Sit! Dog Portraiture and the Animal Self in Eighteenth-Century France
University Room, Hyde Hall
To a twenty-first century viewer, nothing could be more natural than wanting a portrait (or many portraits) of your dog. But in eighteenth-century France, animal portraiture was a recent invention, and one that overturned artistic and species hierarchies. Despite, or maybe because of, the provocative questions posed by non-human likenesses, dog portraiture had enormous appeal for the elites who commissioned them, the artists who executed them, and the viewers who encountered them in both palaces and public exhibitions. This lecture will consider how dog portraits engaged with Enlightenment ideas about human-animal hierarchies, and how and why ambitious artists elevated canine sitters to a dignity previously reserved for humans.
Amy Freund is an associate professor and the Kleinheinz Endowment for the Arts and Education Endowed Chair in art history at Southern Methodist University. Her first book, Portraiture and Politics in Revolutionary France (Penn State, 2014), examines the uses of portraiture to reformulate personal and political identity during the French Revolution. Her second book, Noble Beasts: Hunters and Hunted in Eighteenth-Century French Art, which will appear with Yale University Press in 2026, analyzes the representation of masculinity, animality, and political agency in hunting art. Her work has appeared in The Art Bulletin, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Journal18, Art History, and French History, and has been supported by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and the Clark Art Institute.
Through a generous gift to the UNC Arts and Sciences Foundation, William G. Rand established this lecture series in memory of his late wife, Bettie Allison Rand. This funding allows the Department of Art and Art History to bring one or more eminent art historians to UNC-CH every other year for residencies of various lengths. While they are in Chapel Hill, these scholars present a series of lectures and interact with undergraduate and graduate art history and studio art students. Following the campus visit, the scholars prepare a manuscript, which is then published by the UNC Press as part of the Rand Series of art history publications.
A weeknight or daytime permit is now required after 5:00 pm on weekdays. No permit is required from 5:00 pm Friday through 7:30 am Monday. A $1.00 one-night pass is available in selected lots. More information can be found HERE.
Website:
https://go.unc.edu/freund
Contact: Tania String,
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