Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe

221 Pages·2020·6.937 MB·English

by  Arlene Leis, Kacie L. Wills

Women and the Art and Science of
Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe
Through both longer essays and shorter case studies, this book examines the relationship
of European women from various countries and backgrounds to collecting, in order to
explore the social practices and material and visual cultures of collecting in eighteenth-
century Europe.
It recovers their lives and examines their interests, their methodologies, and their
collections and objects—some of which have rarely been studied before. The book also
considers women’s role as producers, that is, creators of objects that were collected.
Detailed examination of the artefacts—both visually, and in relation to their historical
contexts—exposes new ways of thinking about collecting in relation to the arts and
sciences in eighteenth-century Europe. The book is interdisciplinary in its makeup and
brings together scholars from a wide range of fields.
It will be of interest to those working in art history, material and visual culture,
history of collecting, history of science, literary studies, women’s studies, gender
studies, and art conservation.
Arlene Leis is an independent art historian who received her PhD from University of
York.
Kacie L. Wills received her PhD in English from the University of California, Riverside,
and is Assistant Professor of English at Illinois College.
Cover image: Bartolomeo Bimbi, Portrait of Citrus Fruit, 1727. Oil on canvas.
Courtesy of Dell-Università degli Studi di Firenze.
The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700–1950
Series Editor: Stacey J. Pierson
University of London
The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700–1950 provides a forum for the
broad study of object acquisition and collecting practices in their global dimensions.
The series seeks to illuminate the intersections between material culture studies, art
history, and the history of collecting. It takes as its starting point the idea that objects
both contributed to the formation of knowledge in the past and likewise contribute
to our understanding of the past today. The human relationship to objects has proven
a rich field of scholarly inquiry, with much recent scholarship either anthropological
or sociological rather than art historical in perspective. Underpinning this series is
the idea that the physical nature of objects contributes substantially to their social
meanings, and therefore that the visual, tactile, and sensual dimensions of objects are
critical to their interpretation. This series therefore seeks to bridge anthropology and
art history, sociology and aesthetics.
Collecting and Displaying China’s “Summer Palace” in the West
The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France
Louise Tythacott
Female Portraiture and Patronage in Marie Antoinette’s Court
The Princesse de Lamballe
Sarah Grant
The Emergence of the Antique and Curiosity Dealer in Britain 1815–1850
The Commodification of Historical Objects
Mark Westgarth
Nordic Private Collections of Chinese Objects
Minna Törmä
Fashionability, Exhibition Culture and Gender Politics
Fair Women
Meaghan Clarke
Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe
Edited by Arlene Leis and Kacie L. Wills
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/The-Histories-
of-Material-Culture-and-Collecting-1700-1950/book-series/ASHSER2128
Women and the Art and
Science of Collecting in
Eighteenth-Century Europe
Edited by
Arlene Leis and Kacie L. Wills
First published 2021
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Arlene Leis and Kacie L. Wills to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-85666-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-85667-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
We dedicate this book to our families

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xi
List of Plates xii
List of Contributors xiii
Acknowledgements xviii
Introduction: Women and the Cultures of Collecting 1
ARLENE LEIS AND KACIE L. WILLS
PART I
Artificialia and Naturalia 19
1 Science, Gender and Collecting: The Dutch Eighteenth-Century
Ladies’ Society for Physical Sciences of Middelburg 21
ANNE HARBERS AND ANDREA GÁLDY
2 Between Art and Science: Portraits of Citrus Fruit for Anna Maria
Luisa de’ Medici 39
IRINA SCHMIEDEL
3 Anne Vallayer-Coster’s Still Life With Sea Shells and Coral 43
KELSEY BROSNAN
PART II
Travel, Borders, and Networks 59
4 Maria Sibylla Merian: A Woman’s Pioneering Work in Entomology 61
KATHARINA SCHMIDT-LOSKE
5 Sarah Sophia Banks’s Coin Collection: Female Networks of Exchange 78
ERICA Y. HAYES AND KACIE L. WILLS
viii Contents
6 Conversing With Collecting the World: Elite Female Sociability and
Learning Through Objects in the Age of Enlightenment 93
LIZZIE ROGERS
7 Portrait of Charlotte de France: From Naples to Sicily, a Collection in
Transit 108
MARIA ANTONIETTA SPADARO
8 The Collecting Activity of Catherine II in Eighteenth-Century Russia:
Pioneering Action or Sheer Demonstration of Power? 111
CHARIS CH. AVLONITOU
PART III
Displaying, Recording, and Cataloguing 127
9 ‘I Made Memorandums’: Mary Hamilton, Sociability, and
Antiquarianism in the Eighteenth-Century Collection 129
MADELEINE PELLING
10 Eleanor Coade, John Soane, and the Coade Caryatid 145
NICOLE COCHRANE
11 Anne Wagner’s Album (1795–1805): Collecting Feminine Friendship 148
RYNA ORDYNAT
12 An Art Cabinet in Miniature: The Dollhouse of Petronella Oortman 151
HANNEKE GROOTENBOER
PART IV
Beyond the Eighteenth Century 155
13 Collection, Display, and Conservation: The Print Room at
Castletown House 157
ANNA FRANCES O’REGAN
14 Olivia Lanza di Mazzarino (1893–1970): A Lady’s Collection of
Eighteenth-Century Folding Fans 172
ARLENE LEIS
Index 187
Illustrations
1.1 Title page of Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames, 6
August 1785. Zeeland Archives, archief Natuurkundig Gezelschap
Middelburg, nr. 66. 23
1.2 E. Uswald. Jacoba van den Brande, 1794. Oil on canvas, 63 × 41cm. 24
1.3 Hans Kraemer, Jean-Antoine Nollet Demonstration, Circa 1740,
German engraving of the French clergyman and physicist Abbé
Nollet demonstrating his electric machine in a salon in France, from
Weltall & Menschheit (universe and humanity), c. 1880, 31.8 × 20.1cm. 28
1.4 Title page of the Auction Catalogue of Collection of Jacoba van den
Brande & J. A. van de Perre, 1798. 32
2.1 Bartolomeo Bimbi, Portrait of Citrus Fruit, 1727. Oil on canvas. 40
3.1 Claude-Augustin Duflos (1700–1786) after François Boucher
(1703–1770), frontispiece for Edmé-François Gersaint (1694–1750),
Catalogue raisonné des coquilles et autres curiositiés naturelles, 1736. 46
3.2 François Boucher (1703–1770), frontispiece for Antoine-Joseph
d’Argenville (1680–1765), La Conchyliologie, second edition, 1757,
American Museum of Natural History Research Library. 48
4.1 Maria Sibylla Merian. Album sheet with a Batavian rose. Bamberg,
Staatsbibliothek, Inv. Nr. 1 R 90. 63
4.2 Title page of Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und
sonderbare Blumennahrung, 1679. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek,
HV.Rar.103–1_TB. 66
4.3–4.3a Anonymous hand-written document in German (recto),
attached to a French letter from Johann Le Fort, dated 14.10.1724
from St. Petersburg. Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, Hauptstaatsarchiv
Dresden, 10026 Geheimes Kabinett, Loc. 3315/3, Bl. 278r., Bl. 278v. 70
5.1 James Gillray, An Old Maid on a Journey, 1804. Hand-colored
etching, 255 × 383mm. Private Collection. This print is commonly
thought to depict Sarah Sophia Banks in one of her riding habits. 79
5.2 Edridge, Maria Josepha Holroyd, 1795. Walker & Boutall, Ph.Sc. 80
6.1 Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Four Ladies Sitting Around a Table
Occupied with Needlework, Reading, and Writing, 1758. Drawing. 95
6.2 Giovanni Volpato, Villa Borghese, ca. 1780. Etching. 100
6.3 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, View of the Palace of the Illustrious
Barberini Family on the Quirinal Hill, Designed by Cavaliere
Bernini, from Vedute di Roma (Roman Views), ca. 1750–1759. Etching. 101