Laurel O. Peterson and Paris Spies-Gans — Celebrating Female Agency in the Arts

Laurel O. Peterson is a doctoral candidate in the History of Art at Yale University, from which she also holds her BA. She received her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She specializes in British art of the long eighteenth century, with interests in intersections with continental European art and with the expanding British Empire. Her dissertation, ‘The Decorated Interior: Artistic Production in the British Country House, 1688–1745,’ explores the political and aesthetic significance of mural painting and limewood carving within Whig country houses.

Paris Spies-Gans is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University with a focus on early modern and Revolutionary era Europe. She is particularly interested in print and visual culture, and ways in which they intersected and influenced gender, education, and religious dissent. She received her A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard University, and her M.A. in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her dissertation, provisionally titled “‘The Arts are All Her Own’: How Female Artists Navigated the Revolutionary era, ca. 1760–1830” argues that the Revolutionary era was a watershed moment for women artists in Britain and France.

Peterson and Spies-Gans are the joint chairs of the ‘Public Agency in Private Spaces: Politics, Painting, and Patronage in the Long Eighteenth Century’ session at our upcoming ‘Celebrating Female Agency in the Arts’ conference. They will be joined by fellow speakers Lynda McLeod, Amy Lim, Maura Gleeson and Marina Kliger to explore ways in which elite women wielded power through the active fusion of politics and art.

To register for the conference visit: http://www.christies.com/exhibitions/christies-education-conference-celebrating-female-agency-arts