Saturday 25th February 2017
Venue: Chawton House
10am – 4pm
Writing Art: Women Writers as Art Critics in the Long Eighteenth Century
Long thought to be the domain of wealthy men, art criticism and connoisseurship underwent a transformation in the late Georgian period. This one-day conference focuses on women writers as art critics in the late Georgian and early Victorian period. Bringing together leading art historians and literary scholars on women’s writing and art criticism, speakers will draw on travel writing and private letters, on diaries and on novels by major English and French authors. We will explore the role of women writers in the emerging field of art history, their contribution to an evolving language of taste, and the problems of trespassing on once-male territory. Can we find in women’s writing a distinctly female voice that engages with the making and the experience of art?
This conference is held in conjunction with the National Gallery, London—which hosts, on the 10th November 2017, a conference on women as critics of Old Master paintings in the Victorian period—and the Southampton Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Speakers include:
- Dr Susanna Avery-Quash (National Gallery, London)
- Dr Stephen Lloyd (Knowsley Hall)
- Dr Emma Barker (Open University)
- Dr Isabelle Baudino (Ecole Normale Superieure, Lyon)
- Dr Carl Thompson (St Mary’s, Twickenham)
Funding for this conference is provided by Chawton House Library, the Women’s History Network, and the Southampton Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Tickets: £35; Students / Friends £30 (includes lunch and refreshments)
To book, call us on 01420 541010 or book online here (subject to Eventbrite booking fee).
Writing Art Conference Programme