Nation and Region in the History of Art in France (1870–1920)
Nation et région en histoire de l’art en France (1870-1920)
Abstract
Following the study days "Nationalisme et régionalisme à la Bibliothèque d'art et d'archéologie : autour d'André Girodie"held at the INHA on 4-5 December 2025 (https://baadoucet.hypotheses.org/6279), we seek to publish an electronic edition (INHA-OpenEdition Books) that develops this theme and incorporates additional contributions from scholars working in art history and related disciplines. This volume will be edited by Ilaria Andreoli and Neil McWilliam, with the collaboration of Victoria Grigorenko.
Announcement
Argument
This volume complements the substantial body of recent scholarship on the historiography of French art history during the foundational decades around 1900. Previous studies have focused primarily on the ways in which the discipline gained scholarly recognition within universities and museums - a process accompanied by the development of specialized methodologies and publications, and of structures of institutional legitimation. The individuals and institutions most frequently examined belong to a narrative of professionalization centered on Paris and on research sites such as the Sorbonne, the École du Louvre, and the Bibliothèque Jacques Doucet. The present project covers the period from 1870 to 1920 and aims to bring into focus an often-neglected dimension of art-historical activity: the richness of the work conducted outside Paris to valorize the artistic heritage of specific localities and regions, frequently as part of a broader effort to demonstrate the essential role of the provinces in defining French visual culture as a whole. Although often inflected by more or less explicit forms of nationalism, these regional studies resist monolithic ideological categorization and reflect a wide range of motivations - local pride, conservative nostalgia for a provincial culture seemingly sacrificed to revolutionary centralization, the defense of religious heritage in the face of secularization, resistance to the growing uniformity brought about by industrial innovation and the expansion of communications infrastructure, among many others.
Contributions are invited to explore particular cases in which art-historical research focused on French regions illuminates broader questions, including: the cultural geography of France and its ideological construction; the institutional structures (museums, learned societies, and the like) within which art-historical inquiry was conducted; the social formation of provincial scholars and amateurs whose research and collections contributed to the study of French art outside Paris; the relationships between state cultural institutions and the provincial bodies engaged in heritage research; and the modes of dissemination of regional art-historical knowledge, such as scholarly monographs and journals, learned societies and conferences, provincial exhibitions, and publications aimed at wider audiences. This collection of studies seeks to renew our understanding of the development of French art history by foregrounding individuals and institutions often regarded as peripheral to the dominant narrative. Individual contributions will open avenues toward a fuller integration of this lesser-known dimension of the discipline’s history, enabling a more nuanced appreciation of the specificity of art history in France.
Contributions may address the following themes, among others:
Nationalism and regionalism in the art-historical practices of provincial milieux in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (learned societies and scholarly networks).
- The role of regionalist organizations, such as the Fédération régionaliste française founded by Jean Charles-Brun in 1900, and their local equivalents, such as the Félibrige in Provence, in the rediscovery of cultural life outside Paris, particularly in the medieval period.
- The role of provincial museums and exhibitions in the rediscovery of local artists and the search for regional "schools".
- The question of the national or local character of medieval and Renaissance art, as approached through the European debate surrounding the 1904 exhibition of the Primitifs français (Bouchot, Dimier, Warburg, Clemen, and Hurtault) and André Girodie’s Martin Schongauer et l’art du Haut-Rhin en France (1911).
Submission guidelines
Proposals (300 words), on original topics, should be submitted with a provisional title, a brief bibliography, and a short CV to Ilaria Andreoli (ilaria.andreoli@inha.fr) and Victoria Grigorenko (victoria.grigorenko@inha.fr),
by 30 September 2026.
Accepted contributions may be written in French or English, with a maximum length of 30,000 characters. Accompanied by no more than ten high-resolution, rights-free images, final texts are due by 15 January 2027.
Scientific coordination
- Ilaria Andreoli (Institut national de l’art- INHA)
- Victoria Grigorenko (Institut national de l’art- INHA)
Places
- Paris, France (75)
Keywords
- histoire de l’art, historiographie, patrimoine
Contact(s)
- Victoria Grigorenko
courriel : victoria [dot] grigorenko [at] inha [dot] fr
Reference Urls
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Nation and Region in the History of Art in France (1870–1920) », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, July 10, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/16jxg
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