventions. Presentations will be recorded and posted soon after the event on The Met’s YouTube channel.
Registration for in-person attendance is available here»
s c h e d u l e
11.00 Introduction — Sylvia Yount (Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing, The Met)
11.15 Keynote Conversation
• Edward Ayers (Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus, University of Richmond)
• Christy Coleman (Executive Director, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)
12.15 Break
1.30 Curatorial Roundtable
Moderated by Sylvia Yount
• Layla Bermeo (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
• Kathleen Foster (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
• Sarah Kelly Oehler (Art Institute of Chicago)
2.30 Artist Presentation — Titus Kaphar
3.00 Closing Remarks
Call for Papers | ASECS 2026 Session: Lighting the Enlightenment
A few sessions for next spring’s ASECS conference are still finalizing participants and hoping for submissions, including this one on “Lighting the Enlightenment.” Do get in touch with chairs right away if you have an idea (there may be a little wiggle room even with the late deadline).
Session | Lighting the Enlightenment:
Artificial Light and the Transformation of Cultural Practices
ASECS Annual Conference, Philadelphia, 9–11 April 2026
Proposals due by 3 October 2025
Chairs: Sophie Raux, Université Lumière Lyon 2, LARHRA, sophie.raux@9online.fr; and Marie Thebaud-Sorger, CNRS, Centre Alexandre-Koyré Paris, marie.thebaud-sorger@cnrs.fr
The renewal of theories of light in the eighteenth century, alongside the development of practices and uses related to the economy of lighting—such as lamps—contributed to shaping a metaphorical understanding of luminous phenomena within the broader discourse of rationalization that characterized the aptly named Age of Enlightenment. Artificial light came to be seen as a manifestation of humanity’s ability to overcome natural constraints, enabling the development of a wide range of practices—nocturnal sociability, theater, art academies, night work, domestic interiors—aligned with the transformation of material environments aimed at improving comfort, safety, and hygiene.
In recent years, interdisciplinary approaches have opened new avenues for research that move beyond literary or visual representations, emphasizing the role of material culture, technology, and sensory experience in shaping historical analysis. This panel invites proposals that explore how artificial lighting influenced, enabled, or transformed social, artistic, and literary practices. To what extent did innovations in lighting modify, inspire, or make possible such practices? What relationships emerged between technical innovation and artistic or literary creativity? How did artificial light affect the visual cultures of the Enlightenment? What were its implications for the history of vision and representation? We welcome contributions from a wide range of perspectives, including literary studies, theater studies, art history, the history of technology, the history of knowledge, and sensory studies. Special attention will be given to papers that reflect on methodological questions—for instance, the role of digital simulation or reenactment in reconstructing past sensory experiences. All submissions must be submitted through the Annual Meeting and Membership Portal.
New Book | Architecture and Artifice
Distributed by Yale UP:
Christine Casey, Architecture and Artifice: The Crafted Surface in Eighteenth-Century Building Practice (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2025), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-1913107482, £45 / $60.
Revealing the materials and craftsmanship that shaped the look of eighteenth-century architecture in Britain and Ireland
This book uncovers the overlooked material practices that were crucial to architectural production in the eighteenth century. Centred on the architecture of England and Ireland, it examines the facing materials that define the distinctive character of cities and regions. Focusing on the final stages of construction—the external façade and interior finishes in stone, plaster, and wood—Architecture and Artifice combines archival research with insights from architectural conservation to reveal the hidden techniques behind these structures. It explores the lives of craftsmen, uncovering the unwritten standards that guided their work and argues for the agency of materials and craft in shaping the meanings of eighteenth-century buildings. Featuring a cast of lesser-known craftsmen alongside new perspectives on iconic structures such as Chatsworth, the Cambridge Senate House, and Dublin’s Parliament House, the book introduces a wealth of previously unpublished archival material uncovering the intricate processes and people behind the era’s most enduring buildings.
Christine Casey is a professor of architectural history and fellow at Trinity College Dublin. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and an honorary member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.
Conference | Servants, Labourers, and the Manorial World
Johan Cornelius Krieger, Ledreborg Castle, Denmark (about 30 miles west of Copenhagen). Most of the house was constructed in the 1740s.
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From ENCOUNTER:
Servants, Labourers, and the Manorial World: Alternative Perspectives
9th ENCOUNTER Conference
Ledreborg Castle, Denmark, 9–11 October 2025
The European Network for Country House and Estate Research (ENCOUNTER) is pleased to host its ninth conference, organized in collaboration with The Danish Research Centre for Manorial Studies and Gammel Estrup, The Danish Manor Museum.
The manor or country house is often viewed exclusively as a stage for the economic and political elite of the past, a setting for splendour, luxury, and self-presentation. However, the world of the manor also included a well-defined hierarchy consisting of landowning families, tenant farmers, servants, craftsmen and labourers, all negotiating the dynamics of power. Ideally, the manor operated as a paternalistic institution built on mutual obligations: masters provided care and protection and subordinates offered work, loyalty and obedience. This relationship was both a practical arrangement and an ideological framework, a power dynamic and a manifestation of social inequality.
These historical structures could however be a source of both resistance and conflict as well as support and benevolence. On a larger scale, country houses became both targets and symbols during major confrontations, from peasant revolts to revolutions and civil wars. On a smaller scale, historical court records reveal conflicts involving servants and owners or the owners’ representatives. Conversely, the manor provided the social framework for many people’s lives, offering employment, housing, and protection. Country house owners offered patronage and sought to cultivate the religious and moral development of their staff and communities. Loyal service was rewarded with promotions and comfortable living conditions. Manors funded churches, schools, alms-houses, and gave donations. However, the nineteenth century brought dramatic social changes, as industrialisation drew labor and wealth into the urban centres. To what extent were these changes driven by further political developments and societal reforms? Was social change in a rural context a one-way phenomenon dictated by landowners?
This ENCOUNTER conference will explore these dynamics, primarily focusing on a bottom-up perspective, highlighting the master-servant relationship in its full paternalistic scope, and addressing household, villages, rural communities, etc. This includes shedding light on the conditions and material realities for servants and workers, as well as the organisational structures. And to explore conflicts/resistance and limits within the relationship, as well as changes in the nature and conditions of the relationship over time.
ENCOUNTER was founded in Denmark in 2015 and has since provided a framework for interaction between scholars and cultural institutions in Europe sharing a professional interest in the research and interpretation of manor and country house history. The conference thus also marks the network’s 10th anniversary.
Abstracts for each paper are available here»
t h u r s d a y , 9 o c t o b e r
8.40 Bus departure from Scandic Roskilde
8.55 Bus departure from Roskilde Station
9.15 Arrival Ledreborg Estate
10.00 Welcome — Kasper Steenfeldt Tipsmark (Gammel Estrup The Danish Manor & Estate Museum) and Signe Boeskov (The Danish Research Centre for Manorial Studies)
10.15 Keynote
• Aristocratic Servants in 17th-Century Sweden: Gender, Recruitment, and Career — Svante Norrhem (Lund University)
10.55 Session 1 | Servants
Chair: Kasper Steenfeldt Tipsmark
• Servants’ Property and Material Culture on Swedish Manors, 1770–1870 — Göran Ulväng (Uppsala University)
• The Organisation of the Household: The Role of High-Ranking Servants at 19th-Century Danish Manors — Signe Boeskov and Søren Broberg Knudsen (The Danish Research Centre for Manorial Studies)
• Behind the Scenes of the Manor — Aina Aske (Vestfoldmuseene IKS) and Lars Jacob Hvinden-Haug (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, NIKU)
• Hidden Doors and Secret Passages: Telling the Story of Servants in Eidsvoll House — Solveig Therese Dahl (Eidsvoll 1814, The Norsk Folkemuseum foundation)
13.00 Lunch
14.10 Guided tour Ledreborg
15.25 Session 2 | Labour and Estate Community
Chair: Paul Zalewski (European University of Viadrina)
• The Transition from Serfdom to the Industrial Worker in the Vodka Distillery of the Estonian Manor during the 19th Century — Mirje Tammaru (Estonian Academy of Arts)
• Arm Wrestling: Agency and Negotiations between Tenant Farmers and the Big House: An Alternative Perspective from Four 18th-Century Estates in the Netherlands — Gerrit van Oosterom, (independent researcher)
• Labourers on the Estate—Esbogård, 1770–1920 — Tryggve Gestrin (Espoo City Museum)
• Work, Family, Security: The Relationships and Life Strategies within the Håkansböle Manor Community — Eeva Kotioja (Vantaa City Museum)
17.30 Discussion and break
18.45 Dinner at Restaurant Herthadalen
f r i d a y , 1 0 o c t o b e r
8.10 Bus departure from Scandic Roskilde
8.25 Bus departure from Roskilde Station
8.45 Arrival Ledreborg Estate
9.30 Early Career Keynote
• Early Modern Estates as Communities of ‘Care’: Medical Practice across the Social Hierarchy in Rural England, 1650–1750 — Emma Marshall (University of Birmingham and University of York)
10.10 Session 3 | Care and Crisis
Chair: Hanneke Ronnes (University of Groningen)
• A Manorial World in Miniature? The Hospital of Laurvig County in the 18th Century — Arne Bugge Amundsen (University of Oslo)
• The State, the Subjects, and the Lord: Conflicts at Ängsö Manor, 1690–1710 — Joakim Scherp (Stockholm University and The Riksdag Library)
• Caring Beyond the Grave? The Estate of Denis Roest van Alkemade (1720–1791) — Thijs Boers (Amsterdam Museum and University of Amsterdam)
12.15 Lunch
13.35 Bus departure for Gisselfeld
14.30 Guided tour of Gisselfeld
16.45 Departure for Vallø
17.20 Guided tour of Vallø
19.00 Dinner at Vallø Slotskro
s a t u r d a y , 1 1 o c t o b e r
8.10 Bus departure from Scandic Roskilde
8.25 Bus departure from Roskilde Station
9.30 Guided tour of Gjorslev
11.15 Departure for Gavnø
12.35 Lunch at Café Tulipanen / Guided tour of Gavnø
14.45 Bus departure
16.15 Arrival Scandic Roskilde
16.30 Arrival Roskilde Banegård
Symposium | Meissen Symposium: Höroldt’s Legacy
From the Meissen Porcelain Museum:
1st Meissen Symposium: Höroldt’s Legacy
Meissen Porzellan-Stiftung, Meißen, 7–9 November 2025
The Meissen Porcelain Foundation is hosting the Meissen Symposium, part of what is envisioned as a regular series of symposia aimed at facilitating exchanges on ceramic history at the birthplace of European porcelain. The subject of this year’s symposium is Höroldt’s Legacy, with an emphasis on ceramic pigments, their historical and contemporary development, and their use within the Meissen Manufactory and beyond. The occasion for this year’s symposium is the 250th anniversary of the deaths in 1775 of Meissen’s two towering figures, Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696–1775) and Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706–1775).
Höroldt’s arrival in Meissen in 1720 signaled a breakthrough in porcelain painting. Höroldt was an innovative artist with a natural and intuitive understanding of pigment chemistry without any formal training. He developed the proper technology for the enameling of porcelain using metal-oxide-based pigments at high temperatures. Today, his initial set of 16 enamel colors has grown to around 10,000.
Augustus the Strong’s initial objective was the making of blue-and-white porcelain, similar to that of the Chinese. With Höroldt’s arrival the success story of overglaze polychrome painting began. Inspired initially by East Asian decors it was expanded to include European flower painting, the classic harbor scenes, hunting scenes, and scenes after Watteau, Ridinger and others. In the 19th century it was expanded to royal blue ground, to include platinum, pâte-sur-pâte, and Limoges painting. Experiments with tinted porcelain paste can be traced to the 18th century. Exploring the miscibility of colorants was intensely investigated as documented by the hundreds of surviving, meticulously documented and archived color samples in the Meissen Manufactory Museum. In-glaze painting, and the invention of soluble and high-temperature resistant colorants that could be used underglaze were significant additional technological developments. Advances in scientific analysis are expected to provide new insights.
f r i d a y , 7 n o v e m b e r
10.00 Morning Session
1 Frank Löchelt, Meissen — Color Laboratory / Farblabor der Manufaktur
2 Nicholas Zumbulyadis, USA — Influencing the Influencer: Thoughts about the Origins of Höroldt’s Technological Advances / Wer beeinflusste Höroldt: Gedanken zu den Ursprüngen von Höroldts technologischen Fortschritten
3 Ullrich Knüpfer — Insights into the Technological Basics of Polychrome Porcelain Decoration / Technologische Grundlagen der farbigen Porzellan-Dekoration
4 Annett Lorenz, Meissen — Porcelain Painter: Aspects of Figure Painting / Porzellanmaler: Aspekte der Figurenmalerei
5 Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, USA — Glazed Canvases: New Approaches to the Study of (Miniature) Painting on Meissen Porcelain / Neue Ansätze zur Erforschung der (Miniatur-)Malerei auf Meissener Porzellan
6 Holger Schill, Meissen — Head of Bundling and Finishing: A Practical Report on Customer Requests, Color Palettes, and New Decors / Leiter Bund- und Endfertigung: Ein Praxisbericht über Kundenwünsche, Farbpalletten und neue Dekore
1.30 Lunch
3.00 Afternoon Session
7 Sebastian Bank, SKD — Frankenthal Colors: From Meissen to the Palatinate / Die Entwicklung der Frankenthaler Farben aus kunsthistorischer Sicht
8 Uwe Marschner, Meissen — About Pate-sure-pate Painting / Leiter Modellherstellung und Formenarchiv: Zur Pate-sure-pate Malerei
9 Lena Hensel, Meissen — Meissen Today / Leiterin Produktentwicklung: Meissen heute
s a t u r d a y , 8 n o v e m b e r
9.30 Welcome
10.00 Morning Session
1 Susanne Bochmann, Meissen — Porzellan-Stiftung Color Samples and Patterns in the Collections of the Meissen Porcelain Foundation / Farbproben und Farbmuster in der Sammlung der Meissen Porzellan-Stiftung
2 Jens Petzold, KI-Institut Meißen — The Influence of Firing on Ceramic Colors / Einfluss der Brandführung auf keramische Farben
3 Lena Kaapke, Künstlerin — Inquiring the Red: A Visually and Sensually Organized, Tactile Archive of Various Red Ceramic Surfaces / Befragungen an das Rot: ein visuell und sinnlich geordnetes, haptisches Archiv verschiedener keramisch roter Oberflächen
4 Zhong Zhenhua, Deputy Dean of the School of International Exchange and Education and the Deputy Director of the Ceramic Culture Exchange and Research Center at Jingdezhen College — Johann Gregorius Höroldt and Jingdezhen Porcelain: The Historical and Aesthetic Connections between Höroldt’s Chinoiserie and Jingdezhen’s Ceramic Heritage / Johann Gregorius Höroldt und Jingdezhen-Porzellan: Die historischen und ästhetischen Verbindungen zwischen Höroldts Chinoiserie und dem keramischen Erbe von Jingdezhen
5 Vanessa Sigalas, Wadsworth Atheneum, USA — Where Are All the White Figures? Later Decorated Meissen Porcelain / Wo sind all die weißen Figuren? Später dekoriertes Meissener Porzellan
6 Valérie Montens, Curator of European Ceramics and Glass Collections, Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels; and Sofia Cruz Oulhaj, student in conservation and restoration of ceramic and glass, ENSAV La Cambre, Brussels — From Restoration to Attribution: Scientific and Stylistic Reassessment of a Meissen Huntress Figurine / Von der Restaurierung zur Zuschreibung: Wissenschaftliche und stilistische Neubewertung einer Meissener Jägerinnenfigur
1.00 Lunch
2.30 Afternoon Session
7 Bernd Ullrich — Initial Analytical Material Investigations on Historical Products from the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory Using X-ray Fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Electron Beam Microprobe Technology in the 1980s at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg / Erste analytische Werkstoffuntersuchungen an historischen Erzeugnissen der Porzellanmanufaktur Meissen mittels Röntgenfloureszenz, Rasterelektronenmikroskopie und Elektronenstrahlmikrosondentechnik in den 1980er Jahren an der TU Bergakademie Freiberg
8 Philippe Colomban, Sorbonne University — How to Extract the Maximum Information on Enamels in a Non-invasive Way with Mobile Instrumentation (Raman + pXRF), Explaining which Results Can Be Reliable and What the Difficulties Are, with the Example of This France/Italy/Germany/China Comparison / Wie man mit mobilen Messgeräten (Raman + pXRF) auf nicht-invasive Weise möglichst viele Informationen über Glasur gewinnt, wobei anhand des Vergleichs zwischen Frankreich, Italien, Deutschland und China erläutert wird, welche Ergebnisse zuverlässig sind und wo die Schwierigkeiten liegen
9 Christian Lechelt, Fürstenberg — For Some Years Now, the Museum Schloss Fürstenberg and the Freundeskreis Fürstenberger Porzellan e. V. Have Collaborated with Cranfield University and Leiden University on a Project Aimed at Gaining New Insights into 18th-Century Fürstenberg Porcelain Production Using X-ray Fluorescence Analysis / Seit einigen Jahren verfolgen das Museum Schloss Fürstenberg und der Freundeskreis Fürstenberger Porzellan e. V. zusammen mit den Universitäten in Cranfield (UK) und Leiden (NL) ein Projekt, um mittels Roentgenfluoreszenzanalyse zu neuen Erkenntnissen über die Fürstenberger Porzellanproduktion des 18. Jahrhunderts zu gelangen
4.15 Panel Discussion / Podiumsdiskussion
Conference | Sacred Ceramics
Johann Joachim Kaendler, Crucifixion Group, detail, Meissen, 1743
(Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; photo by Adrian Sauer)
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Details of this conference appeared here at Enfilade several weeks ago; please note, however, that registration now includes an online option (with recordings sent out afterwards) for anyone who is interested but unable to attend on Tuesday.
Sacred Ceramics: Devotional Images in European Porcelain
Online and in-person, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 30 September 2025
Organized by Matthew Martin and Rebecca Klarner
Was eighteenth-century European porcelain just a ceramic material to be moulded into useful objects—or could it mean more? This conference explores what European porcelain might have communicated when it was used to create devotional objects.
This conference explores the phenomenon of religious sculpture produced in European porcelain in the eighteenth century. Sculptures on religious subjects represent some of the most ambitious and complex productions in European porcelain of the period, yet they remain relatively understudied. Meissen, Doccia Vienna, Höchst, Fulda, Nymphenburg—all these factories produced devotional images in porcelain. Even factories in mid eighteenth-century Protestant England—Chelsea and Derby—produced sculptures employing Catholic devotional imagery. In each instance, cultural-political motives for the creation of these images can be reconstructed.
The 1712 letter penned by the Jesuit Father François Xavier d’Entrecolles not only conveyed to Europe first-hand knowledge of Chinese porcelain production at Jingdezhen, but it also construed access to this knowledge as a triumph of the Jesuit global mission—the successes of the Jesuits in China made the secret of kaolinic porcelain available to the Catholic princes of Europe.
Porcelain’s alchemical heritage was also not without significance: success at the alchemical enterprise had always been deemed dependent on divine favour. These factors could lead to porcelain assuming a sacral character in Catholic court contexts. Devotional images in European porcelain exploited these cultural associations of the medium itself.
This international conference will explore the religious production of European ceramic factories and consider questions such as: Who were the artists and patrons involved in these sculptures’ creation? How did these sculptures function in private and public contexts? What significance lay in the use of porcelain to create devotional images?
More information is available here»
Study Day | Drawing in 18th-C. Academies, Schools, and Private Studios
From ArtHist.net and the conference programme:
Académies, écoles et ateliers privés :
Conditions pratiques du dessin dans l’enseignement artistique au XVIIIe siècle
École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, 16 October 2025
Dans le cadre de l’ANR FabLight, et en partenariat avec l’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes/LARHRA) organise une journée d’étude intitulée Académies, écoles et ateliers privés : Conditions pratiques du dessin dans l’enseignement artistique au XVIIIe siècle.
Au cœur de la formation artistique au XVIIIe siècle, le dessin constitue une base fondamentale pour comprendre l’évolution de la peinture et de la sculpture, mais aussi d’autres formes d’art et d’artisanat. Des études récentes se sont intéressées à la diffusion des modèles au sein des réseaux des académies d’art et écoles de dessin, en France et en Europe, à la circulation des pratiques et à la constitution de collections pédagogiques servant de support à l’enseignement du dessin. La journée d’étude entend approfondir la question des conditions matérielles et de l’organisation pratique du dessin, dans une perspective comparatiste internationale et selon une approche attentive aux différents lieux de la formation artistique. Comment furent aménagés les espaces destinés au dessin, quel mobilier et quels outils étaient nécessaires à l’apprentissage ? Quels étaient leurs coûts et qui les finançait ? Que sait-on des pratiques d’éclairage, des horaires et du déroulement des séances de pose ? Pouvons-nous constater des différences entre l’enseignement académique et celui des ateliers privés ou des écoles de dessin ? Quelles furent les conséquences des conditions de travail sur la réalisation des dessins — par exemple l’emploi du clair-obscur, le choix des matériaux ou des compositions ? La journée sera consacrée à ces questions selon une perspective européenne, et à une période qui a vu naître un nombre considérable d’académies d’art et d’écoles de dessin, tout en étant marquée par des innovations technologiques importantes, notamment en termes d’éclairage.
Organisée en partenariat entre les Beaux-Arts de Paris et le projet ANR FabLight, la journée d’étude vise à faire dialoguer les recherches récentes en Histoire de l’art sur la pratique du dessin, croisant les études visuelles et matérielles avec les humanités numériques, afin d’évaluer l’apport de ces dernières pour une meilleure compréhension des conditions de travail des artistes.
Cette journée aura lieu à l’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, 14 rue Bonaparte, le 16 octobre 2025. Les séances de l’après-midi sont ouvertes au public, sans inscription mais dans la limite des places disponibles.
p r o g r a m m e
Matinée réservée aux intervenants (visite et présentation de dessins)
14.00 Introduction — Alice Thomine-Berrada et Hélène Gasnault (Beaux-Arts de Paris), Marlen Schneider (UGA/LARHRA)
14.15 Papiers, crayons, bougies et autres fournitures utiles à l’apprentissage : les supports pédagogiques dans les écoles de dessin provinciales — Anne Perrin-Khelissa (Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès / FRAMESPA) et Émilie Roffidal (CNRS/FRAMESPA)
15.00 Local Academy, Global Ambition: The Garemijn Booklets and Life Drawing in Bruges, c. 1770 — Thijs Dekeukeleire (Musea Brugge)
15.45 Pause
16.00 On the Conditions in Life Rooms, Their Impact, and the Agency of Drawn Academic Nudes — Susanne Müller-Bechtel (Universität Würzburg)
16.45 Lighting and Learning: Sir John Soane, Turner, and the Early 19th-Century Royal Academy of Arts, London — Rebecca Lyons (Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London)
17.30 Une Académie en 3D : table ronde avec des membres du projet Fablight autour d’une reconstitution numérique d’une salle de dessin académique
18.30 Conclusion
Poster Image: Martin Ferdinand Quadal, The Drawing Room of the Vienna Academy in the St. Anne Building, detail, 1787, 56 × 81 inches (Vienna: Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste).
Call for Papers | Switzerland between the Sublime and Picturesque
From ArtHist.net:
Switzerland between Sublime and Picturesque
Swiss Drawings and Prints in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Die Schweiz zwischen sublim und pittoresk
Forschungen zur Schweizer Zeichnung und Druckgraphik im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert
Zurich, 5 June 2026
Proposals due by 1 November 2025
Im Rahmen der Ausstellung Gletscher und Stromschnellen. Gezeichnete Schweiz um 1800 in der Graphischen Sammlung der ETH (1.4.–5.7.2026) organisiert das Kunsthistorische Institut der Universität Zürich ein Symposium zu Forschungen zu Zeichnungen und Druckgrafik in der Schweiz im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Die eintägige Tagung findet am Freitag, 5. Juni 2026, in Zürich statt und soll eine Plattform zur Diskussion aktueller Projekte zur Kunst in der Schweiz aus der akademischen Forschung und Museumswelt bieten.
Mit dem aufkommenden Alpentourismus in der zweiten Hälfte 18. Jahrhundert wurde eine intensive Zeichnungspraxis und vielfältige Bildproduktion in der Schweiz entwickelt. Kunstschaffende begleiteten Naturforscher auf Expeditionen, dokumentierten Gletscher, geologische Phänomene und Pflanzen, und lieferten damit unverzichtbares Bildmaterial für wissenschaftliche Publikationen. Dem gegenüber stand die wachsende Nachfrage eines breiteren Reisepublikums nach Bildern der von ihnen bereisten und neu entdeckten Orten in der Schweiz im Sinne von Souvenirs. Geschäftstüchtige Künstler wie Johann Ludwig Aberli und andere aus dem Kreis der Schweizer Kleinmeister sahen darin ihre Chance: Illustrationen zu Reisebeschreibungen und einzelne Veduten in kleinen Formaten, die sich gut transportieren liessen, waren ihre Antwort. Sie prägten nachhaltig das landschaftliche Bild der Schweiz. Gleichzeitig beflügelte diese Bildproduktion die Zusammenarbeit von Künstler:innen, Verleger:innen und Wissenschaftler:innen. Topographisch getreue Naturauffassung und künstlerische Imagination standen in enger Wechselwirkung. Dabei zeigen sich zwei Hauptstrategien: Zum einen wird eine pittoreske Landschafts- und Genremalerei etabliert, die sich besonders durch eine Idealisierung des idyllischen Schweizer Bauernlebens auszeichnet, zum anderen erfährt die Bergwelt eine Erhöhung bis hin zu einer einschüchternden Monumentalität.
Die Kunst der Schweizer Kleinmeister bot in den vergangenen Jahren Anlass für wertvolle Grundlagenforschung. Der Fokus lag dabei grösstenteils auf der Beschäftigung mit den druckgrafischen Erzeugnissen, während der Blick auf das Medium der Zeichnung bisher nur marginal vertieft wurde. Die Zeichnung war im Werkprozess der Künstler:innen jedoch zentral. Aus dem folgend umrissenen Themenspektrum freuen wir uns deshalb besonders über Vortragsvorschläge, die sich mit Zeichnungen sowie Fragen rund um Material und Technik beschäftigen. Die an der Konferenz präsentierten Projekte sollen ein Schlaglicht auf punktuelle Vertiefungen und Spezialisierungen werfen, aber auch breitere Verbindungen zur europäischen Kunst der Zeit aufzeigen. Die Vorträge sollen einerseits die oben beschriebene Kreation eines Schweizbildes und dessen Rezeption beleuchten. Andererseits sollen das Verständnis für die vielfältige künstlerische Arbeit, die Künstlerausbildung, die Netzwerke unter den Kunstschaffenden und die Handelsbeziehungen zu international tätigen Verlegern, Buch- und Kunsthändlern in der Schweiz im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert das Themenspektrum erweitern.
Es dürfen Arbeitsberichte zu aktuell laufenden sowie kürzlich abgeschlossenen Projekten vorgestellt werden. Die Einreichung von interdisziplinären und praxisorientierten Beiträgen, die sich an der Schnittstelle von Forschung, Museumsarbeit und Konservierung/Restaurierung befinden, sind explizit erwünscht.
Die Referate sollen max. 20 Minuten lang sein. Themenvorschläge können in englischer oder deutscher Sprache eingereicht werden. Bitte senden Sie ein Kurzexposé zu Ihrem Beitrag (max. 1 Seite) sowie einen kurzen tabellarischen Lebenslauf in einer einzigen PDF-Datei bis am 1. November 2025 per E-Mail an Linda Vogel, linda.vogel@khist.uzh.ch. Sie werden bis Ende Dezember 2025 über die Teilnahme informiert. Bei Bedarf kann ein Reisekostenzuschuss beantragt werden.
Im Anschluss wird ein Tagungsband publiziert. Die Beiträge sind bis am 1. September 2026 in druckreifer Form einzureichen. Weitere Informationen werden rechtzeitig kommuniziert.
Bei Fragen stehen Ihnen Dr. Michael Matile (michael.matile@uzh.ch) und Linda Vogel MA (linda.vogel@khist.uzh.ch) gerne zur Verfügung.
Exhibition | Squalor City: William Hogarth’s London
From the press release for the exhibition:
Squalor City: William Hogarth’s London
Pruzan Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 23 September — 13 December 2025
Curated by Miya Tokumitsu
William Hogarth, Night, 1738, etching, from the suite of four etchings The Four Times of Day (Davison Art Collection, Wesleyan University, Gift of George W. Davison (BA Wesleyan 1892), 1943.D1.102.4; photo by T. Rodriguez).
Wesleyan University’s Pruzan Art Center will highlight 18th-century British prints by William Hogarth from the Davison Art Collection, the first exhibition focused on the works of Hogarth at Wesleyan in three decades.
A peerless storyteller with great satirical flourish, William Hogarth (1697–1764) brings spectators into the raucous streets and parlors of Georgian London, at once the center of a mighty empire and, in the artist’s view, a den of grifters, social climbers, cynics, and fools. Though his images teem with references to actual personalities and places of 18th-century London, Hogarth’s concerns were more universal than specific. With a balance of humor and sincerity, his art contends with the quandaries of how to hew to a moral path within a competitive, market-driven society; how to build social institutions that serve their communities faithfully; and fundamentally, what kind of society the people of a given time and place ought to build—all questions that demand our attention in the present.
Squalor City draws from the Davison Art Collection’s deep holdings of Hogarth’s prints. It features several complete series by Hogarth, including The Harlot’s Progress, The Rake’s Progress, Marriage à la Mode, and The Four Stages of Cruelty, along with other works by the artist. The exhibition is curated by Miya Tokumitsu, the Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection.
Tokumitsu has found it important to highlight different strengths of the Davison Art Collection across the three previous exhibitions since the Pruzan Art Center opened in February 2024. This, the fourth exhibition in the space, will be the first show in the Goldrach Gallery dedicated wholly to historical art. “As the United States prepares to mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, now seems an apt time to take a measured look at the colonial power from which our state emerged—England during the Georgian era,” Tokumitsu said. “This was William Hogarth’s world, which he documented and critiqued in his art. Many of the issues Hogarth contends with remain of immediate concern.”
Tokumitsu said Hogarth was an engaging storyteller and excelled in creating serial narratives. “While each sheet in his various series is entertaining and meaningful in its own right, viewing Hogarth’s complete series allows spectators to glean the fullness of his creativity and narrative verve,” Tokumitsu said.
Tokumitsu noted that George W. Davison strove to collect canonical works of European graphic art, and that Hogarth is a towering figure in this history. “Hogarth’s prints were instrumental to the tradition of satire and caricature in print, and his influence extends to Francisco de Goya and Honoré Daumier,” Tokumitsu said. “Contemporary artists, including David Hockney, continue to find Hogarth’s work meaningful for their practice.”
The Pruzan Art Center’s Goldrach Gallery is located at 238 Church Street in Middletown, between Wesleyan’s Olin Memorial Library and the Frank Center for Public Affairs. The Davison Art Collection holds more than 25,000 works of art on paper, including prints, photographs, and drawings. The print collection is one of the foremost at a college or university in the United States. The collection supports teaching and learning in many ways, and was established at Wesleyan University with the founding gifts of George Willets Davison, class of 1892.
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