Making their Marks: Women During Sèvres’ First Century
The Gardiner Museum brings together people of all ages and backgrounds through the shared values of creativity, wonder, and community that clay and ceramic traditions inspire.
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Making their Marks: Women During Sèvres’ First Century
April 29, 2021 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
The Robert and Marian Cumming Lecture
Part of the Gardiner Signature Lecture Series
Speaker: Alison McQueen
This free online lecture will offer insight into the significant contributions of women working at Sèvres in the first century of its history, from the mid-eighteenth through mid-nineteenth centuries. Women’s creations were integral to the financial stability of the porcelain manufactory in its early years and royal and imperial patrons recognized and rewarded the talent of numerous female painters. The presentation will feature works from leading international porcelain collections and bring attention to the often-overlooked roles of women retouching glaze, laying down prints, and burnishing. The talk will also include notable works by painters Geneviève Taillandier, Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, Pauline Knip, Marie-Adélaïde Ducluzeau and Pauline Laurent. Many of these women advocated for themselves and their professional achievements in ways that continue to resonate and inspire.
About the Speaker
Alison McQueen is Professor of Art History at McMaster University. She specializes in nineteenth-century French art and is author and co-author of six books. Her research on female artists at Sèvres is forthcoming in the spring 2021 edition of the American Ceramic Circle Journal.
Header image: Teapot (Théière), Sèvres, France, 1786, Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.1078.1-.2
