Colloque : « Art and Market in the Nineteenth Century » (La Haye, 21-22 mai 2015)

Art and Market in the Nineteenth Century (The Hague, 21-22 May 15) The Hague, May 21 – 22, 2015

Registration deadline: May 5, 2015

Friend or foe: Art and the Market in the Nineteenth Century

The attitude towards art dealers in the nineteenth century are rather diverse. Vincent van Gogh loathed the ‘art buyer’ while other artists built enduring relationships with them. However different these positions, most artists seem to have agreed that the impact of dealers on the art world was undeniable and had to be negotiated in one way or another. Most narratives of the history of the nineteenth-century art market have assigned dealers the role of stage-managers and even puppet masters, controlling the entire artistic life-cycle of the work of art from production, distribution and promotion to consumption. Other accounts, however, have criticized such a view, stressing the agency of other actors (including critists, art critics and collectors), pointing out differences between various nationally circumscribed markets, identifying sites of resistance towards dealers and their operations, and, more fundamentally, questioning the idea that the art market changed in any essential manner at all in the nineteenth century. The aim of this conference is to bring together case studies from a wide variety of (inter)national, chronological and artistic contexts which critically examine both the (alleged) impact of nineteenth-century art dealers on the art world and the sites of resistance towards this impact.

This conference is organized by the European Society for Nineteenth-Century Art, the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) and The Mesdag Collection, in conjunction with the exhibition and publication on the artist, collector and gentleman-dealer Hendrik Willem Mesdag.

Organizing committee: Jan Dirk Baetens (Radboud University, Nijmegen), Maite van Dijk (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), Mayken Jonkman (RKD, The Hague), Marjan Sterckx (Ghent University)

Scientific committee: Rachel Esner (University of Amsterdam), Jenny Reynaerts (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam), Chris Stolwijk (RKD, The Hague), Louis van Tilborgh (Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam)

Programme Thursday 21 May, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

9:45   Registration

10:15   Welcome and introduction: Maite van Dijk (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)

10:30   Keynote: Filip Vermeylen (Erasmus University, Rotterdam): Continuity and change: the nineteenth-century art market in perspective

11:15   Session 1: Old Masters in the Nineteenth Century (chair: Jenny Reynaerts, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) Julia Armstrong-Totten (independent scholar): Partners and frenemies: the networking strategies of nineteenth-century picture dealer John Smith (1781-1855) Christine Godfroy-Gallardo (Université Paris I) Nineteenth-century art dealers and the Louvre Paola Cordera (Politecnico di Milano, Scuola del Design): The art maker: Frédéric Spitzer and the market for decorative arts in nineteenth century Europe

12:40     Lunch

13:40     Session 2: Artists’ and Artistic Strategies (chair: Louis van Tilborgh, Van Gogh Museum and University of Amsterdam) Léa Saint-Raymond (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense): Félix Ziem: painter, businessman, and self-manager Robert Verhoogt (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science): The sky was the limit. Nadar’s marketing strategies in art and science in nineteenth century culture Florence Quideau (Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, Department of Music and Art, New York): The commercialization of sculpture revolutionized the French art market and the role of artists as entrepreneur

15:00     Tea/coffee

15:30     Session 3: The Commerce of Anti-Commerce (chair: Jan Dirk Baetens, Radboud University Nijmegen) Guillaume Évrard (University of Edinburgh): Doing away with art-puffery: art, the market and universal exhibitions in nineteenth-century art Noémie Goldman (Université Libre de Bruxelles): Les XX (1884-1893) and the art market: ambiguity and creativity Frances Fowle (University of Edinburgh): Sheridan Ford’s Art: A Commodity; a prejudiced view of the nineteenth-century art market

16:50     Keynote: Robert Jensen (University of Kentucky): Professionalism and the market in nineteenth-century Europe

17:35     Closing remarks: Jan Dirk Baetens (Radboud University Nijmegen)

18:15     Drinks and view of The Mesdag Collection and temporary exhibition

Friday 22 May, RKD The Hague

9:30       Welcome

9:45       Keynote: Sylvie Patry (Musée d’Orsay, Paris): Paul Durand-Ruel, exploration of a myth

10:30     Session 4: Creating Taste (chair: Marjan Sterckx, Ghent University, Hasselt University, PXL-MAD-Faculty) Rachel Sloan (Courtauld Institute of Art): Making an impression’: Cadart, Vollard and the etching and lithography revivals David de Haan (Museum Prinsenhof Delft): Art viewings in The Netherlands (1830-1880) and their function in the network of artists, dealers and collectors Petra ten-Doesschate Chu (Seton Hall University): Marketing Art for the aesthetic home

12:00     Lunch

13:00     Session 5: Networks and Relationships (chair: Chris Stolwijk, RKD) Esmée Quodbach (Frick Art Reference Library New York): “L’homme aux cinquante millions”: The Dutch dealer Leo Nardus and his American clientele, c. 1894–1907 Lukas Fuchsgruber (Technische Universität Berlin): Problematisation of art market intermediaries in nineteenth-century French auction house literature Helleke van den Braber (Radboud University Nijmegen): “I hated you with a passion” – the relationship of G.H. Breitner and his patron A.P. van Stolk”

14:20     Tea/coffee

14:50     Session 6: The Business of the Art Business (chair: Filip Vermeylen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam) Géraldine David (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Christian Huemer (Getty Research Institute) and Kim Oosterlinck (Université Libre de Bruxelles): Inside the Black Box: Business Strategies of Goupil, Boussod en Valadon Debra DeWitte (University of Texas at Dallas): The Role of Dealers in the Promotion of Works on Paper in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris Janet Whitmore (Harrington College of Design): Nineteenth-century European art dealer had a dramatic effect on American Gilded Age Collectors

16:10     Closing remarks: Mayken Jonkman (RKD, The Hague)

Admission and registration: € 45, Please register and pay before 5 May 2015: https://rkd.nl/en/products-and-services?view=product&id=5a2009b8-3ffd-905a-1ef3-8da438bdc78f For more information visit https://esnaonline.wordpress.com/conferences/conference-friend-or-foe-art-and-the-market-in-the-nineteenth-century/