On a Par with Paris? Towards a Multipolar History of Nineteenth-Century Belgian¨Art, ca 1850-1890.

This project aims to rethink the research field of nineteenth-century Belgian art along a new geographical and methodological model. Traditionally, Belgiums nineteenth-century art production is approached from a centre/periphery perspective that conceives of its object principally in its relation to French art. The construction of art historical narratives along this model, however, distorts reality. First, it ignores the fact that encounters between what we see now as peripheries (Belgium and most other regions) were as productive as encounters with the leading artistic centre (Paris). Second, the centre/periphery model deals with art in the purportedly universal categories of the centre and thus ignores the importance of location, identity and transfer for art as well as the local social, cultural and economic conditions behind them. This project aims to reconsider Belgian art outside the traditional French categories and proposes a more dynamic model to approach it as at the intersection of not two but a multitude of geographical axes. It does so on the basis of three case studies pertaining to exchanges with three other artistic peripheries: England, Germany and America. It focuses in particular on the roles of dealers and exhibition organisers in negotiating local taste, artistic exchange and the site-specific determinants behind them.

Keywords:Nineteenth-century Belgian art, The nineteenth-century art market, Art historiography

Disciplines:Art studies and sciences