European Society for Nineteenth-Century Art

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ESNA 2024 Conference

Living apart together? The troubled and treasured relationship between nature and human beings in art 1800-1900

24 May, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

The programme of the upcoming ESNA Conference is online! Check out our exciting speakers and sign up via the form.

Call for Papers: ESNA Conference 2024

Living apart together? The troubled and treasured relationship between nature and human beings in art 1789-1914

Théodore Rousseau, *Moord op de onschuldigen* 1847, De Mesdag Collectie, Den Haag

Call for Papers: ESNA Conference 2024

Living apart together? The troubled and treasured relationship between nature and human beings in art 1789-1914

Date: 23-24 May 2024

Location: Kröller Müller Museum Otterlo

With the growing realisation that nature and the earth’s climate are at risk of being destroyed, this conference aims to centralize the interconnectedness between nature and human beings, by analysing the depiction of their relationship in Western-European art, including the effects of colonialism, during the long nineteenth century.

Within art, the natural world was long seen as a repository of motifs and forms from which artists borrowed to fashion their representations of social reality. Landscapes, for example, have traditionally been interpreted as a fixed image, viewed from a certain distance or as a vessel for human emotions, in other words: nature for human’s sake. Centuries of anthropocentric thinking, based on influential sources such as Aristotle’s writings and the Bible, have ingrained notions that human beings have dominion over the world and its inhabitants and this was reflected in the depiction of nature in art. In addition, with the discovery of geological time in the late eighteenth century, came the realisation that the earth was eons older, and that human civilisation only occupied a fraction of a great terrestrial span. These concepts created a seemingly irreconcilable divide between humans and nature.

However, even in the long nineteenth century, such notions were questioned. Around 1800 Alexander von Humboldt had already indicated the interdependence between nature and mankind. In 1847 Théodore Rousseau painted a landscape with felled oak trees, while men are in the process of cutting down others. Rousseau later stated that he ‘wanted to arouse remorse on the part of people who unthinkingly chop down trees’. In the art dealer Boussod & Valadon’s stock books the painting was listed under the title La mort des innocents. In that same year Rousseau’s good friend the art critic Théophile Thoré attacked the French government for its mismanagement of the forest lands near Barbizon. Their actions helped lead to the Western world’s first state-established land preserves in 1853.

Some ten years later Charles Darwin corroborated Von Humboldt’s thesis that all life is essentially interconnected and dependent upon each other in his Origin of Species. Moreover, with the advent of industrialisation and the enormous growth of the global population – the so-called Anthropocene – human beings actions gained such power that the world’s ecosystem is in danger of being annihilated. This realisation increasingly questioned man’s dominant position in epistemological and ontological paradigms, in exchange for more an integrated approach which puts co-dependency of life first.

This conference centralizes the depiction of the troubled relationship between nature and humans, both around the corner as well as overseas, including the fascination for non-indigenous flora and fauna. It aims to answer questions such as: Did changing opinions on nature have effect on nineteenth-century art? Did nineteenth-century art have effect on the changing opinions on nature? How was the relationship between nature and human beings depicted? Which role did the advent of working en plein air play in artists’ bond with nature? Which role did ecology play in the depiction of nature? How did artists and critics manage to evoke their awareness of the changing attitudes towards nature in their work? Which role did colonialism play in artists’ perception of nature?

Please send your abstract (max. 200 words) and biography (150 words) by February 1, 2024 to esnaonline@hotmail.com. The scientific committee will answer all applicants by February 19, 2024.

Organising committee:

Mayken Jonkman (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Sara Tas (Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam)

Scientific committee:

Renske Cohen Tervaert (Kröller Müller Museum)

Eveline Deneer (University of Utrecht)

Rachel Esner (ESNA, University of Amsterdam)

Julia Kantelberg (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)

Alice Lemaire (Muséum nationale d’histoire naturelle, Paris)

Colin Sterling (University of Amsterdam)

ESNA Winter Seminar 2024: Wat te doen met de negentiende eeuw?

Visies en ambities voor een vakgebied in verandering

26 januari 2024, RKD – Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis, Den Haag

Het jaarlijkse winter seminar richt zich deze keer op een kritische evaluatie van de recente geschiedenis, actualiteit en toekomst van de bestudering van de kunstgeschiedenis van de negentiende eeuw in Nederland. Dit wordt besproken in twee rondetafelgesprekken van zowel ervaren vakgenoten als nieuwe generaties.

Koop uw ticket bij het RKD!

Bekijk hier het programma!

Call for Papers: Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) et un autre XIXe siècle, nouvelles approches (16-17 October 2024)

For the full French-language CfP, click here.

As part of the celebrations marking the bicentenary of the birth of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), the city of Vesoul and the Agglomération of Vesoul are organizing an international and multidisciplinary symposium. The event will take place on Wednesday, October 16 and Thursday, October 17, 2024, in Vesoul (Haute-Saône, France), the artist’s birthplace, at the Théâtre Edwige-Feuillère.

Two centuries after the birth of the painter and sculptor, considering all the studies already carried out, this symposium aims to stimulate new ones by discussing received ideas and clarifying some points. Gérôme’s successful career, especially the way in which it is remembered, will be examined. This is also an opportunity to consider new approaches to Gérôme’s art. The case of Gérôme, as an artist who embodied the society of his time, will eventually extend the subject of discussion to the wider question of the art world in the 19^th century.

Paper proposals (1500 characters), in French or in English, accompanied by a title and a brief biography should be sent before Friday, December 15, 2023 to the following address: colloquiumgerome2024@vesoul.fr

The symposium will take place on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 October 2024, at the Edwige Feuillère Theater (Place Pierre Renet, 70000 Vesoul).

The Scientific Committee is chaired by Edouard PAPET, General Curator at the Musée d’Orsay, Department of Sculpture, and includes the following members:

Hélène JAGOT, Director, Museums-Castle of Tours
Neil MCWILLAM, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, Durham
Edouard PAPET, General Curator, Musée d’Orsay, Department of Sculpture
Christine PELTRE, Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art History, University of Strasbourg
Pierre SÉRIÉ, Lecturer in Contemporary Art History, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand
Richard THOMSON, Emeritus Professor of Art History, University of Edinburgh

for more information, see the full French-language CfP.

Call for Papers: Jaargcongres De Moderne Tijd, 22 maart 2024

Water: beleving, beheer, beeldvorming in de lange negentiende eeuw

Workgroup De Moderne Tijd organizes its upcoming annual congress on March 22nd, 2024. For this, they are calling for papers investigating the role water played in the culture and identity of the rapidly changing society of the low countries during the long nineteenth century. The deadline for abstracts is September 22nd, 2023. For the full Dutch-language CfP, see below:

De omgang met water is tegenwoordig een van de centrale maatschappelijke opgaven, of het nu gaat om zeespiegelstijging, grondwaterdaling of drinkwatertekorten. Een overschot of tekort zorgt voor problemen. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan de recente watersnood in het Limburgse en Waalse rivierengebied of aan de verdroging in de Amsterdamse waterleidingduinen. Maar water is ook een belangrijke bron van inspiratie voor hedendaagse kunstenaars over de hele wereld.
Ook in de negentiende eeuw speelde water een cruciale rol in de snel veranderende samenleving. Koning Willem I besloot tot de Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie en zorgde als ‘Kanalenkoning’ voor grootschalige investeringen in de landelijke waterinfrastructuur. Tegelijkertijd was Jacob van Lennep overtuigd van het belang van schoon drinkwater voor consumptie en hygiëne van de moderne mens bij zijn inzet voor de Amsterdamse waterleiding. Ondertussen was zoet- of zoutwater ook een bron van wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Schepen voeren uit voor onderzoek op zee en langs de Noordzeekust van Nederland en België verschenen (verplaatsbare) onderzoekpaviljoens. De visserij professionaliseerde op zee en de grote rivieren, maar kampte in toenemende mate met internationale concurrentie en de effecten van overbevissing. Ten slotte trokken toeristen en
kunstenaars op grote schaal naar de zonnige badcultuur aan de kust. Op regenachtige dagen droomden velen weg bij de onderwaterwereld in het aquarium, thuis of in Artis.
Water is een grillig en fascinerend fenomeen in de lange negentiende eeuw. De strijd tegen het water werd onderdeel van de Nederlandse nationale identiteit en beeldvorming. Het water bepaalde de vormgeving van het landschap of bleek een essentiële voorziening voor de stedelijke ontwikkeling. Hendrik Willem Mesdag hield van de woeste branding aan de kust, Jan Voerman van het dromerige rivierenlandschap, Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof van het schilderachtige aquarium, Joseph Coosemans van de contrasten tussen heide en moeras. Het congres van de Werkgroep de Moderne Tijd is in 2024 gewijd aan water: aan de beleving, het beheer en de beeldvorming in de periode 1780-1940. Wat waren de wateropgaven in deze lange negentiende eeuw? Hoe bepaalde het water de economie, de handel en het toerisme? Op welke manier was het een bron van inspiratie voor ingenieurs, wetenschappers of kunstenaars? Kortom, welke rol speelde het water in de cultuur en identiteit van de snel veranderende samenleving van de lage landen tijdens de lange negentiende eeuw? Aan de hand van deze vragen beoogt het congres stil te staan bij de veelzijdige culturele betekenis van water en de maatschappelijke, wetenschappelijke en artistieke vragen in de Lage landen.

Mogelijke subthema’s

De verbeelding van water (literatuur, muziek, schilderkunst)
Vrijetijdsbeleving in en rondom water
De gevolgen van water voor de leefomgeving (economisch, sociaal)
Water en politiek
Water als knooppunt voor handel (economie, landbouw)
Tekort aan water (droogte, dorst en andere uitdagingen)
Water als impuls voor wetenschappelijke ontwikkelingen
Beleid, bestuur en recht rondom water

Papervoorstellen over deze en andere binnen het congresthema passende onderwerpen zijn welkom. Belangstellenden roepen we op een voorstel van max. 300 woorden en een (beknopte) biografische beschrijving van uzelf in te dienen voor 22 september 2023. Zo snel mogelijk daarna wordt uitsluitsel gegeven over de selectie. Abstracts kunnen worden gezonden aan Marjet Brolsma (m.brolsma@uva.nl).

Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the History of Nineteenth-Century art: Belinda Thomson, 12-16 June 2023

From 12-16 June, Thomson will give a seminar at the Van Gogh Museum under the title Curating their Legacies. The Packaging and Presentation of Van Gogh and Gauguin

The seminar will kick off with a public lecture at the Van Gogh Museum on Sunday. 11 June, 2pm. For more information, see: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/nl/over/kennis-en-onderzoek/visiting-fellow

If you would like to join in, please contact Dr. Rachel Esner at r.esner@uva.nl. Please put Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the subject line.

Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the History of Nineteenth-Century Art 2023: Curating Their Legacies. The Packaging and Presentation of Van Gogh and Gauguin

In the week of 11-16 June 2023,the Research School for Art History (OSK), the Van Gogh Museum, and the University of Amsterdam invite you to participate in the annual Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the History of Nineteenth-Century Art seminar.

The aim of the Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the History of Nineteenth-Century Art seminar is to provide the opportunity to study a single yet wide-ranging subject in nineteenth-century art through an intensive one-week workshop taught by a leading scholar in the field and supported by the Van Gogh Museum. The seminar will you to important issues in the study of nineteenth-century art and provide an impulse for further research. Its aim is to encourage interest in various aspects of the discipline, and to provide you not only with factual information, but more importantly with new methodological and theoretical perspectives on this important period in the history of art.

This year’s Visiting Fellow is Prof. Dr. Belinda Thomson, Honorary Professor in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. As a specialist of late nineteenth-century French art, Thomson has written books and articles on impressionism and post-impressionism and on Gauguin, Vuillard, Bonnard, Van Gogh, and Pissarro, including Gauguin by Himself (2001) and Van Gogh’s Paintings: The Masterpieces (2007). She is a co-author of the exhibition catalogue Gauguin: Maker of Myth (2010). In addition, she was an advisory consultant and contributing author to the exhibition Gauguin, Paris, 1889 (2009–2010) at the Cleveland Museum of Art and at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In 2015 she was made Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of her work on French art and contributions to the art-historical field.

The theme of this year’s seminar will be the enduringly fascinating relationship between Van Gogh and Gauguin, particularly as it played out in their artistic legacies. While Van Gogh was sceptical of ambition and felt Gauguin to be far more motivated by dreams of success, both artists were destined to achieve posthumous recognition beyond their wildest dreams. For different reasons, their reputations loom immensely large today and speak to contemporary critical issues; their ‘brands’ are subject to manipulation from many directions. Van Gogh has, arguably, never been more popular, thanks to the immersive exhibition currently on tour which invites viewers to enter into his world through his words combined with his images, technically enhanced. Whether this is an example of commercialised hagiography or a legitimate inclusive outreach to new audiences, it certainly goes well beyond anything Van Gogh could have envisaged. Gauguin’s paintings fetch record sums on the art market yet his personal reputation veers from high to low depending on the point of view of the beholder. International scholars discover nuance and complexity in his art’s diversity and surprisingly advanced and wide-ranging thinking in his writings, yet contemporary artists from the Pacific roundly critique what they see as his imagery’s reductive legacy in their islands and so-called ‘cancel culture’ would dismiss him based on assumptions of immorality or paedophilia.

Over the course of the week’s study, we will look at how all this began. Although around 1900 there were no recognized career paths in public relations or reputational management; rather, different actors promoted Van Gogh’s and Gauguin’s achievements and influenced how audiences came to terms with them. During the seminar we will return to the first words and images available at the start of the process of forging these two intertwined reputations, asking who these agents were, how the artists’ stories were framed and whose interests were served. Concentrating on the period 1889-1906 and looking at specific comparisons of individual works and their fluctuating fortunes and market values, we will seek to chart the artists’ changes in reputation.

The seminar will consist of three sessions of three hours each, plus an afternoon excursion. A public introductory lecture will take place at the Van Gogh Museum on Sunday, 11 June. The exact location and days of the seminar and the excursion will be announced well in advance.

Attendees will be supplied with the themes of the sessions and a list of readings in advance (mid-January). These will introduce the material and issues of the seminar.

Interested in attending? Contact Dr. Rachel Esner: r.esner@uva.nl for more information. Please also supply a short letter of motivation, stating your interest and reasons for wishing to attend. Please put “VGM Visiting Fellow” in the subject line.

Live (!) ESNA event: A visit to Wanderlust and drinks

On September 8 at 2 pm, we invite you for a visit to the exhibition Wanderlust. Nederlandse kunstenaars op reis /Dutch Artists abroad 1800-1900 in the Dordrechts Museum.

The exhibition is a cooperation between the Dordrechts Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Guest curator Jenny Reynaerts, senior curator of paintings at the Rijksmuseum, will give a short introductory talk before the visit to the show. At 4, there will be drinks and bites and a chance to catch up after two years of missing each other!

In Wanderlust the canon of Dutch 19^th-century art is challenged by showing paintings and drawings that Dutch artists made abroad during their many travels. As Reynaerts wrote in her overview Mirror of Reality, 19^th Century Paintings in the Netherlands (Mercatorfonds/Yale UP 2019) the image of a nation of stay-at-home artists urgently needs to be revised. Travelling brought new insights and experiments, and also enabled some artists to join in foreign movements like Romanticism, the School of Barbizon, the Nabis, and Orientalism. The exhibition reaches out to wide horizons: from Northern Africa to Norway and from the Americas to Indonesia. New names will be added to your knowledge of 19^th c. Dutch art, as well as surprising works from well-known artists.

This event is free of charge, but please note that you need a valid ticket and/or discount card for admission to the museum, and you need to register via the link below.

Please let us know of your attendance here

Visit to the exhibition Wanderlust
Dordrechts Museum
8 September, 2pm
Free of charge (in case of possession of a valid ticket)

The European Society for Nineteenth-century art (ESNA) is looking for a secretary

Do you have a passion for the long nineteenth century, are you communicative and do you have organizational skills? Are you at the end of your bachelor’s or master’s degree in art history or have you just graduated? Then we’re looking for you.

ESNA is a platform formed under the auspices of the Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History (OSK) and a working partner of the RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History. Our aim is to provide a forum to promote the exchange of ideas on European art of the long nineteenth century, support and encourage graduate research, and enhance networking opportunities for participants. We organize an annual symposium, workshops, excursions, and the invitation of visiting speakers. Although originating in the Low Countries, ESNA aims to create a broad international network for the advancement of research into all aspects of nineteenth-century European art.

The secretary is responsible for, among other things, keeping up with the mail, taking minutes of board meetings, and maintaining contact with external organizations and persons. In addition, the secretary assists the board with the organization of our events. This is an unpaid position for approximately 8 hours per month with peaks around activities. In return, you get access to a large (international) network, free access to the activities of ESNA and a working knowledge of the daily practicalities with regards to conferences, seminars etc. Due to the location of most board members, preference is given to someone from the Netherlands or Belgium. Fluency in English and Dutch is a requirement.

Are you interested or do you have any questions? Send a short motivation (about 100 words in Dutch or English) to esnaonline@hotmail.com before 1 May.

Now available: ‘Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art’, edited by Thijs Dekeukeleire, Henk De Smaele, and Marjan Sterckx

Following the ESNA Conference Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art in 2018 – in collaboration with Ghent University’s Research group The Inside Story: Art, Interior and Architecture 1750-1950 – an edited volume with peer-reviewed research papers is now available.

Male bonds were omnipresent in nineteenth-century European artistic scenes, impacting the creation, presentation, and reception of art in decisive ways. Men’s lives and careers bore the marks of their relations with other men. Yet, such male bonds are seldom acknowledged for what they are: gendered and historically determined social constructs. This volume shines a critical light on male homosociality in the arts of the long nineteenth century by combining art history with the insights of gender and queer history. From this interdisciplinary perspective, the contributing authors present case studies of men’s relationships in a variety of contexts, which range from the Hungarian Reform Age to the Belgian fin de siècle. As a whole, the book offers a historicizing survey of the male bonds that underpinned nineteenth-century art and a thought-provoking reflection on its theoretical and methodological implications.

New: ECR French Nineteenth-Century Art Network

Rachel Coombes and Matthew French, PhD students in French Art History at the University of Oxford and University of Birmingham, respectively, are starting a new early career research network of scholars working on French visual culture in the long nineteenth-century.

The ECR French Nineteenth-Century Art Network will meet (roughly) once a month virtually via Zoom. It is open to current PhD and research students as well as ECR’s who have recently graduated and are making their way in the world of academia/museums/education/arts or heritage. It is global, open to those located anywhere in the world who wish to join. Feel free to join, participate and they hope to create an engaging, diverse, fun and rewarding community.

For further updates/information follow their Twitter or sign up to the mailing list or if you wish, drop them an email via ecr.nineteen@gmail.com. See their upcoming events via Eventbrite.

Programma Studiedag Historisch Interieur & Design – 28 April 2022

Dutch spoken

Het programma van de Studiedag Historisch Interieur en Design 2022 is bekend. U kunt deze vinden op hun website.

De Studiedag Historisch Interieur en Design is de verderzetting van de Studiedagen Historisch Interieur, georganiseerd sinds 2000. Sinds 2017 wordt de jaarlijkse studiedag georganiseerd door de UGent-VUB-onderzoeksgroep The Inside Story: Kunst, interieur en architectuur 1750-1950 (ThIS). De studiedag vindt plaats in Het Pand in Gent, normaliter iedere tweede donderdag na het Paasverlof (België), doorgaans einde april. Er is een continue open oproep (call for papers) voor voorstellen voor de volgende studiedag (met deadline telkens op 11 november).

Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the History of Nineteenth-Century Art

The Gendering of Collecting: Women as Tastemakers and Philanthropists

In the week of 12-17 June 2022 the University of Amsterdam and the Van Gogh Museum invites you to participate in the annual Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow in the History of Nineteenth-Century Art seminar.

This year’s Visiting Fellow is Prof. Dr. Frances Fowle, Chair of Nineteenth-Century art at the University of Edinburgh and Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland. Fowle is Chair of the Association for Art History and board member of the International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA), of which she is co-founder. She has published widely and curated exhibitions on French, British, American and Nordic art c.1880-1910, with an emphasis on collecting, the art market, national identify, cultural revival and artistic networks. A recent focus has been the role of women collectors of impressionism and post-impressionism, the subject of this year’s seminar.

Until recently women’s agency in the arts, both as collectors and museum patrons, has been largely overlooked. Nevertheless, their role in the early reception of modern French art was pioneering. This year’s seminar will focus on women collectors and agents in Europe and the USA, from Bertha Honoré Palmer and Mary Cassat to the Davies sisters. Preceded by a public lecture, provisionally entitled Spinsters and Speculators: Women Collectors of Nineteenth-Century Art, the seminar sessions will consider such issues as class, philanthropy, financial independence, gender bias, the role of the agent or art dealer, social networks and nationalism.

The seminar will consist of three sessions of three hours each, plus an afternoon excursion. A public introductory lecture will take place at the Van Gogh Museum on Sunday, 12 June. The exact location and days of the seminar and the excursion will be announced well in advance.